Apamea Cibotus held an unusual distinction among Phrygian cities: it claimed to be the resting place of Noah's Ark, a tradition so embedded locally that the city's coins sometimes depicted the episode explicitly. The magistrate name preserved in this legend — Artemas — anchors the issue to a specific administrative moment within a city that was politically careful to align itself with Severan rule during the emperor's eastern campaigns of the early third century.
Apamea Cibotus held an unusual distinction among Phrygian cities: it claimed to be the resting place of Noah's Ark, a tradition so embedded locally that the city's coins sometimes depicted the episode explicitly. The magistrate name preserved in this legend — Artemas — anchors the issue to a specific administrative moment within a city that was politically careful to align itself with Severan rule during the emperor's eastern campaigns of the early third century.