Cyzicus held the title of neokoros — official keeper of an imperial cult temple — and this coin's reverse legend references that status directly. The city earned its first neokorate under Hadrian and was among the most aggressively title-collecting cities in Asia Minor, eventually accumulating multiple neokorates by the Severan period. Issues of Marcus Aurelius from Cyzicus fall during the Antonine Plague, which ravaged Asia Minor from around 165 onward and disrupted civic life across the conventus.
Cyzicus held the title of neokoros — official keeper of an imperial cult temple — and this coin's reverse legend references that status directly. The city earned its first neokorate under Hadrian and was among the most aggressively title-collecting cities in Asia Minor, eventually accumulating multiple neokorates by the Severan period. Issues of Marcus Aurelius from Cyzicus fall during the Antonine Plague, which ravaged Asia Minor from around 165 onward and disrupted civic life across the conventus.