Æ28 - Septimius Severus ΕΠ ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕΩΝ

Philadelphia in Lydia — modern Alaşehir in western Turkey — was among the last cities in Asia Minor to resist Roman administrative pressure, retaining its Hellenistic civic traditions well into the imperial period. The magistrate named in this issue, Iulianus, held the title of strategos, the senior local office responsible for overseeing civic coinage within the Sardis conventus. His name appearing on the die places this squarely within the provincially administered bronze coinage that Septimius Severus largely left undisturbed as he consolidated power following the chaos of 193 AD's four-emperor succession crisis.