Æ32 - Marcus Aurelius L Ϛ

Regnal year 6 of Marcus Aurelius corresponds to 165–166 AD, a period when the Antonine Plague was beginning its devastating sweep through the eastern provinces. The disease — likely smallpox, carried back by troops returning from the Parthian War — killed an estimated five million people across the empire and hit Alexandria particularly hard given its role as the Mediterranean's busiest port.

Alexandrian bronzes of this period were struck under the Roman prefect of Egypt, outside the authority of the Roman senatorial mint system entirely. The city maintained its own dating by regnal year, its own weight standards, and its own iconographic vocabulary well into the third century.