Two Detailed Depictions of Trajan’s Column

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 613. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. AR Denarius (3.21 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 112-115. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate and draped bust right / S P Q R OPTI-MO PRINCIPI, Trajan's Column: column with spirals and dots set on podium decorated with eagles, surmounted by statue of Trajan standing left, holding patera in extended right hand, scepter in left. RIC II 292; Strack 197; RSC 558; BMCRE 454. EF, light toning.

Trajan's Column was the crowning glory of Trajan's Forum, built with the spoils of the Dacian Wars, and the last and greatest of the Imperial Fora. Covered by a continuous frieze of the war's events, the column was capped with a gilded heroic statue of the emperor, while an inscription on the base recounted the feat of engineering in the Forum's construction. After Trajan's death, the column became the repository of his ashes.