Æ21 - Augustus ΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΩΝ

Tralles, a prosperous city in the Maeander valley, had been rebuilding for decades after a catastrophic earthquake leveled much of it around 26 BC — the same disaster that prompted Augustus to fund reconstruction and earned the city a period of intense imperial loyalty. This coin dates to 2 BC, the year the Senate awarded Augustus the title Pater Patriae, and the civic enthusiasm behind that honorific is legible in the frequency of Augustan bronze issues from Asia Minor's conventus cities in exactly this period.