Tetradrachm - Aesillas

Aesillas served as Roman quaestor in Macedonia during a period of sustained administrative pressure following the province's formal annexation in 148 BC, and these coins were struck under his authority to fund Roman military operations — most likely including the campaigns against Mithridates VI of Pontus during the First Mithridatic War and its aftermath. The issue is notable precisely because a Roman magistrate, not a Macedonian civic authority, controlled the mint, making this among the clearest numismatic evidence of Rome's direct fiscal grip on the province.

The series is known across several reverse die groupings, and Lockett and Dewing specimens have been used as anchors in sequencing them chronologically.