Æ20 - Nero ΕΠΙ Γ ΙΟΥ ΠΟΛΥΑΙΝΟΥ, ΔΑ, Ϲ (ΚΥ)

Sicyon, once among the most powerful cities of the Peloponnese, had declined to a modest provincial town by Nero's reign, its political relevance largely ceremonial. The magistrate name preserved in this coin's legend — Polyainos — is otherwise unattested in surviving literary sources, making provincial bronzes like this one the sole record of his office. Nero's notorious 67 AD tour of Greece, during which he competed in the Isthmian Games and declared Greek freedom, may have prompted a modest surge in civic coinage from Achaean mints eager to curry imperial favor.