Æ31 - Septimius Severus ΚΝΙΔΙΩΝ

Cnidus, situated at the tip of the Carian peninsula, retained its civic coinage rights under the Severan administration largely because the conventus system — which grouped cities under regional assize courts — gave municipalities like Cnidus a bureaucratic identity worth commemorating in bronze. The Alabanda conventus was one of the more productive in Asia Minor for civic issues under Septimius Severus, precisely because the emperor's prolonged eastern campaigns kept imperial attention focused on demonstrating provincial loyalty through visible, local production.

The ΚΝΙΔΙΩΝ ethnic legend places civic pride squarely on the coin, a convention that became increasingly freighted with political meaning as Severus consolidated power after defeating his rivals Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus between 193 and 197.