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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 24598877, member: 26430&quot;]Strictly speaking, I don&#039;t think I have any truly &quot;quasi-autonomous&quot; from Lydia (I&#039;ve Roman Provincial bronzes from Lydia, but all are in the name of the emperor; the closest &quot;quasi-autonomous&quot; in my coll. would be from Phrygia).</p><p><br /></p><p>But, on the other topic, I do have a couple of Neokorate coins (i.e., coins of the <i>Neokoroi </i>cities). This is a very interesting topic.</p><p><br /></p><p>As you comment, it required that the city maintained a Temple to the Imperial Cult (&quot;Neokoros&quot; means something along the lines of &quot;temple keeper&quot;; I&#039;ve seen multiple variants on that translation). And it was usually also associated with various games and festivals (as on my coin below).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a Philip II AE26 advertising Thessalonica &quot;Neokoros&quot; and the second local Pythiad (&quot;ΠΥΘΙΑΔΙ Β”; these were the local Phythian Games, in honor of Kabeiros, not the main Pythian Games at Delphi). This is the 6th specimen on <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/69113" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/69113" rel="nofollow">RPC Temp 69113</a> (and formerly the &quot;digital plate coin&quot; until the Kovacs Coll. specimen bumped me off!):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1562803[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Neokoros represented a very important important relationship status between a city and the Empire. As [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] has suggested, it appears that Macedon, Thessalonica became a &quot;triple Neokorate&quot; under Trajan Decius -- probably for supporting the Decii over the Philippi in their revolt -- in just a few years after the coin above was struck.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, very interestingly, a city could be named a multiple Neokorate. This is usually represented by coins showing two or even three temples.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately I don&#039;t (yet) have a &quot;triple Neo&quot; Thessalonica. But I do have Double Neokoros issue of Otacilia from Bithynia, Nicomedia. It&#039;s worn, but you can still see that Tyche is holding up one temple in each hand to represent both of the city&#039;s Imperial Neokoros awards (<a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/20007" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/20007" rel="nofollow">RPC 20007.5</a> = Lindgren &amp; Kovacs [1985] 177 = this coin):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1562804[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Clearly cities were very proud of their Neokorate status, which gave them various privileges as preferred cities. (Like other formal statuses or titles for cities, which had different benefits and responsibilities, such as &quot;Metropole&quot; or &quot;Colonia.&quot;)</p><p><br /></p><p>The Wiki link given by [USER=104887]@Broucheion[/USER] is useful. Also very useful is the excellent book by Barbara Burrell (2004) <i>Neokoroi Greek Cities and Roman Emperors</i> (Cincinnati Classical Studies IX; Leiden: Brill). Google Books has a ~50 page free preview: <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Neokoroi/AaaClrSUtHsC" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Neokoroi/AaaClrSUtHsC" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/books/edition/Neokoroi/AaaClrSUtHsC</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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