Extremely Rare Divus Trajan Aureus
Trajan’s Final Triumph

Triton XVII, Lot: 687. Estimate $5000. Sold for $16000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Divus Trajan. Died AD 117. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.12 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Hadrian, AD 117-118. DIVO TRAIANO PARTH AVG PATRI, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / TRIVM P HVS PARTHICVS, Trajan standing right in slow, triumphal quadriga, holding eagle-tipped scepter in left hand and branch in right; on side of car, a figure of Securitas(?) standing facing, legs crossed, resting arm on column. RIC II 26 (Hadrian) corr. (DIVO instead of DIVI); Strack p. 301 note; Calicó 1123 var. (bust type, same rev. die); Biaggi 553 var. (same; same rev. die); BMCRE 47 (Hadrian) var. (same; same rev. die). VF, toned. Extremely rare.

Trajan’s final years were spent in the East campaigning against the Parthians, but by AD 116, with his health quickly declining, he decided to return to the capitol. En route, he died from edema in the summer of AD 117 at Selinus in in Cilicia (afterward named Trajanopolis). Our sources cast doubt on whether Hadrian was actually adopted by Trajan and thus the rightful heir to the throne, but the Senate nonetheless confirmed the new emperor and, upon his arrival at Rome, granted him a triumph for the Parthian campaigns in which he served as general.

Hadrian refused the triumph, suggesting it be celebrated in the name of the newly consecrated Trajan, whose remains were now laid in his monumental, eponymous column. This was a politically astute move on the part of Hadrian; not only did declining the celebration demonstrate his humility and piety towards Trajan, but it allowed him to avoid taking credit for conquering land which he was to soon abandon. For Hadrian’s foreign policy was as pragmatic as Trajan’s was overambitious, and the new emperor realized resources were better spent protecting the limits of the empire than continuously expanding it. Thus Trajan’s third triumph was awarded posthumously, with a statue standing in for the Divus during the procession, as our extremely rare coin no doubt shows.