Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 868. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (26.31 gm). Struck 115-116 AD. IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / IMPERATOR VIII/S C in two lines in exergue, Trajan seated right on platform, placed on left, accompanied by two officers and addressing group of soldiers. RIC II 655 var. (not cuirassed); BMCRE 1017 var. (same); Banti, I Grande Bronzi Imperiale, 81; Cohen 176 var. (same). Good VF, red-brown patina on obverse, green on reverse. Superb imperial portrait and important historical type. ($3000)

The height of Rome's military might occurred under Trajan, and he expanded the Empire's borders to their greatest extent. First he dealt with the Dacians under their king Decebalus in two major campaigns (101-103 and 105-106 AD), eventually defeating them and absorbing the entire kingdom as the Roman province of Dacia. With the conquest of Dacia occurred an interval of relative peace, until in 114 trouble began with the Parthians on the eastern frontier. The Parthians had placed their own nominee in Armenia as king, thereby upsetting the balance of power that existed in the East, with Armenia acting as a buffer-state between Rome and Parthia. Trajan responded with military force; he annexed Armenia as another Roman province and then extended operations into Mesopotamia. By 116, he had conquered the whole of Mesopotamia, including the Parthian capital of Ctesiphon. The Romans believed that the great days of the past had returned and the army felt unwavering loyalty towards their commander. The reverse of this coin depicts Trajan's acclamation by the troops as imperator for the eighth time, which occurred with the fall of the city of Singara in 115 during the campaigns on the eastern frontier.