Æ38 - Pupienus and Balbinus ΕΠΙ ΑΡΧ ϹΕΚΟΥΝΔ ΜΙΛΗϹΙΩΝ ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ

Pupienus and Balbinus were elected co-emperors by the Senate in April 238 — the only time Rome ever operated under a formal collegiate emperorship of two simultaneously elevated equals rather than a senior-junior pairing. Their joint reign lasted 99 days before both were murdered by the Praetorian Guard in July of the same year. Provincial mints across Asia Minor moved quickly to strike loyalty issues, and Miletus was among them, invoking its neokorate status — the honorific title granted to cities maintaining an imperial cult temple — as a mark of civic prestige on the coin's legend.