Æ29 - Marcus Aurelius ΑΡΤΕΜΙϹ ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Issued during the co-reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, this Ephesian bronze falls within a politically charged window: Marcus had just suppressed the revolt of Avidius Cassius in 175 AD, and the imperial tour of the eastern provinces that followed brought the court through Asia Minor. Ephesus, as the seat of the conventus and the largest city on the Aegean coast, had every reason to strike conspicuous bronze in acknowledgment of renewed imperial favor.

The Artemision at Ephesus controlled substantial civic finances, and the goddess's cult title appearing on local coinage was as much an assertion of municipal identity as religious devotion.