Æ34 - Septimius Severus ΕΚΤΩΡ ΙΛΙΕΩΝ

Ilium — the city built over the ruins of Troy — leveraged its mythological heritage aggressively under Roman imperial patronage. The Trojan connection was particularly useful during the Severan dynasty: Septimius Severus claimed descent from Aeneas through the city of Lepcis Magna's foundational myths, giving Ilium a direct ideological line to the emperor himself. Local civic bronzes invoking Hector were not incidental — they were a pointed reminder that the city's heroic past and the emperor's own claimed ancestry were, conveniently, the same story.