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| Issuer | Eresus (Lesbos), Conventus of Adramyteum |
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| Year | 222-235 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | RPC VI#4187 |
| Obverse description | Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander facing right, seen from the rear, rendered in the provincial style typical of Asia Minor civic coinage. The emperor's effigy is depicted with military pauldron visible, emphasizing his imperial and martial authority. The obverse legend encircles the bust in Greek characters, identifying the emperor by his full titulature. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ΑΥ Κ Μ ΑΥ Ϲ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟϹ (Translation: Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander) |
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| Additional information |
Eresus was one of the smaller poleis on Lesbos, best known in antiquity as the birthplace of Theophrastus, Aristotle's successor at the Peripatetic school. By the Severan period, the city's civic coinage was modest in output, and this issue belongs to a thin run of bronzes struck under Alexander Severus — the last emperor whose reign saw meaningful autonomous civic bronze production from Eresus before the city effectively ceased issuing coin altogether.
The garbled ethnic in the legend — ΒΕΝΟΥϹΤΤΟΥ for the expected form — points to a local engraver working without close oversight, a known characteristic of smaller Aegean mints in this period.