Heraclea at Latmus occupied an awkward political position in the mid-second century BC, caught between the waning influence of the Seleucid sphere and the expanding reach of Pergamene authority following Rome's settlement of Asia Minor after Apamea in 188 BC. The octobol denomination itself is unusual — eight obols representing two-thirds of a drachm — and its appearance here suggests local commercial needs that standard Rhodian or Attic-weight fractions weren't meeting cleanly.
The city was formally renamed Latmus under Seleucid administration before reverting, and this coinage dates to a period when its civic identity was being reasserted.
Heraclea at Latmus occupied an awkward political position in the mid-second century BC, caught between the waning influence of the Seleucid sphere and the expanding reach of Pergamene authority following Rome's settlement of Asia Minor after Apamea in 188 BC. The octobol denomination itself is unusual — eight obols representing two-thirds of a drachm — and its appearance here suggests local commercial needs that standard Rhodian or Attic-weight fractions weren't meeting cleanly.
The city was formally renamed Latmus under Seleucid administration before reverting, and this coinage dates to a period when its civic identity was being reasserted.