Edessa occupied an uncomfortable middle ground during the Severan period — nominally Roman but culturally Aramaic, its civic coinage reflecting a client kingdom that had only formally lost its royal dynasty in 214 AD when Caracalla abolished the Abgarid monarchy and reorganized the city as a Roman colonia. Elagabalus, himself a Syrian priest-emperor from Emesa, appears to have tolerated continued civic bronze production at Edessa, though the city's numismatic output under his reign is sparse.
The abbreviated civic legend ΜΑΚ ΑΥΡ ΕΔΕϹϹ references the Antonine honorifics granted under Caracalla's settlement of the region.
Edessa occupied an uncomfortable middle ground during the Severan period — nominally Roman but culturally Aramaic, its civic coinage reflecting a client kingdom that had only formally lost its royal dynasty in 214 AD when Caracalla abolished the Abgarid monarchy and reorganized the city as a Roman colonia. Elagabalus, himself a Syrian priest-emperor from Emesa, appears to have tolerated continued civic bronze production at Edessa, though the city's numismatic output under his reign is sparse.
The abbreviated civic legend ΜΑΚ ΑΥΡ ΕΔΕϹϹ references the Antonine honorifics granted under Caracalla's settlement of the region.