Trajan’s Harbor – A Very Rare Type

361, Lot: 930. Estimate $2000. Sold for $2300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 24.39 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 112-summer 114. Laureate bust right, wearing aegis / [PORTVM TRAIANI], basin of Trajan’s harbor, surrounded by warehouses and ships in center. RIC II 631 var. (without aegis); Woytek 470c; Banti 84. Fine, rough red and brown surfaces, a few spots of corrosion. Very rare. A nice clear view of the port.

Documentation in ancient sources is plentiful concerning the Port of Trajan (cf. Pliny, Ep. 6.31, letter to Cornelianus); however, the exact location of the port is uncertain. In Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, teil 1, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Traian, pp. 212-3, Strack claims that it is the harbor of Trajan at Ostia as opposed to that at Centumcellae. Mattingly, in the introduction to BMCRE, Vol. II, p. civ, questions Strack's conclusion. Perhaps future archaeological fieldwork will determine the precise location of the port depicted on this issue.