Æ22 - Hadrian COL L IVL COR

Corinth's status as a Roman colony — refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC after lying desolate for a century following Mummius's destruction in 146 BC — gave its civic coinage a particular political charge. By Hadrian's reign the city had become one of the wealthiest ports in the eastern Mediterranean, and the COL L IVL COR legend on its bronzes was a deliberate assertion of Latin colonial identity within a thoroughly Hellenized province. Hadrian visited Corinth personally, likely in 124-125 AD during his first eastern tour.