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Æ22 - Gordian III ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ
| Issuer | Nicomedia (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 238-244 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | The serpent-deity Glykon, depicted as a large coiled serpent with a human face, shown in right profile filling the central field. The body of the serpent forms multiple overlapping coils rendered in bold relief, characteristic of the cult image associated with the prophet Alexander of Abonoteichus. The encircling Greek legend ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ proclaims the twice-neocorate status of Nicomedia, attesting the city's honour of maintaining two imperial cult temples. |
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Nicomedia held the title of neokoros — temple warden of the imperial cult — twice over by Gordian III's reign, a distinction fiercely competed for among cities of the eastern provinces and formally awarded by the Roman Senate. The inscription ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ advertises both grants as civic prestige, the kind of honorific that drove expensive embassy missions to Rome and intense local rivalry with Nicaea, which contested Nicomedia's primacy throughout the third century.