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Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XI  7 April 2016
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Lot 799

Estimate: 15 000 GBP
Price realized: 12 000 GBP
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 116. IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIM AVG GER DAC PARTHICO, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / REGNA ADSIGNATA, Trajan seated to left on platform with two attendants standing behind him; before platform, three kings standing right. RIC 367; Woytek 564f; BMC 613; Calicó 524. 7.26g, 19mm, 6h.

About Extremely Fine. Very Rare.

This historically significant type proclaims Trajan's assignment of rulers to the freshly conquered kingdoms of Armenia, Parthia and Mesopotamia following his victories in the East. In his campaign of AD 114-116 Trajan expanded the territories of the empire to what was then the greatest extent of Rome's borders; her dominion now stretched from the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean to the waters of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Trajan had his statue set up on the shore of the latter, and sent the Senate a laurelled letter declaring the war to be at a close but bemoaning that he was too old to go on any further and repeat the conquests of Alexander the Great, to whose conquests this expedition was widely compared. The admiration and respect in which Trajan held the Macedonian king was evidenced by his determination to return to Babylon where he intended to offer sacrifice to Alexander in the house where he had died in 323 BC.

The successes referenced on this coin were to be short-lived however, as shortly after his death revolts erupted in Armenia, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and Cyrene, as well as in North West Africa and along the Northern borders of Europe, prompting his successor Hadrian to abandon much of the newly gained territory in favour of a smaller but more defensible empire.
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