Didrachm

Pergamon's cistophoric coinage — of which this didrachm is a fractional part — was introduced around 166 BC following Rome's reorganization of western Asia Minor after Apamea, effectively replacing Seleucid and Attalid regal issues as the dominant regional currency. The Attalid dynasty struck these in enormous quantities through their three royal mints at Pergamon, Ephesus, and Apamea. When Attalus III died in 133 BC without an heir and bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, the cistophoric standard was retained — Rome found it too commercially entrenched to displace.

The series ran uninterrupted into the late Republic, with Roman magistrates eventually issuing under their own names on the same fabric.