Æ20 - Antoninus Pius ϹΑΠΦΩ ΕΡΕϹ

Eresus, a small polis on the southwestern coast of Lesbos, claimed Sappho as a native daughter and leaned heavily on that association in its civic coinage. The poet's birthplace was disputed in antiquity — Mytilene made the same claim — but Eresus pressed its case in bronze, issuing her image repeatedly under the Antonines as a form of civic identity politics. This piece belongs to that deliberate campaign.