Æ26 - Marcus Aurelius C L I COR

Corinth's provincial bronze coinage under Marcus Aurelius was produced by a city still operating under the Roman colonial framework established by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, when Corinth was refounded as Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis after a century of deliberately enforced abandonment following its destruction by Mummius in 146 BC. The magistrate abbreviation C L I COR — Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis — appears with particular consistency on Aurelian-period issues, suggesting a deliberate civic assertion of colonial identity at a moment when the city was navigating the administrative pressures of the Antonine plague and the Marcomannic Wars simultaneously.