Æ22 - Septimius Severus ΝΕΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's designation as ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ — twice neokoros, twice keeper of the imperial cult — was hard won. The city held its first neokorate under Domitian and secured a second under Caracalla or possibly Septimius Severus himself, a status that conferred enormous prestige and commercial advantage over regional rivals, particularly Nicaea, with whom Nicomedia engaged in a prolonged and occasionally bitter civic competition documented in Dio Chrysostom's orations.