The magistrate name preserved in the legend — Aelius Protoleon, serving for the second time — places this issue within a narrow administrative window during Marcus Aurelius's co-rule with Commodus, formalized in 177 AD. Provincial bronze of this module from Miletus in the late Antonine period was produced under the authority of local magistrates whose second terms (indicated by ΤΟ Β) are useful chronological anchors for sequencing civic issues. Miletus, though long past its Archaic commercial peak, retained enough civic prestige under Roman administration to strike large-module bronzes for local ceremonial and commercial use.
The magistrate name preserved in the legend — Aelius Protoleon, serving for the second time — places this issue within a narrow administrative window during Marcus Aurelius's co-rule with Commodus, formalized in 177 AD. Provincial bronze of this module from Miletus in the late Antonine period was produced under the authority of local magistrates whose second terms (indicated by ΤΟ Β) are useful chronological anchors for sequencing civic issues. Miletus, though long past its Archaic commercial peak, retained enough civic prestige under Roman administration to strike large-module bronzes for local ceremonial and commercial use.