Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Trajan AV Aureus. Rome, AD 116. IMP CAES NER TRAIAN OPTIM AVG GER DAC PARTHICO, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, Parthia seated to right, head facing, in attitude of mourning, and Parthian seated to left in attitude of mourning; both below trophy; PARTHIA CAPTA in exergue. RIC II 324; C. 184; BMCRE 603; Woytek 560f; Biaggi 496; Calicó 1035a. 7.24g, 19mm, 6h.
About Extremely Fine. Rare, particularly so in this condition; a historically important type.
From the Pinewood Collection.
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.
About Extremely Fine. Rare, particularly so in this condition; a historically important type.
From the Pinewood Collection.
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.