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Æ25 - Septimius Severus ϹΑΡΔΙΑΝΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ
| Issuer | Mint of Sardes (Conventus of Sardis) |
|---|---|
| Year | 193-211 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed bust of Clodius Albinus facing right, with characteristic short curly hair rendered in a naturalistic provincial style. The portrait displays the youthful features of Albinus in his capacity as Caesar, with drapery visible at the truncation of the shoulder. A Greek legend encircles the effigy in the field, identifying the subject by his full titulature. |
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| Reverse description | Tyche, the tutelary goddess of Sardes, depicted standing to the left in full figure, wearing a turreted crown (mural crown) upon her head. She holds a long rudder in her right hand and a cornucopia (horn of plenty) in her left arm, emblematic of fortune, guidance, and civic prosperity. The figure stands on a ground line, rendered in the typical provincial die-cutting style of the Lydian workshops. The encircling Greek legend proclaims the twice-neocorate status of the city of Sardes. |
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Sardis earned its double neokorate status — the honor of maintaining two imperial cult temples — through careful political maneuvering during the Severan period, making coins bearing the ΔΙΣΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ title direct evidence of the city's bid for prestige within the competitive civic hierarchy of Roman Asia. Neokorate honors were granted by the emperor and jealously guarded; losing them could devastate a city's standing and revenue from festival traffic.
Sardis had been a wealthy Lydian royal capital long before Roman annexation, and the city leveraged that ancient reputation aggressively under Severus.