Side was one of the most commercially active ports in Pamphylia, and its silver tetradrachms circulated extensively through eastern Mediterranean trade networks from the second century onward. The city maintained monetary independence well into the Roman provincial period, an unusual degree of autonomy reflecting its economic leverage as a slave-trading hub — ancient sources, including Strabo, explicitly identify Side as a major market for slaves captured by Cilician pirates during precisely this era.
The Aulock 4790 reference places this among the well-documented die sequences catalogued from the von Aulock collection, one of the foundational corpora for Pamphylian coinage.
Side was one of the most commercially active ports in Pamphylia, and its silver tetradrachms circulated extensively through eastern Mediterranean trade networks from the second century onward. The city maintained monetary independence well into the Roman provincial period, an unusual degree of autonomy reflecting its economic leverage as a slave-trading hub — ancient sources, including Strabo, explicitly identify Side as a major market for slaves captured by Cilician pirates during precisely this era.
The Aulock 4790 reference places this among the well-documented die sequences catalogued from the von Aulock collection, one of the foundational corpora for Pamphylian coinage.