Æ16 - Commodus ΙΕΡοϹ ΑΓΩΝ ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea's civic coinage under Commodus reflects the city's aggressive promotion of its sacred games — the ΙΕΡΟϹ ΑΓΩΝ, or sacred contest — as a bid for prestige among Bithynian cities in an era of intense municipal rivalry. Nicaea and Nicomedia competed bitterly for honorific titles throughout the second century, and the proliferation of agonistic coin types was part of that civic one-upmanship, not mere civic pride.

The specific reference IV.1#6052 places this within the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum framework for the region.