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Æ30 - Gordian III ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΑΥΡ ΜΑΡΚΟΥ ΚΟΛΟΦΩΝΙΩΝ
| Issuer | Colophon (Conventus of Ephesus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 238-244 |
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| Diameter | 30 mm |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Apollo Klarios, the oracular deity venerated at the sanctuary of Claros near Colophon, depicted seated to the left upon a throne or rocky omphalos. The god holds a laurel branch in his extended right hand and a lyre in his left, emblematic of his dual roles as god of prophecy and patron of the arts. The figure is rendered in a static, hieratic provincial style consistent with Ionian civic coinage of the mid-third century AD. The Greek legend encircles the field, naming the local strategos under whose magistracy the issue was struck. |
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| Additional information |
Colophon was among the most ancient of the Ionian cities, but by the Imperial period it had long since been overshadowed by Ephesus and fell under that city's administrative conventus for judicial and provincial purposes. The magistrate named in the legend — Aurelius Markos — held the office of strategos, the civic post responsible for authorizing and funding local bronze coinage. His name appearing in the genitive construction ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ identifies him as the issuing authority, a practice that makes Colophonian bronzes useful for reconstructing local civic prosopography even when the city itself left little other historical trace in the reign of Gordian III.