Æ36 - Marcus Aurelius ΜΥΤΙΛΗΝΑΙΩΝ

Mytilene's bronze coinage under Marcus Aurelius belongs to the early years of his sole reign, before Lucius Verus departed for the Parthian frontier in 162. The city had long cultivated its status as a privileged free city within the Roman provincial order, a standing that granted it unusual latitude in civic coinage — including the production of large module bronzes like this one that functioned as much as civic prestige objects as practical currency.

The conventus of Pergamum administered some of the wealthiest and most prolific minting cities in the Greek East, and Mytilene competed aggressively within that peer group for honorific coinage tied to imperial accessions.