Æ31 - Trajan Decius ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΑΝΔΡΟΚΛΟϹ

Androklос, the legendary Athenian oikist credited with founding Ephesus, appears here on a civic bronze issued under Trajan Decius — a calculated assertion of local mythological identity at a moment when the emperor was aggressively promoting traditional Roman religious values, including the first empire-wide edict demanding sacrifice to the Roman gods. Ephesus had long leveraged its foundation myth as a mark of prestige among rival Asian cities competing for the title of metropolis and the ceremonial privileges that came with it.