Æ21 - Trajan Decius ΑϹΙΑϹ Α ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Ephesus held the title of "first and greatest metropolis of Asia" — a designation fiercely contested by rival cities like Smyrna and Pergamon throughout the imperial period. The ΑϹΙΑϹ Α formula on this issue was not decorative; it was a political claim, reaffirmed on coinage as part of an ongoing inter-city rivalry over provincial primacy that Rome quietly encouraged to keep its eastern cities competing for imperial favor rather than conspiring against it.

Trajan Decius reigned just under two years before dying at the Battle of Abritus in 251 — the first Roman emperor killed in open battle against a foreign enemy.