Æ34 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡΑ ΠΟ ΙΟ ΛΕΟΝΤΕΩϹ, ΜΥΤΙΛΗΝΑΙΩΝ

Mytilene, the dominant polis of Lesbos, retained the right to issue civic bronze well into the Severan period largely because of its historical prestige — Rome had long treated the city as a privileged ally, a status formalized after Pompey confirmed its freedoms in 62 BC. The magistrate name preserved in the legend, Poios Leontes, anchors this piece to a specific local administration otherwise nearly invisible in the literary record.

The conventus of Pergamum exercised loose oversight over such issues, but the actual impetus was civic: bronze coinage of this size served inter-regional exchange at festivals and markets across the Aegean.