Æ23 - Trajan Decius ΦΛ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Philadelphia in Lydia held the title of neokoros — warden of the imperial cult — and guarded it jealously. The city had lobbied hard for the honor under earlier emperors, and civic coinage under Trajan Decius continued to advertise that status, partly because Decius himself was aggressively reinstating traditional Roman religious observances, including the first empire-wide persecution of Christians in 250 AD. A coin proclaiming devotion to the imperial cult was locally and politically useful in exactly that moment.