Nicaea was among the most prolific provincial mints of the Severan period, and its output under Elagabalus reflects the city's eagerness to curry favor with a notoriously volatile emperor. The mint continued striking through his entire four-year reign, which ended when the Praetorian Guard — the same institution that had elevated him — murdered him at eighteen and dragged his body through the streets of Rome before dumping it in the Tiber.
The ethnic inscription ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ, asserting civic identity, was a consistent feature of Nicaean bronzes regardless of who sat on the throne in Rome.
Nicaea was among the most prolific provincial mints of the Severan period, and its output under Elagabalus reflects the city's eagerness to curry favor with a notoriously volatile emperor. The mint continued striking through his entire four-year reign, which ended when the Praetorian Guard — the same institution that had elevated him — murdered him at eighteen and dragged his body through the streets of Rome before dumping it in the Tiber.
The ethnic inscription ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ, asserting civic identity, was a consistent feature of Nicaean bronzes regardless of who sat on the throne in Rome.