Æ28 - Caracalla ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's neokorate status — the right to maintain an imperial temple cult — was fiercely contested among Bithynian cities, and the ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ legend on this piece records the city's achievement of a second such honor, likely granted under Caracalla himself as part of the broader imperial policy of distributing cult privileges to loyal provincial centers. The competition between Nicomedia and Nicaea for primacy in Bithynia was an ongoing civic obsession, fought through embassies to Rome, honorific inscriptions, and exactly this kind of coinage asserting rank.