Æ30 - Elagabalus ΙΕΡΑΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ

Hierapolis in Phrygia earned the title neokoros — temple warden — through its imperial cult obligations, a status that granted the city the right to strike coins and carried genuine civic prestige in the conventus system. Elagabalus, whose four-year reign began when he was roughly fourteen, was proclaimed emperor by the legions of Syria Phoenice after Macrinus's defeat at Antioch in 218. Provincial bronzes from his reign are disproportionately varied; cities competed to advertise their loyalty to a new and deeply unusual dynasty.