TRAJAN 114AD Authentic Ancient Silver Roman Coin Virtus with parazonium i53357

Item: i53357

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Trajan
–
Roman Emperor
: 98-117 A.D. –

Silver Denarius 20mm (3.40 grams) Rome mint: 114-117 A.D.
Reference: RIC 354v; RSC 274c
IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GERM DAC, laureate draped bust right
P M TR P COS VI P P SPQR, Virtus standing right, foot on helmet, holding spear &
parazonium.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

A parazonium is a long triangular
dagger
, wide at the hilt end and coming to a
point. In the
Roman mythology
, it is frequently carried by
Virtus
, particularly on early representations.
It is also sometimes carried by
Mars
, or
Roma
, or the
Emperor
, giving them the aura of courage.

In Roman statuary, the weapon is cradled in the bearer’s left arm or on
Trajan’s column, for example, it is stuck into the left side of the officer’s
chest band. Existing examples on statuary show that the Parazonium’s scabbard
shape is a direct copy of the few existing Greek Parazoniums on display at
various Greek museums. The weapon’s hilt, grip, pommel are not copies of the
Greek style. The pommel cap is either an eagle’s head or a bi-lobed pommel. The
details of the hand grip on the statues are no longer clear after 2,000 years.
The guard, contrary to some reports are authentic and are a rather theatrical
“S” shape with inset detail.

The Roman Parazonium blade tended to be leaf shape and approximately 15″-19″
long. The use of the Roman parazonium tended to be somewhat theatrical in the
sense that it was a mark of rank and it was used to rally the troops. It appears
the normal procedure was for the officer to exchange his parazonium for a
Gladius or a Spatha if he was directly threatened during a battle.

Virtus. Valour. The Roman personification of Valour was represented

helmeted with spear and sword and standing with right foot on helmet. There was

a golden statue of her at Rome which was melted by Alaric, king of the Goths.

Valour is frequently represented on coins- VIRTVS AVG. or AVGG.

Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus
, commonly known as Trajan (18

September, 53 – 8 August, 117), was a

Roman

Emperor who reigned from AD 98 until his death in AD 117. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into a non-patrician

family

in the

Hispania Baetica

province (modern day

Spain
), Trajan

rose to prominence during the reign of emperor

Domitian
,

serving as a general in the

Roman army

along the

German frontier

, and successfully crushing the revolt of

Antonius Saturninus

in 89. On September 18, 96, Domitian was succeeded by

Marcus Cocceius Nerva
,

an old and childless senator who proved to be unpopular with the army. After a

brief and tumultuous year in power, a revolt by members of the

Praetorian Guard

compelled him to adopt the more popular Trajan as his heir

and successor. Nerva died on January 27, 98, and was succeeded by his adopted

son without incident.

As a civilian administrator, Trajan is best known for his extensive public

building program, which reshaped the city of

Rome and left

multiple enduring landmarks such as

Trajan’s Forum

,

Trajan’s Market

and

Trajan’s Column

. It was as a military commander however that Trajan

celebrated his greatest

triumphs

. In 101, he launched a

punitive expedition

into the kingdom of

Dacia
against

king Decebalus

, defeating the Dacian army near

Tapae

in 102, and finally conquering Dacia completely in 106. In 107, Trajan

pushed further east and annexed the

Nabataean kingdom

, establishing the province of

Arabia Petraea

. After a period of relative peace within the Empire, he

launched his final campaign in 113 against

Parthia
,

advancing as far as the city of

Susa in 116, and

expanding the Roman Empire to its greatest extent. During this campaign Trajan

was struck by illness, and late in 117, while sailing back to Rome, he died of a

stroke
on

August 9
,

in the city of

Selinus

. He was

deified

by the Senate and his ashes were laid to rest under

Trajan’s Column

. He was succeeded by his adopted son (not having a

biological heir) Publius Aelius Hadrianus

—commonly known as Hadrian.

As an emperor, Trajan’s reputation has endured – he is one of the few rulers

whose reputation has survived the scrutiny of nineteen centuries of history.

Every new emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the prayer

felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, meaning “may he be luckier than

Augustus

and better than Trajan”. Among

medieval

Christian theologians, Trajan was considered a

virtuous pagan

, while the 18th century historian

Edward Gibbon

popularized the notion of the

Five Good Emperors

, of which Trajan was the second.

Early life and

rise to power

Trajan was born on September 18, 53 in the Roman province of

Hispania Baetica

(in what is now

Andalusia

in modern Spain), a province that was thoroughly Romanized and called southern

Hispania, in the city of

Italica
,

where the

Italian

families were paramount. Of

Italian

stock himself, Trajan is frequently but misleadingly designated the

first provincial emperor.

Trajan was the son of

Marcia

and

Marcus Ulpius Traianus

, a prominent

senator

and general from the famous

Ulpia
gens.

Trajan himself was just one of many well-known Ulpii in a line that continued

long after his own death. His elder sister was

Ulpia Marciana

and his niece was

Salonina Matidia

. The

patria
of

the Ulpii was Italica

, in Spanish Baetica,

where their ancestors had settled late in the third century B.C. This indicates

that the Italian origin was paramount, yet it has recently been cogently argued

that the family’s ancestry was local, with Trajan senior actually a Traius who

was adopted into the family of the Ulpii.

