Æ30 - Marcus Aurelius ϹΤΡ ΠΟ ΑΙ ΑΡΙΖΗΛΟΥ ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ

Smyrna was one of the most politically assertive cities in Roman Asia, and by the reign of Marcus Aurelius it had accumulated the title *neokoros* — temple warden of the imperial cult — multiple times over, a distinction it competed for aggressively against Ephesus and Pergamon. The magistrate name preserved in the legend, Arizelus, anchors this issue to a specific civic administration otherwise nearly invisible in the literary record. Provincial bronze of this format was struck entirely at civic expense, with the city bearing production costs as a form of loyalty demonstration to Rome.