Æ36 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ΑΡΧ ΑΥΡΗ ΜΑΡΚΟΥ, ΔΑΡΔΑΝΙΩΝ

Dardanus was a minor coastal polis on the Troad, notable less for its coin output than for being the site where Sulla and Mithridates VI concluded their peace in 85 BC — a treaty that briefly ended the First Mithridatic War and left Asia's Greek cities to face Sulla's punishing indemnities. The city's provincial bronze under Septimius Severus is rare precisely because Dardanus struck infrequently, and the magistrate name carried in the legend, Aurelius Markos, helps anchor this piece within a small, closely studied group.