Æ30 - Caracalla ΕΠΙ Γ ΚΛ ΜΙΘΡΟΥ ΑΡΧ Α ϹΑΡΔΙΑΝΩΝ Β ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Sardis held the neokorate — the right to maintain an imperial cult temple — twice by the Severan period, a status aggressively lobbied for and fiercely defended among the cities of the conventus as it conferred both religious prestige and commercial advantage at the great provincial assemblies. The magistrate named in the legend, Gaius Claudius Mithras, is attested in a small cluster of Sardian issues from this reign, suggesting a single term of office that can be roughly bracketed within Caracalla's co-reign with Septimius Severus before 211.

The Claudii of western Anatolia were frequently descendants of freedmen enfranchised under the Julio-Claudians — a family origin that carried no stigma by the third century.