Æ28 - Caracalla ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's neokorate status — the honor of maintaining an imperial cult temple — was fiercely contested among Bithynian cities, and the city held it twice by Caracalla's reign, a distinction it broadcast aggressively on civic bronze coinage. The title ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ (twice neokorate) was not merely ceremonial; it carried tax privileges and elevated the city's standing in provincial legal proceedings.

Nicomedia had wrested its first neokorate from rival Nicaea under Vespasian, and the two cities quarreled over precedence for generations — a dispute Dio Chrysostom addressed directly in his orations.