Æ27 - Commodus ϹΤΡ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΔΟΥ ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ

Smyrna was among the most aggressively competitive cities in the conventus system for the title of "First City of Asia," a rivalry it pressed relentlessly against Ephesus and Pergamon throughout the second century. The magistrate name carried in this coin's inscription, Herakleides, served as strategos, a civic office whose holders funded much of the city's bronze coinage directly from personal wealth as a form of public munificence. Under Commodus, who by the mid-180s was actively encouraging divine identification with Hercules, Smyrna's mints had particular political incentive to produce bronze issues that aligned local prestige with imperial favor.