Æ16 - Septimius Severus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea's bronze coinage under Septimius Severus belongs to the flowering of civic coinage in Bithynia, a region whose cities competed vigorously for imperial favor and the prestige titles — Neokoros, metropolis — that came with it. Nicaea and its rival Nicomedia spent much of the Severan period lobbying Rome over primacy in the province, a dispute that generated an unusual volume of civic bronze issues as each city worked to demonstrate its loyalty and cultural standing to the emperor.