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Æ35 - Macrinus ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΜΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ ΑϹΙΑϹ

Issuer Mint of Ephesus
Year 217-218
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Composition Bronze
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Obverse lettering ΑΥΤ Κ Μ ΟΠΕΛ ϹΕΟΥΗ ΜΑΚΡΕΙΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ
(Translation: Emperor Caesar Marcus Opellius Severus Macrinus Augustus)
Reverse description Artemis, the patron goddess of Ephesus, depicted standing frontally within a quadriga drawn by four galloping stags, the animals rendered in dynamic lateral motion. The goddess holds a long torch in one hand and a bow in the other, attributes emblematic of her dual role as huntress and divine protectress of the city. The scene is enclosed by the civic legend distributed across the field and exergue, proclaiming Ephesus as the preeminent city of Asia. The composition reflects the monumental religious iconography characteristic of Ephesian civic pride under the Severan dynasty.
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Macrinus reigned just fourteen months — one of the shortest imperial tenures of the third century — after orchestrating the assassination of Caracalla in April 217. The Ephesian mint's insistence on its full civic title, ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΜΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ ΑϹΙΑϹ, was no idle boast: the claim to be "first and alone" of Asia was a fiercely contested honorific, disputed with Smyrna and Pergamon across decades of petitions to Rome. Ephesus had won imperial confirmation of the title under Caracalla, and the mint wasted no time placing it prominently under his murderer's portrait.

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