Æ36 - Marcus Aurelius ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡΑ Τ ΚΛ ΑΡΙϹΤΕΑ ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ Β ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ

Pergamum held the title of neokoros — official guardian of an imperial cult temple — twice over by this period, a distinction aggressively competed for among the great cities of Asia Minor. The designation "B NEOKOPΩN" on this issue was civic propaganda as much as religious acknowledgment, asserting Pergamum's seniority over rivals like Smyrna and Ephesus in the hierarchy of Roman favor. The strategos named in the obverse legend, Claudius Aristeas, anchored the issue to a specific magistracy, making this one of the more precisely attributable civic bronzes of the Antonine period.