Æ24 - Hadrian ΑΡΓΕΙωΝ

Argos was among the oldest and most historically self-conscious cities in the Greek world, and civic bronze issues of the imperial period were precisely the vehicle through which such cities asserted their Hellenic identity under Roman rule. Hadrian was an unusually receptive audience for this — his philhellenism was policy, not affectation. He founded the Panhellenion around 131–132 AD, a league of Greek cities with Argos among those granted membership, which almost certainly stimulated local coin production as a civic gesture of participation.