Æ36 - Septimius Severus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΦΛΑΒΙΟΥ ΞΕΝΟΚΡΑΤΟΥϹ, ΠΕΡΓΑΜΗΝΩΝ Β ΝΕΟΚΟΡΩ

Pergamum's status as a double neokoros — twice awarded the right to maintain an imperial cult temple — was hard won and politically loaded. The city had held its first neokorate since the reign of Domitian, but the second required active lobbying during Severus's reign, likely connected to the civic rivalries with Smyrna and Ephesus that consumed much of western Anatolian municipal politics in the Severan period. The magistrate named in the legend, Flavius Xenokrates, served as the strategos responsible for this issue, and his name appearing so prominently reflects the competitive honorific culture among Pergamene elites.

The 36mm module was not arbitrary — large civic bronzes of this size functioned more as prestige objects than everyday exchange, circulating within the ceremonial economy of festivals and religious distributions.