Æ22 - Septimius Severus ΔΑΡΔΑΝΙΩΝ

Dardanus was a small coastal settlement on the Hellespont whose civic coinage under Septimius Severus belongs to the conventus of Adramyteum — one of the judicial districts through which Rome administered the province of Asia. These provincial bronzes were struck locally, almost certainly for ceremonial distribution or small-scale civic exchange rather than wide circulation, which explains why survivors tend to appear in surprisingly decent condition relative to their obscure origins.

The city claimed descent from Dardanus, mythical founder of the Trojan royal line — a genealogy that carried genuine prestige in a region where Trojan ancestry was still politically useful under the Second Sophistic.