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Æ28 - Caracalla ΖΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ, ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ, ΕΠ ϹΤΡ ΑΙΛ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΟΥ
| Issuer | Smyrna (Conventus of Smyrna) |
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| Year | 198-217 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Caracalla facing right, rendered in the characteristic provincial style of the Smyrnaean mint. The emperor's effigy displays a radiate wreath of laurel leaves with finely detailed foliage, framing a youthful yet authoritative portrait with short beard. The circular legend surrounds the bust in Greek characters within the field. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΑΥ Κ Μ ΑΥΡ ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟϹ (Translation: Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) |
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This coin is a homonoia issue — struck to commemorate a formal agreement of concord between Smyrna and Pergamon, two cities that spent much of the imperial period in fierce rivalry over honorific titles, temple rights, and the coveted status of *neokoros*, temple warden of the imperial cult. The magistrate named in the legend, Aelius Apollonios, served as *strategos*, anchoring the issue to a specific civic administration rather than a dynastic moment.
Pergamon held its first neokorate under Augustus; Smyrna secured its own under Hadrian. The political friction between them made homonoia coinages both diplomatically useful and, from a modern collector's view, historically loaded.