Æ27 - Trajan ϹΤΡ ΛΟ ΙΟ ΛΙΒΩΝΙΑΝΟΥ ϹΑΡΔΙΑΝΩΝ

Sardis sat at the western terminus of the Royal Road — the Persian imperial highway stretching nearly 2,700 kilometers to Susa — and retained enormous commercial weight under Roman administration as the seat of its own conventus juridicus. The magistrate name preserved in this issue, Λιβωνιανός, anchors the coin to a specific local strategos whose tenure under Trajan is otherwise unattested beyond the bronze civic coinage he authorized.