Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Triton XXV 11-12 Jan 2022
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Plotina. Augusta, AD 105-123. AR Denarius (20.5mm, 3.36 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck under Trajan, AD 112-114. PLOTINA AVG IMP TRAIANI, draped bust right, wearing hair bunched high in front and held in position by a double stephane, hair elaborately waved at back and falls down in a queue / CAES AVG GERMA DAC COS VI P P, Vesta, veiled and draped, seated left on chair without back, holding palladium in extended right hand and transverse scepter in left arm. RIC II 730 (Trajan); Woytek 705–1 (Trajan); Strack 180 (Trajan); RSC 3; BMCRE 526-7 (Trajan); BN 679-81 (Trajan). Lightly toned. Good VF. Struck on a broad flan from dies of excellent style.
From the Thomas A. Palmer Collection. Ex Helios 6 (9 March 2011), lot 153 (hammer €6,000).
Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina Claudia Phoebe Piso was part of a coterie of powerful Spanish-born women who exerted influence over imperial policy and the succession. Born in Gades in AD 64, she was made Augusta by Trajan in AD 100, but did not formally accept the title until AD 105. She is said to have stated, upon entering the imperial palace for the first time, "I enter here such a woman as I would wish to be when I leave." Coinage with her portrait commenced with this issue in AD 112. Plotina highly favored Hadrian, the emperor's protege, and probably engineered his betrothal and marriage to Matidia's daughter Sabina, thus tying him to the imperial family. Some Roman historians accuse Plotina of concealing Trajan's death for a time in order to stage-manage the appointment of Hadrian as Caesar. She lived into Hadrian's reign and continued to be honored by him as Augusta. A letter survives from Plotina to Hadrian seeking his endowment of an Epicurean school in Greece. Upon her death in AD 122, she was deified by order of the Senate.
From the Thomas A. Palmer Collection. Ex Helios 6 (9 March 2011), lot 153 (hammer €6,000).
Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina Claudia Phoebe Piso was part of a coterie of powerful Spanish-born women who exerted influence over imperial policy and the succession. Born in Gades in AD 64, she was made Augusta by Trajan in AD 100, but did not formally accept the title until AD 105. She is said to have stated, upon entering the imperial palace for the first time, "I enter here such a woman as I would wish to be when I leave." Coinage with her portrait commenced with this issue in AD 112. Plotina highly favored Hadrian, the emperor's protege, and probably engineered his betrothal and marriage to Matidia's daughter Sabina, thus tying him to the imperial family. Some Roman historians accuse Plotina of concealing Trajan's death for a time in order to stage-manage the appointment of Hadrian as Caesar. She lived into Hadrian's reign and continued to be honored by him as Augusta. A letter survives from Plotina to Hadrian seeking his endowment of an Epicurean school in Greece. Upon her death in AD 122, she was deified by order of the Senate.