Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 918. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $8500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. AV Aureus (7.27 gm). Struck mid-Summer 116 AD. IMP CAES NER TRAIAN OPTIM AVG GER DAC PARTHICO, laureate bust right, aegis on left shoulder; globe at base of bust / P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, PARTHIA CAPTA in exergue, Parthia seated left, head facing, in attitude of mourning, and Parthian seated right in attitude of mourning below trophy. RIC II 325; cf. Strack 247e (no globe at base of bust); BMCRE 606; Calicó 1036; Cohen 186. Good VF, underlying luster. [See color enlargement on plate 17] ($7500)

Three obverse types can be associated with this reverse. The most common shows Trajan laureate, draped, and cuirassed (RIC II 324); the middle, heroic type is similar to our coin, but without the globe at the base of the bust; and the third type is our coin. Early in 116 AD, Trajan crossed the Tigris, captured Seleucia and Ctesiphon in mid-summer, and from there, made his way to the Persian Gulf. During Trajan's successful advance through Parthian territory, he remained in the guise of a victorious imperator, as evidenced by the first bust type. His successful conquest of Rome's chief rival introduced the heroic bust type, and particularly as evidenced by the aegis, signalled Trajan's association not only with the gods, but also Alexander the Great. Finally, the inclusion of the globe beneath the bust indicated that he had brought all the world under Roman control. (For coins of Trajan's Parthian opponent, Osroes I, see lots 497-8.)