Æ22 - Elagabalus ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea was one of the most prolific civic minting authorities in Bithynia, and its bronzes under Elagabalus reflect the city's ongoing competition with neighboring Nicomedia for provincial prestige. That rivalry played out partly in coinage volume and partly in the elaborateness of reverse types selected to flatter the emperor — a ruler whose priests at Emesa had declared him the earthly embodiment of the sun god Elagabal before he had even reached Rome.

Elagabalus was fourteen when he became emperor. His reign lasted less than four years before the Praetorian Guard murdered him and his mother in a latrine.