Smyrna was among the most competitive cities in the Roman province of Asia when it came to imperial honorifics, and the abbreviated magistrate formula in this issue almost certainly reflects a local official whose name appears in fragmented form across a small cluster of known dies. The city held the title of neokoros — temple warden to the imperial cult — multiple times, and the fierce civic rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon drove Smyrna's magistrates to attach their names to coin issues as a mark of personal prestige. The years 178–179 coincide with Marcus Aurelius's second German campaign, during which provincial bronze continued circulating with little interruption from Rome.
Smyrna was among the most competitive cities in the Roman province of Asia when it came to imperial honorifics, and the abbreviated magistrate formula in this issue almost certainly reflects a local official whose name appears in fragmented form across a small cluster of known dies. The city held the title of neokoros — temple warden to the imperial cult — multiple times, and the fierce civic rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon drove Smyrna's magistrates to attach their names to coin issues as a mark of personal prestige. The years 178–179 coincide with Marcus Aurelius's second German campaign, during which provincial bronze continued circulating with little interruption from Rome.