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Æ34 - Caracalla ΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΩΝ, ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ ΤΟ ΠΗ
| Issuer | Laodicea ad Lycum (Conventus of Cibyra) |
|---|---|
| Year | 216-217 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A hexastyle temple depicted in perspective, its six columns supporting an elaborate entablature and pediment rendered in careful detail. Within the intercolumniation stands a figure of Caracalla in military dress, facing left, holding a patera in his extended right hand and a long sceptre in his left, referencing the emperor's divine honors as neokoros. The reverse legend around the periphery identifies the issuing city and records the neokorate title, with ΤΟ ΠΗ indicating this was the 88th such honor. |
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Laodicea ad Lycum earned the title neokoros — temple warden of the imperial cult — multiple times, and by the reign of Caracalla the city was publicly advertising its status with the abbreviation ΤΟ ΠΗ, indicating its third or fourth such honor. Caracalla actively distributed neokorate titles during his eastern campaigns of 214–217 as a tool of political reward, and Laodicea was among the beneficiaries.
The city sat on the confluence of two tributaries of the Maeander, which made it commercially prosperous enough to sustain the expensive public games and temple construction that neokorate status demanded. Caracalla was murdered at Carrhae in April 217, cutting short what had been an unusually productive period of civic coin production across the Lycus valley.