Æ30 - Domitian ΖΕΥϹ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΟϹ ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Ephesus held the title neokoros — warden of the imperial cult — and competed fiercely with Smyrna and Pergamon for precedence within the Conventus. Coins invoking Zeus Olympios were part of that civic argument, tying the city's religious prestige to the reigning emperor during Domitian's principate, when imperial cult observance was enforced with unusual intensity. Domitian actively demanded the title dominus et deus, and provincial mints in Asia responded in kind.