Dyrrachion — the Greek city Rome knew as Dyrrachium — sat at the western terminus of the Via Egnatia, the road that connected the Adriatic coast to Byzantium and through which Roman armies, merchants, and governors moved constantly. The city's drachms, struck across the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, functioned as the dominant regional coinage precisely because of that geographic chokehold. Each issue names a pair of local magistrates, here Sostrios and Kleitorios, whose identities beyond the coins themselves are entirely lost.
Dyrrachion — the Greek city Rome knew as Dyrrachium — sat at the western terminus of the Via Egnatia, the road that connected the Adriatic coast to Byzantium and through which Roman armies, merchants, and governors moved constantly. The city's drachms, struck across the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, functioned as the dominant regional coinage precisely because of that geographic chokehold. Each issue names a pair of local magistrates, here Sostrios and Kleitorios, whose identities beyond the coins themselves are entirely lost.