Æ44 - Marcus Aurelius ΕΠΙ ΑΡΧΙΕΡΩΕϹ Κ ΑΡΧ ΤΑΤΙΑΝοΥ ϹΙΛΑΝΔΕΩΝ

Silandus was a minor Lydian city whose civic coinage depended almost entirely on the goodwill of wealthy local magistrates willing to fund issues at their own expense — the archiereus named in this legend, Tatianos, held the provincial high priesthood of the imperial cult, which gave him both the religious authority and the financial incentive to sponsor a large-module bronze of this kind. Issues struck under named Lydian magistrates from this period frequently survive as singletons or near-singletons, the production runs having been small and the city's subsequent history unremarkable enough that hoarding was rare.