Æ24 - Domitian COL A A PATR X XII

Patras held the status of a Roman colony — Colonia Aroe Augusta Patrensis — granted by Augustus himself, who resettled it with veterans after Actium in 31 BC. The colony sat just across the gulf from that battlefield, a deliberate piece of Augustan symbolism. By Domitian's reign, the local mint was issuing bronzes that leaned heavily on that colonial identity, invoking the Augustan foundation as a source of civic prestige at a moment when Domitian's relationship with the Greek provinces was complicated by his aggressive taxation and the expulsion of philosophers from Rome in 89 AD.