Æ34 - Domitian ΝΕΙΚΑΙΕΙΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΕΙΑΣ

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.