Æ34 - Caracalla ΛΑΟΔΙΚΕΩΝ, ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ ΤΟ ΠΗ

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.