Trajan’s Forum

CNG 105, Lot: 865. Estimate $3000. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. AV Aureus (19mm, 7.14 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck AD 112-113. IMP TRAIANVS AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Triumphal gateway to Trajan’s Forum, with six columns, sculptural reliefs, and attic statuary consisting of a chariot drawn by six horses flanked by two figures standing to either side of trophy; FORVM TRAIAN in exergue. RIC II 257; Woytek 409f; Calicó 1031 = Biaggi 494. Near VF, lightly toned, small mark on cheek.

From the Collection of a Director. Ex Vinchon (23 April 1976), lot 226.

Nearly every detail of Trajan’s Forum was intended as a celebration and aggrandizement of the emperor’s Dacian victory, so it is fitting that the forum’s entrance doubled as Trajan’s triumphal arch. In typical fashion, the arch is surmounted by a statuary group with figures of the emperor and Victory in a chariot.