Catalog
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| Issuer | Nicomedia (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 235-238 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | RPC VI#3475 |
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| Reverse description | Tyche stands facing with head turned to the left, her figure rendered in full length against the open field. She holds a small tetrastyle temple-model in each outstretched hand, the two miniature temple façades clearly visible to her left and right, alluding to Nicomedia's status as a twice-neocorate city. A Greek circular legend surrounds the figure, proclaiming the city's neocorate honours. The overall composition is bold and characteristic of Bithynian civic bronzes of the Severan era. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ (Translation: of the Nicomedians, twice neocorate) |
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| Additional information |
Maximinus Thrax never visited the eastern provinces — a senator who served under him later wrote that he was feared more than respected, and his reign was bankrolled almost entirely by extorted temple treasuries and confiscated estates. Nicomedia's coins from this period, including issues advertising its status as twice-neokoros, were as much civic self-promotion as imperial flattery, the city leveraging its temple-warden honors to assert precedence over rival Bithynian centers like Nicaea.
The twice-neokoros title reflected Nicomedia's custody of two imperial cult temples, a distinction fiercely contested and formally awarded by the Roman senate.