Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVII 28 Mar 2019
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 116. IMP CAES NER TRAIAN OPTIM AVG GER DAC PARTHICO, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, Parthia seated right, head facing, in attitude of mourning, and Parthian seated left in attitude of mourning below trophy, PARTHIA CAPTA in exergue. RIC 324; Woytek 560f; BMC 603; Calicó 1035a. 7.46g, 19mm, 6h.
Near Extremely Fine; minor marks. Rare. A historically important type.
Ex private collection assembled c. 1950s-1980s;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG Basel, Auction 43, 12 November 1970, lot 333.
Commemorating his final great campaign, this aureus of Trajan is a clear indication to the people of Rome that the Emperor had succeeded in expanding the Empire still further through his conquest of Parthia and the capture of the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon. However, the areas of Armenia and Mesopotamia that Trajan conquered were unwieldy and difficult to secure, and it was left to the new Emperor Hadrian in AD 117 to abandon these indefensible lands in favour of a smaller, but more easily governable, empire.
Trajan's campaign against the Parthians was prompted by their unacceptable installation of a puppet king in Armenia. Both the Parthian and Roman Empires had shared a hegemony over the Armenian kingdom for fifty years, but Trajan now resolved to remove the Parthian client king and annexe Armenia as a Roman province. After so doing, Trajan moved southwards, receiving acknowledgement of hegemony from various tribes on the way to Mesopotamia, a large part of which he had conquered by the time this coin was struck in AD 116.
Near Extremely Fine; minor marks. Rare. A historically important type.
Ex private collection assembled c. 1950s-1980s;
Ex Münzen und Medaillen AG Basel, Auction 43, 12 November 1970, lot 333.
Commemorating his final great campaign, this aureus of Trajan is a clear indication to the people of Rome that the Emperor had succeeded in expanding the Empire still further through his conquest of Parthia and the capture of the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon. However, the areas of Armenia and Mesopotamia that Trajan conquered were unwieldy and difficult to secure, and it was left to the new Emperor Hadrian in AD 117 to abandon these indefensible lands in favour of a smaller, but more easily governable, empire.
Trajan's campaign against the Parthians was prompted by their unacceptable installation of a puppet king in Armenia. Both the Parthian and Roman Empires had shared a hegemony over the Armenian kingdom for fifty years, but Trajan now resolved to remove the Parthian client king and annexe Armenia as a Roman province. After so doing, Trajan moved southwards, receiving acknowledgement of hegemony from various tribes on the way to Mesopotamia, a large part of which he had conquered by the time this coin was struck in AD 116.