The Aqua Traiani

296, Lot: 282. Estimate $150. Sold for $170. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (31mm, 22.38 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 111. Laureate bust right, slight drapery / AQVA/TRAIANA in two lines in exergue, Genius of the Aqua Traiana reclining left under arched and ornamented grotto supported by two columns, holding reed and leaning on urn from which water flows. RIC II 463; Woytek 359d; Banti 15. Fine, green and brown patina, a few patches of fill on obverse, including on portrait.

The Aqua Traiana was dedicated in AD 109 and supplied water to the expanding trans-Tiber (west bank) suburbs of Rome. The coin depicts the castellum, or waterworks, associated with the terminal of the aqueduct, and its statue of the river Tiber.