Æ25 - Valerian and Gallienus ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ Δ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Ephesus held the title of neokoros — official keeper of an imperial cult temple — four times by the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus, a distinction it advertised aggressively on civic coinage. The ΔΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ legend is a direct assertion of that fourfold status, earned incrementally through decades of political lobbying in Rome and competitive posturing against rival Anatolian cities like Smyrna and Pergamon. Cities that lost neokorate status sometimes struck coins mourning the fact; Ephesus, by contrast, spent this period broadcasting how many it had accumulated.