Æ30 - Marcus Aurelius ΙΛΙΕΩΝ

Ilium — the city built atop the ruins of Troy — leveraged its mythological identity aggressively under Roman rule, and coins like this one were central to that project. The issue dates to the co-reign of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, a period when the city was actively cultivating imperial favor by emphasizing its claim as the ancestral homeland of Rome itself. Julius Caesar had visited the site, Augustus had considered rebuilding it as a new capital, and Hadrian had restored its temples — the city knew exactly what it was selling.

The Conventus of Adramyteum administered a stretch of the Troad that included Ilium, and civic bronze of this weight class circulated locally for small transactions, never traveling far.