Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XI 7 April 2016
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Trajan AR Denarius. Rome, AD 112-113. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI PP, laureate bust right / SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI, personification of via Traiana reclining left on rocks with wheel and branch; VIA TRAIANA in exergue. Woytek 398; RIC 266; RSC 648. 3.40g, 19mm, 7h.
About Extremely Fine. An interesting historical reverse; attractively toned.
Built by Trajan at his own expense and commemorated with an arch at its beginning in Beneventum, as well as on his coinage, the Via Traiana was a quicker route for travellers from Rome to Brundisium on the coast.
At 205 miles, despite being two miles longer than the Via Appia, the Via Traiana was a much less arduous and therefore faster option than the original Republican road because it traversed a significantly flatter route to the north. Strabo, in his Geography (6.3.7), indicates that the route of the Via Traiana, even though in his day little more than a mule track, saved the traveller a whole day's journeying.
About Extremely Fine. An interesting historical reverse; attractively toned.
Built by Trajan at his own expense and commemorated with an arch at its beginning in Beneventum, as well as on his coinage, the Via Traiana was a quicker route for travellers from Rome to Brundisium on the coast.
At 205 miles, despite being two miles longer than the Via Appia, the Via Traiana was a much less arduous and therefore faster option than the original Republican road because it traversed a significantly flatter route to the north. Strabo, in his Geography (6.3.7), indicates that the route of the Via Traiana, even though in his day little more than a mule track, saved the traveller a whole day's journeying.