Æ24 - Commodus ΟΜΗΡΟϹ ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea was one of the most aggressively Hellenophile cities in Bithynia, and its civic coinage under Commodus reflects a deliberate municipal investment in Homer as a founding cultural symbol — the city claimed to be his birthplace, a distinction contested by at least six other cities across the Greek world. That rivalry was not merely literary vanity; it carried real political weight in securing imperial favor and festival privileges from Rome.

The Homeric birth-claim tradition at Nicaea is attested through multiple civic bronze series, making this a documented type rather than an isolated issue.