Æ33 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡΑ ΑΡΤΕΜΩΝΟϹ ΤΟΥ ϹΕΚΟΥΝΔΟΥ, ΜΥΤΙΛΗΝΩΝ

Mytilene, the principal city of Lesbos, retained the right to name local magistrates on its coinage well into the Severan period — a privilege that sets provincial bronzes like this one apart from the anonymous civic issues of lesser centers. The strategos Artemon Secundus named in the legend is otherwise unattested in the epigraphic record, making this coin one of the few surviving documents of his tenure.

Lesbos had been a free allied city since Rome's reorganization of Asia Minor, though that status was periodically renegotiated. Under Septimius Severus, civic minting in the Pergamene conventus expanded noticeably, likely tied to the city's need to fund local games and liturgies without drawing on imperial subvention.