Æ31 - Commodus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΔΙΟΔΩΡΟΥ ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ

Pergamum's civic coinage under Commodus was intimately tied to the office of the strategos, the annually appointed magistrate whose name appeared on the coin as both a mark of civic pride and personal accountability. Diodoros, named here, held that position during a window when Commodus was consolidating his image as a new Hercules — a theology the emperor imposed on the empire's eastern cities with increasing aggression after 184 AD. Pergamum, as seat of the imperial cult in Asia and home to the great Asclepion, had particular reason to play along carefully.