Æ20 - Septimius Severus C I C A D D

Apamea in Bithynia was a Caesarean colony — Colonia Iulia Concordia Apamea — and its civic bronze issues under Septimius Severus reflect the city's active cultivation of imperial favor during a reign that began in civil war. Severus needed provincial loyalty badly in the early 190s, competing against Pescennius Niger who held much of the eastern empire, and colonial cities along the Bithynian corridor had strategic and symbolic value worth rewarding.

The abbreviation C I C A D D in the reference expands the full colonial title, a formula the city deployed consistently on its bronzes to signal Roman civic status.