Nicaea was an ancient city in northwestern Anatolia, and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the Nicene Creed (which comes from the First Council), and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea following the Fourth Crusade in 1204, until the recapture of Constantinople by the Byzantines in 1261.
The place is said to have been colonized by Bottiaeans, and to have originally borne the name of Ancore or Helicore, or by soldiers of Alexander the Great's army who hailed from Nicaea in Locris, near Thermopylae. Whatever the truth, the first Greek colony on the site was probably destroyed by the Mysians, and it fell to Antigonus I Monophthalmus, one of Alexander's successors, to refound the city ca. 315 BC as Antigoneia after himself.
Along with the rest of Bithynia, Nicaea came under the rule of the Roman Republic in 72 BC. The city remained one of the most important urban centres of Asia Minor throughout the Roman period, and continued its old competition with Nicomedia over pre-eminence and the location of the seat of the Roman governor of Bithynia et Pontus.
The place is said to have been colonized by Bottiaeans, and to have originally borne the name of Ancore or Helicore, or by soldiers of Alexander the Great's army who hailed from Nicaea in Locris, near Thermopylae. Whatever the truth, the first Greek colony on the site was probably destroyed by the Mysians, and it fell to Antigonus I Monophthalmus, one of Alexander's successors, to refound the city ca. 315 BC as Antigoneia after himself.
Along with the rest of Bithynia, Nicaea came under the rule of the Roman Republic in 72 BC. The city remained one of the most important urban centres of Asia Minor throughout the Roman period, and continued its old competition with Nicomedia over pre-eminence and the location of the seat of the Roman governor of Bithynia et Pontus.
Modern location: Ruins
(1)
Gordian III
Obverse: radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right; M ANT_ΓOPΔIANOC AVΓ
Reverse: four standards, eagles on the middle two, wreaths on other two; N-I-K-A-I / EΩN
Diameter:
19.5 mm
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 2.8 g
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 2.8 g
No notes for this coin
BMC 118, SNG Copenhagen 526
Obverse: laureate head right; AV K Λ CEΠ_CEV(HP)OC ΠE
Reverse: eagle with wreath standing on fulmen between standsards; NIK_AI_EΩN
Diameter:
24 mm
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 8.84 g
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 8.84 g
No notes for this coin
apparently unique - not in Rec Gen, Corsten, BMC, SNG von Aulock, SNG Cop, SNG Leypold, SNG Righetti, SNG Lewis, Lindgren I&III, Hunterian, all of the SNG Turkeys, Waddington
Obverse: laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right from back; M AVP CEV AΛEZANΔPOC A(VΓ)
Reverse: three standards (○I●I●I); NI-K-AI-E / ΩN
Diameter:
18.5 mm
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 4.14 g
Die Orientation: -
Weight: 4.14 g
No notes for this coin
RPC VI, 3202 (temporary); cf. Rec Gén II p. 477, 617; BMC Pontus p. 168, 101; SNG Cop 520; SNG Tüb 2122; SNGvA 623; SGICV 3287