Æ27 - Commodus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΔΙΟΔΩΡΟΥ ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗ

The magistrate named in this issue — Diodoros, serving as strategos of Pergamum — held office during a period when the city was navigating the increasingly erratic demands of Commodus, who had begun styling himself as a living Hercules by the mid-180s. Civic bronze of this type was produced entirely at local expense and initiative, with the strategos personally sponsoring the emission as a form of public munificence. The office itself carried no Roman appointment; it was a Pergamene magistracy, which makes the die-cutter's decision to lead with the magistrate's title a pointed assertion of civic identity under an emperor who tolerated little independent posturing.