Æ27 - Caracalla ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's title ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ — "twice neokoros" — reflects the city's hard-won status as twice-appointed guardian of imperial cult temples, a distinction granted by the Roman Senate and fiercely contested among rival Bithynian cities. Nicomedia and Nicaea spent decades in open civic competition over neokoros honors, a rivalry that played out partly through exactly this kind of civic bronze coinage asserting rank and precedence.

The designation was not permanent. Cities could lose neokoros status, and the scramble to retain it shaped municipal politics throughout the Severan period.