Æ20 - Antoninus Pius ΑΓΡΕΥϹ ΑΡΧΙΕΡΑΤΕ ΑΛΙΗΝΟΙϹ

Alia was a minor Phrygian settlement within the conventus of Apamea, one of the judicial districts Rome used to administer the interior of Asia Minor. The inscription ΑΡΧΙΕΡΑΤΕ places this issue during the tenure of a local archiereus — a provincial high priest of the imperial cult — whose name, Agreus, is preserved here almost by accident. These small civic bronzes were struck not by Rome but by the city itself, funding the dies and the pour, the magistrate's name the only record that he ever held the office at all.