Æ38 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ΑΡΧΙΠΡΥΤΑΝΕΩϹ ΚΤΗϹΙΟΥ ΜΙΛΗϹ

Miletus by the Severan period was a city living on its own mythology — the ancient Ionian metropolis had long since ceded commercial dominance to Ephesus and Smyrna, but continued issuing civic bronzes as an assertion of municipal prestige. The magistrate named in the legend, the archiprutanis Ktesios, would have funded or overseen this issue as a form of civic liturgy, a financial obligation expected of wealthy local figures in exchange for public honor.

The archiprutanis title is specific to Miletus, a local variant of civic office not attested in precisely this form elsewhere in Ionia.