Æ25 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ΑΓΩΝΟΘΕΤΟΥ ΑΡΤΕΜΑ Γ, ΑΠΑΜΕΩΝ

The magistrate name preserved in this coin's legend — Artemas, serving as agonothetes — pins it to a specific civic official responsible for organizing public games, likely the Pythian or Actian festivals celebrated at Apameia during Severus's reign. The title agonothetes was expensive to hold; it was a liturgy, a compulsory public benefaction extracted from wealthy citizens. That Artemas rated a third civic bronze issue under his name suggests either unusual longevity in office or exceptional generosity toward the games he funded.

Apameia Cibotus was one of the most commercially active cities in Phrygia, positioned on the principal trade route connecting Ephesus to the east. Its civic coinage under Severus is notably prolific in named magistrates, giving modern scholars an unusually detailed prosopography of the city's elite in the early third century.