Hemiassarion - Gaius Caesar ΠΟΛΕ ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤ ΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΩΝ, Laodicea ad Lycum

Laodicea ad Lycum had every reason to flatter Rome's designated heir. Gaius Caesar, Augustus's grandson and adopted son, was being groomed for imperial succession in the late first century BC, and cities across the eastern provinces scrambled to issue coins in his name as a display of loyalty. This piece belongs to that wave of civic flattery — the epithet ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤ(RIS) on the reverse, meaning "lover of his fatherland," applied as much to Roman expectations as to local pride. Gaius died in 4 AD of wounds sustained during a campaign in Armenia, never having ruled.