Smyrna was among the most politically aggressive cities in the province of Asia when it came to imperial honors, and the sequence of civic magistrates recorded on its bronze coinage is unusually well-documented as a result. The magistrate name partially preserved here — Ποπλιος Αιλιος Αριζηλος — suggests a Roman citizen of local Greek stock, the double nomenclature common among the Asiatic elite who had received citizenship under Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.
The reversed Ζ in the ethnic is a die-cutter's error, not a variant alphabet. Smyrnaean bronzes of this reign are frequently encountered with informal die corrections of exactly this kind.
Smyrna was among the most politically aggressive cities in the province of Asia when it came to imperial honors, and the sequence of civic magistrates recorded on its bronze coinage is unusually well-documented as a result. The magistrate name partially preserved here — Ποπλιος Αιλιος Αριζηλος — suggests a Roman citizen of local Greek stock, the double nomenclature common among the Asiatic elite who had received citizenship under Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.
The reversed Ζ in the ethnic is a die-cutter's error, not a variant alphabet. Smyrnaean bronzes of this reign are frequently encountered with informal die corrections of exactly this kind.