Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Divus Titus AV Aureus. Restoration issue under Trajan. Rome, AD 107. DIVVS TITVS, laureate head to left / IMP CAES TRAIAN•AVG GER•DAC•P•P•REST, pulvinar (throne) of Jupiter and Juno: square seat, draped and surmounted by horizontal winged thunderbolt. RIC II 833 (Trajan); C. 403; BMCRE 705 (Trajan); Biaggi 392; Calicó 802 (same dies). 7.37g, 19mm, 6h.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
From the Kingsdown Collection.
Trajan's extensive 'restoration' series of coins that depicted portraits and types of earlier emperors and even Republican figures can arguably be viewed as a development building upon a practice which originated during the early Empire and was particularly embraced by the Flavians before Trajan, in which the reuse of earlier types and designs sought to cultivate a link with a hallowed past.
Naturally, the primary purpose of this extraordinary series was the replacing of coins which were worn out by use (Cassius Dio tells us that in 107 Trajan "caused all the money that was badly worn to be melted down", LXVIII.15) or which had a precious metal content higher than the standard of the day (and could therefore be turned into a greater number of coins at a profit). These were therefore recalled to be melted down and restruck.
However, it also served certain propagandistic ends. Most unusually, the types chosen to be struck onto the melted-down bullion were not all new Trajanic portrait coins, nor simple re-strikes of what had originally been on the recalled coins, but clearly a deliberate and considered series of commemorative designs chosen for several reasons and intended to provide a link between present and past. Perhaps the most important of the reasons for the types chosen for restoration was the aim of glorifying the current emperor by association with positive models, hence certain past emperors such as Caligula and Nero were not included in the series. Moreover, as Trajan's restoration of older Republican types suggests, this was a means of presenting Roman history as a cohesive continuum rather than a two-part sequence pivoting around the coming of Augustus and the emperors, and a whole which takes its natural end in an Empire that is simply an evolution of the Republic and not its antithesis, and an Empire run (largely) by honourable and popular rulers like the deified Titus and not a series of despots.
This type of Trajan features the deified Titus, who had been emperor during Trajan's own lifetime. It features an elder, statesmanlike portrait of Titus, shown with a lined forehead, deep-set eyes and a heavy, muscular neck. Titus, who was deified under his brother and successor Domitian after a short but seemingly popular reign, was an appropriate model for Trajan; both emperors built their reputation on military successes which greatly enriched the empire - Titus in Judaea, Trajan in Dacia and Parthia.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
From the Kingsdown Collection.
Trajan's extensive 'restoration' series of coins that depicted portraits and types of earlier emperors and even Republican figures can arguably be viewed as a development building upon a practice which originated during the early Empire and was particularly embraced by the Flavians before Trajan, in which the reuse of earlier types and designs sought to cultivate a link with a hallowed past.
Naturally, the primary purpose of this extraordinary series was the replacing of coins which were worn out by use (Cassius Dio tells us that in 107 Trajan "caused all the money that was badly worn to be melted down", LXVIII.15) or which had a precious metal content higher than the standard of the day (and could therefore be turned into a greater number of coins at a profit). These were therefore recalled to be melted down and restruck.
However, it also served certain propagandistic ends. Most unusually, the types chosen to be struck onto the melted-down bullion were not all new Trajanic portrait coins, nor simple re-strikes of what had originally been on the recalled coins, but clearly a deliberate and considered series of commemorative designs chosen for several reasons and intended to provide a link between present and past. Perhaps the most important of the reasons for the types chosen for restoration was the aim of glorifying the current emperor by association with positive models, hence certain past emperors such as Caligula and Nero were not included in the series. Moreover, as Trajan's restoration of older Republican types suggests, this was a means of presenting Roman history as a cohesive continuum rather than a two-part sequence pivoting around the coming of Augustus and the emperors, and a whole which takes its natural end in an Empire that is simply an evolution of the Republic and not its antithesis, and an Empire run (largely) by honourable and popular rulers like the deified Titus and not a series of despots.
This type of Trajan features the deified Titus, who had been emperor during Trajan's own lifetime. It features an elder, statesmanlike portrait of Titus, shown with a lined forehead, deep-set eyes and a heavy, muscular neck. Titus, who was deified under his brother and successor Domitian after a short but seemingly popular reign, was an appropriate model for Trajan; both emperors built their reputation on military successes which greatly enriched the empire - Titus in Judaea, Trajan in Dacia and Parthia.