Æ30 - Trajan ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΙΩΝΙΑ

Metropolis in Ionia was a minor city that punched above its weight by securing the title of metropolis — a civic honor hotly contested among Ionian communities during the imperial period. The inscription ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΙΩΝΙΑ is itself the political claim: membership and precedence within the Ionian koinon, the regional assembly that fell under the administrative umbrella of the Ephesian conventus. These honorific titles were not granted passively; cities lobbied Rome directly, and the reign of Trajan saw several such petitions succeed.

The type is rare in commerce. RPC III 2009 records very few specimens, and die studies on this issue remain incomplete.