Æ33 - Marcus Aurelius ΙΛΙΕΩΝ

Ilium — the ancient city claiming descent from Troy itself — leveraged that mythological pedigree aggressively under the Roman emperors, and the accession of Marcus Aurelius in 161 AD gave the city fresh occasion to issue civic bronze. The Conventus of Adramyteum, the judicial district governing this stretch of the Troad, administered a cluster of communities that struck their own coinage with varying frequency; Ilium punched above its modest economic weight largely on the strength of its Homeric associations, which Roman administrators found genuinely useful for provincial diplomacy.

The 161–162 dating places this piece in the opening year of Marcus Aurelius's reign, coinciding also with Lucius Verus as co-emperor — a constitutional novelty Rome had not formally seen before.