Æ23 - Trajan Decius ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ, Γ

Nicomedia held the neokorate title twice — the "ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ" designation on this issue reflects that status, earned through the city's hosting of imperial cult temples and its fierce rivalry with Nicaea over provincial precedence. That competition between the two cities was bitter enough that both spent considerable civic resources lobbying emperors for honors, a dynamic Dio Chrysostom wrote about with evident exasperation in the late first century. Trajan Decius, who issued this piece during his brief and catastrophic reign, was killed at the Battle of Abritus in 251 — the first Roman emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy.