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Æ28 - Elagabalus ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΤΡΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ
| Issuer | Nicomedia (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 218-222 |
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| Reference(s) | RPC VI#3347 |
| Obverse description | Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Emperor Elagabalus facing right, rendered in three-quarter front view. The effigy displays youthful features consistent with the emperor's portraiture, with the laurel wreath clearly defined around the head. The legend runs clockwise around the periphery within a beaded border, identifying the emperor by his adopted Antonine nomenclature. The bust treatment shows the paludamentum fastened at the shoulder and the cuirass beneath, typical of imperial provincial struck bronzes of this period. |
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| Obverse lettering | Μ ΑΥΡΗ ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟϹ ΑΥΓΟΥ (Translation: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus) |
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Nicomedia held the title of "three-time neokoros" — meaning the city had been granted the honor of maintaining an imperial cult temple on three separate occasions — and fiercely advertised this distinction on its civic bronze throughout Elagabalus's reign. The competition between Bithynian cities for neokoros titles was openly political, with Nicaea and Nicomedia locked in a decades-long rivalry over precedence that occasionally spilled into formal disputes adjudicated at Rome.
Elagabalus confirmed Nicomedia's third neokorate, likely as a continuation of Caracallan policy rather than any particular favor toward the city.