Æ32 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ΑΓΩΝΟΘΕΤΟΥ ΑΡΤΕΜΑ Γ, ΑΠΑΜΕΩΝ

Apamea Cibotus was one of the most commercially active cities in Phrygia, sitting at the junction of major trade routes running east toward Syria and south toward the Aegean coast. The magistrate name preserved in the legend — Artemas, serving as agonothetes — pins this issue to a specific civic official responsible for funding and organizing public games, a role that carried enormous local prestige and considerable personal expense. The agonothesia was not a state appointment but a liturgy: wealthy citizens competed for the honor of bearing the costs themselves.