Teos, the Ionian coastal city best known as the birthplace of the lyric poet Anacreon, struck a modest but consistent series of civic bronzes under Domitian. The city had little political leverage in the Flavian period — its importance as a harbor had declined, and its fame rested largely on its sanctuary of Dionysus and its guild of traveling performers, the Dionysiac Artists (Technitai), who maintained their administrative headquarters there through at least the early imperial period.
Attribution to the Smyrna conventus places this coin within the assize district where local magistrates retained authority to authorize civic bronze issues, and Teos exercised that right selectively.
Teos, the Ionian coastal city best known as the birthplace of the lyric poet Anacreon, struck a modest but consistent series of civic bronzes under Domitian. The city had little political leverage in the Flavian period — its importance as a harbor had declined, and its fame rested largely on its sanctuary of Dionysus and its guild of traveling performers, the Dionysiac Artists (Technitai), who maintained their administrative headquarters there through at least the early imperial period.
Attribution to the Smyrna conventus places this coin within the assize district where local magistrates retained authority to authorize civic bronze issues, and Teos exercised that right selectively.