Æ32 - Septimius Severus ΕΦΕϹΙΩΝ ΔΙϹ ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ

Ephesus held the title of neokoros — temple warden to the imperial cult — twice over by the Severan period, a status fiercely contested among the great cities of Asia Minor and reflected directly in the inscription ΔΙϹ ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩΝ. The second neokorate had been granted under Domitian, though after his damnatio memoriae the city quietly reattributed it to Hadrian rather than lose the honor entirely.

Provincial bronze of this module from Ephesus served the dense commercial traffic of the Aegean coast, a port city that remained one of the largest in the Roman world throughout Severus's reign.