Æ30 - Caracalla Γ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΚΡΗΤΑΡΙΟΥ, ϹΜΥΡΝ

Smyrna held the title of neokoros — official keeper of the imperial cult — multiple times, and the number of such honors was a matter of intense civic competition among the great cities of Asia Minor. The magistrate named Kretarios, cited in the inscription, anchors this piece to a specific administrative tenure, though the exact dating within Caracalla's reign remains contested in the literature. Ephesus and Pergamon were Smyrna's perpetual rivals for precedence, and these civic bronze issues were partly instruments of that rivalry.