Æ23 - Elagabalus ΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Laodicea ad Lycum earned the title neokoros — warden of the imperial cult — and jealously advertised it on civic coinage throughout the third century. The designation carried real political weight: it meant the city had been granted the right to maintain a temple to the reigning emperor, a status competed for aggressively among the cities of the Lycus valley. Under Elagabalus, whose own religious program was deeply controversial in Rome, the eastern provincials had little reason to share the Senate's discomfort — imperial cult honors were civic currency, and Laodicea collected them.

The conventus of Cibyra grouped several Phrygian and Lycian cities under a single Roman judicial circuit, and Laodicea dominated it financially and administratively throughout the Severan period.