Æ29 - Philip I ΝΙΚΟΜΗΔΕΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Nicomedia's title ΔΙϹ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ — "twice temple warden" — reflects the city's hard-won status as host to two imperial cult temples, a designation that carried real political weight in the competition among Bithynian cities for Roman favor. Philip I, an Arab from the Hauran region who seized power after the death of Gordian III on the Euphrates, was an emperor the eastern cities needed to court carefully given his uncertain dynastic footing and the persistent rivalry between Nicomedia and Nicaea for provincial preeminence.