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Æ34 - Domitian ΝΕΙΚΑΙΕΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΕΙΑΣ
| Issuer | Nicaea (Bithynia and Pontus) |
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| Year | 81-96 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Emperor Domitian facing right, rendered in the provincial style characteristic of Bithynian civic coinage of the Flavian period. The effigy displays a laurel wreath crown and visible drapery at the shoulder. A circular Greek legend surrounds the portrait within a beaded border, partially legible on the flan. The modelling of the facial features, though worn, retains the characteristic strong jaw and pronounced brow associated with Domitianic portraiture. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΑΥΤ ΔΟΜΙΤΙΑΝΟΣ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ ΣΕΒ ΓΕΡ (Translation: Emperor Domitian Caesar Augustus Germanicus) |
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Nicaea's claim to the title ΠΡΩΤΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΕΙΑΣ — "first of the province" — was a fiercely contested civic honor in Bithynia, disputed most bitterly with Nicomedia, which held the rival title and the actual seat of Roman provincial administration. That Nicaea pressed the claim on bronze coinage under Domitian suggests an active lobbying effort at the imperial court, where such honorifics required at minimum tacit Roman approval. The dispute outlasted both cities' patience; Pliny the Younger, governing Bithynia under Trajan barely a decade after this issue, found the quarrel still very much alive.