Æ36 - Gordian III ΕΙΡΗΝΗ ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ

Ephesus held the title *neokoros* — temple warden — multiple times over, a distinction fiercely competed among Asian cities and granted by Rome as political currency. Under Gordian III the city was riding the prestige of its third or fourth such grant, and civic bronze issues of this scale were part of how Ephesus broadcast that status locally. The reverse type referencing Eirene was not mere decoration: peace iconography carried pointed meaning during a reign defined by war on the Danube and in Mesopotamia, where Gordian would die in 244, possibly killed on the orders of his own praetorian prefect Philip.