Æ28 - Domitian Η ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΙΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΩΤΗ ΒΙΘΥΝΙ (Σ)

Nicomedia's insistence on advertising its status as "metropolis and first city of Bithynia" was not mere civic vanity — it reflected a genuine and bitterly contested rivalry with Nicaea, which claimed equal standing throughout the imperial period. The dispute was live enough that both cities lobbied emperors directly, and Domitian's reign saw Nicomedia pressing its case aggressively through every available medium, including its bronze coinage.

The honorific formula in the legend is the civic flex that dates this particular iteration of the claim.