Laodicea ad Lycum held the title of neokoros — temple warden of the imperial cult — and the legend ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ broadcast that status aggressively on civic bronze during Elagabalus's reign. The addition of ΔΟΓΜΑΤΙ ϹΥΝΚΛΗΤΟΥ, "by decree of the Senate," is the more interesting detail: it invokes senatorial authority on a provincial issue, a formula used selectively across Asia Minor to lend legitimacy to neokorate grants that were sometimes politically contested.
Elagabalus's own relationship with the Senate was notoriously hostile, making the formula's appearance here something of an irony preserved in bronze.
Laodicea ad Lycum held the title of neokoros — temple warden of the imperial cult — and the legend ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ broadcast that status aggressively on civic bronze during Elagabalus's reign. The addition of ΔΟΓΜΑΤΙ ϹΥΝΚΛΗΤΟΥ, "by decree of the Senate," is the more interesting detail: it invokes senatorial authority on a provincial issue, a formula used selectively across Asia Minor to lend legitimacy to neokorate grants that were sometimes politically contested.
Elagabalus's own relationship with the Senate was notoriously hostile, making the formula's appearance here something of an irony preserved in bronze.