Æ27 - Vespasian ΕΠΙ ΤΙ ΚΛΑ ΑΡΕΤΙΔΟΣ

Cotiaeum was a Phrygian city whose civic coinage under the Flavians frequently named local magistrates in the inscription — the ΕΠΙ ΤΙ ΚΛΑ ΑΡΕΤΙΔΟΣ formula identifying the archon Ti. Claudius Aretides, a Romanized Phrygian notable whose gentilicium suggests his family received citizenship under Claudius or Nero. Provincial bronze of this type circulated locally to fill gaps left by the near-absence of small imperial bronze in the eastern provinces during the civil wars of 69 AD, when four emperors cycled through Rome in a single year and central mint output was consumed entirely by military needs.