Æ33 - Marcus Aurelius ΕΠΙ ΑΙΛ ΠΡΩΤΟΛΕΟΝΤΟϹ ΤΟ Β ΔΙΔΥΜΕΙΑ ΚΟΜΟΔΕΙΑ ΜΙΛΗϹΙΩΝ

The inscription ΤΟ Β marks this as issued during the second term of the magistrate Aelius Protoleon, an unusual detail that confirms the games festival funding this coin — the Didymeia Komodeia — ran across multiple administrative cycles. The Didymeia honored Apollo at the famous oracle sanctuary of Didyma just south of Miletus, while the Komodeia element linked the festival to comedy competitions, a combination that reflects the layered civic and religious programming typical of Ionian festival culture in the Antonine period.

178-179 AD places this squarely within Marcus Aurelius's Marcomannic Wars, when imperial attention was fixed on the Danubian frontier. Provincial festival coinage from Asia Minor continued without interruption — a reminder of how insulated the prosperous Aegean cities remained from northern military pressure.