Æ24 - Nero GEN COL NER PAT

Patras received its Roman colonial status under Augustus, who refounded it as Colonia Aroe Augusta Patrensis around 14 BC, settling veterans there after Actium. Under Nero the colony's titulature shifted to incorporate his name, producing the GEN COL NER PAT legend that distinguishes this civic bronze from earlier Augustan and Claudian issues. The Achaean provincial coinage of Nero's reign is complicated by his notorious declaration of Greek "freedom" in 67 AD at the Isthmian Games, a political gesture that briefly reorganized provincial administration and may have interrupted normal civic minting.