Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 81 25 Feb 2021
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 116. IMP CAES NER TRAIAN OPTIM AVG GER DAC PARTHICO, laureate bust to right, aegis on far shoulder / P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, trophy with two Parthian captives seated at base; in front of each, bow in bow-case; PARTHIA CAPTA in exergue. RIC II 325 var. (globe below bust); BMCRE 606 var. (same); Woytek 560t; Calicó 1037. 7.08g, 19mm, 6h.
Very Fine; a bold heroic portrait. NGC graded VF★, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5 (#4790315-004). A very rare and historically important type.
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.
Very Fine; a bold heroic portrait. NGC graded VF★, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5 (#4790315-004). A very rare and historically important type.
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.