Diassarion - Septimius Severus CЄOYH PЄIA ΦIΛA ΔЄΛΦЄIA NIKAIЄ ΩN

Nicaea's civic bronze coinage under Septimius Severus was part of a broader explosion of provincial mint activity that followed the civil wars of 193 AD — the Year of the Four Emperors — during which cities across Bithynia moved quickly to align themselves with the eventual victor. The reverse legend advertising Philadelphia, or brotherly love, was a civic honorific Nicaea employed to burnish its standing among rival Bithynian cities, particularly Nicomedia, with whom it fought bitterly and persistently over the title of "first city" of the province.

Howgego 254 is among the better-documented of Nicaea's Severan civic issues.