103 | Roman Empire

Automatically generated translation

TRAJAN. Sesterce. (Ae. 25.52g / 36mm). 103-111 AD Rome. Anv: IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG DAC PM TR P COS VP P. Laureate bust with slight draping over left to right shoulder of Trajan. Rev: SPQR OPTIMO PRINICIPI. Temple of eight columns, in pediment Jupiter seated between two figures, 5 figures on the roof, between the columns Peace shelf in front, in exergue UNC. (RIC 575). XF. Beautiful rare specimen in this spectacular quality.

Trajan was not only one of the emperors who minted the most coins in the entire empire. He was also one of the leaders who best knew how to see the vein that coins could represent in his political propaganda. And there are many examples: from the first coined with the letters UNC, where he tries to make it clear that it was the Senate itself who conferred power on him, to the legend "Arabia Acquisita", coined when in 105 AD it annexed Arabia Pétrea ", with the The objective was that the population was aware of the extension of the Empire's territory.The same procedure was used with the coins from 116 to 117 AD when Armenia and Mesopotamia were annexed.
As has already been commented, in the monetary portraits of Trajano a decrease in the artistic level can be verified with respect to those of his predecessors. Some point out that perhaps a new school in the Rome workshop produced works in which the features are not very accentuated and rounded. Paradoxically, in the female portraits of the imperial family a greater care in detail is observed. Both in those of Plotina, the emperor's wife, and in those of Marciana, Trajan's sister, we can find examples of a remarkably superior artistic quality.