Smyrna was among the most aggressively competitive cities in the Greek East when it came to imperial honorifics, locked in a prolonged rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon over the title of "first city of Asia." Issues struck for Septimius Severus would have served partly as a bid for imperial favor during the civil wars of 193–197, when backing the right claimant early carried real administrative consequences. Smyrna had backed Severus.
The city held the neokorate — temple-warden status granted by Rome — multiple times, and local bronze issues were funded and supervised by civic magistrates whose names sometimes appear on the dies.
Smyrna was among the most aggressively competitive cities in the Greek East when it came to imperial honorifics, locked in a prolonged rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon over the title of "first city of Asia." Issues struck for Septimius Severus would have served partly as a bid for imperial favor during the civil wars of 193–197, when backing the right claimant early carried real administrative consequences. Smyrna had backed Severus.
The city held the neokorate — temple-warden status granted by Rome — multiple times, and local bronze issues were funded and supervised by civic magistrates whose names sometimes appear on the dies.