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Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Live Auction 3  25 Oct 2018
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Lot 691

Estimate: 50 GBP
Price realized: 90 GBP
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Trajan AR Denarius. Rome, AD 112-117. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate head right / S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, personification of Via Traiana reclining left on rocks, with wheel and branch; VIA TRAIANA in exergue. RIC 267; RSC 648b; BMCRE 486. 3.22g, 19mm, 6h.

Very Fine.

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.
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