Tetradrachm - Molossos and Menes

Miletos struck this magistrate-series tetradrachm under the stephanephoric coinage system, where annually rotating civic officials — here Molossos and Menes — lent their names to the issue as a form of civic accountability rather than personal glorification. The practice allows modern numismatists to build rough sequential chronologies for the series, though the precise annual order of magistrate pairs remains contested.

By the 160s BC, Miletos operated under the shadow of Pergamene and, increasingly, Roman influence following the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC. The city retained enough autonomy to maintain its own silver coinage, but the political room to maneuver was narrowing.