Utica, the oldest Phoenician settlement in North Africa and once a rival to Carthage itself, was granted the right to strike local bronze coinage under Roman administration as a civic privilege rather than an imperial mandate. This dupondius was issued under the joint magistracies of C. Vibius Marsus and C. Sallustius Justus, the latter serving his second term — an unusual detail that survives only because the legends record it explicitly. Vibius Marsus would later serve as governor of Syria under Claudius, where he clashed openly with Herod Agrippa I.
Utica, the oldest Phoenician settlement in North Africa and once a rival to Carthage itself, was granted the right to strike local bronze coinage under Roman administration as a civic privilege rather than an imperial mandate. This dupondius was issued under the joint magistracies of C. Vibius Marsus and C. Sallustius Justus, the latter serving his second term — an unusual detail that survives only because the legends record it explicitly. Vibius Marsus would later serve as governor of Syria under Claudius, where he clashed openly with Herod Agrippa I.