Æ35 - Caracalla ϹΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ Γ ΝΕΩΚΟ ΤΩΝ ϹΕΒΑϹΤΩΝ

Smyrna's claim to the title "First of Asia" was a fiercely contested civic obsession, and the triple neokorate designation recorded on this coin — awarded incrementally under Trajan, Hadrian, and likely Caracalla himself — was the legal and ceremonial culmination of decades of rivalry with Ephesus and Pergamon. Cities paid heavily in embassies, gifts, and political maneuvering to extract each neokorate grant from Rome, and the privilege entitled Smyrna to maintain an imperial cult temple and preside over associated games.

The ΠΡΩΤΩΝ designation specifically signals Smyrna's insistence on primacy of rank, not merely participation. That this appears alongside the third neokorate on a large bronze civic issue suggests deliberate propagandistic timing.