Æ27 - Caracalla ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's claim to the title ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ — "twice temple warden" — was hard-won through imperial politics. The city secured its first neokorate under Vespasian and its second under Trajan, edging out its perennial rival Nicaea in the fierce competition among Bithynian cities for ranked religious honors. That rivalry was chronic enough that Pliny the Younger, writing to Trajan during his governorship of the province around 110 AD, repeatedly flagged the mutual hostility between the two cities as an administrative nuisance requiring direct imperial intervention.