As a young man, he rose through the ranks of the

Roman army
,

serving in some of the most contentious parts of the Empire’s frontier. In

76–77, Trajan’s father was

Governor
of

Syria

(Legatus

pro praetore Syriae), where Trajan himself remained as

legionis. Trajan was nominated as

Consul
and

brought

Apollodorus of Damascus

with him to

Rome around 91.

Along the

Rhine River

, he took part in the Emperor

Domitian
‘s

wars while under Domitian’s successor,

Nerva
, who was

unpopular with the army and needed to do something to gain their support. He

accomplished this by naming Trajan as his adoptive son and successor in the

summer of 97. According to the

, it was the future Emperor

Hadrian
who

brought word to Trajan of his adoption.

When Nerva died on January 27, 98, the highly respected Trajan succeeded without

incident.

 His reign

The new Roman emperor was greeted by the people of Rome with
great enthusiasm, which he justified by governing well and without the
bloodiness that had marked Domitian’s reign. He freed many people who had been
unjustly imprisoned by Domitian and returned a great deal of private property
that Domitian had confiscated; a process begun by Nerva before his death. His
popularity was such that the
Roman Senate
eventually bestowed upon Trajan
the honorific
of optimus, meaning “the
best”.

Dio Cassius
, sometimes known as Dio, reveals
that Trajan drank heartily and was
involved with boys
. “I know, of course, that he
was devoted to boys and to wine, but if he had ever committed or endured any
base or wicked deed as the result of this, he would have incurred censure; as it
was, however, he drank all the wine he wanted, yet remained sober, and in his
relation with boys he harmed no one.” This sensibility was one that influenced
his governing on at least one occasion, leading him to favour the king of Edessa
out of appreciation for his handsome son: “On this occasion, however,
Abgarus
, induced partly by the persuasions of
his son Arbandes, who was handsome and in the pride of youth and therefore in
favour with Trajan, and partly by his fear of the latter’s presence, he met him
on the road, made his apologies and obtained pardon, for he had a powerful
intercessor in the boy.”

 Dacian
Wars

It was as a military commander that Trajan is best known to
history, particularly for his conquests in the
Near East
, but initially for the two wars
against Dacia
— the reduction to client kingdom
(101-102), followed by actual incorporation to the Empire of the trans-Danube
border kingdom of Dacia—an area that had troubled Roman thought for over a
decade with the unfavourable (and to some, shameful) peace negotiated by
Domitian
‘s ministers In the first war c.
March–May 101, he launched a vicious attack into the kingdom of
Dacia
with four legions, crossing to the
northern bank of the
Danube River
on a stone bridge he had built,
and defeating the Dacian army near or in a
mountain pass
called
Tapae
(see
Second Battle of Tapae
). Trajan’s troops were
mauled in the encounter, however and he put off further campaigning for the year
to heal troops, reinforce, and regroup.

During the following winter, King
Decebalus
launched a counter-attack across the
Danube
further downstream, but this was
repulsed. Trajan’s army advanced further into Dacian territory and forced King
Decebalus to submit to him a year later, after Trajan took the Dacian
capital/fortress of
Sarmizegethusa
. The Emperor Domitian had
campaigned against
Dacia from 86 to 87
without securing a decisive
outcome, and Decebalus had brazenly flouted the terms of the peace (89 AD) which
had been agreed on conclusion of this campaign.

Trajan now returned to Rome in triumph and was granted the
title Dacicus Maximus. The victory was celebrated by the
Tropaeum Traiani
. Decebalus though, after being
left to his own devices, in 105 undertook an invasion against Roman territory by
attempting to stir up some of the tribes north of the river against her.

Trajan took to the field again and after building with the
design of
Apollodorus of Damascus
his
massive bridge over the Danube
, he conquered
Dacia completely in 106. Sarmizegethusa was destroyed,
Decebalus
committed
suicide
, and his severed head was exhibited in
Rome on the steps leading up to the
Capitol
. Trajan built a new city, “Colonia
Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa”, on another site than the previous
Dacian Capital, although bearing the same full name, Sarmizegetusa. He resettled
Dacia with Romans and annexed it as a province of the Roman Empire. Trajan’s
Dacian campaigns benefited the Empire’s finances through the acquisition of
Dacia’s gold mines. The victory is celebrated by
Trajan’s Column
.

 Expansion
in the East

At about the same time
Rabbel II Soter
, one of Rome’s client kings,
died. This event might have prompted the annexation of the
Nabataean kingdom
, although the manner and the
formal reasons for the annexation are unclear. Some epigraphic evidence suggests
a military operation, with forces from
Syria
and
Egypt
. What is clear, however, is that by 107,
Roman legions were stationed in the area around
Petra
and
Bostra
, as is shown by a papyrus found in
Egypt. The empire gained what became the province of
Arabia Petraea
(modern southern
Jordan
and north west
Saudi Arabia
).

 Period
of peace

The next seven years, Trajan ruled as a civilian emperor, to
the same acclaim as before. It was during this time that he corresponded with
Pliny the Younger
on the subject of how to deal
with the
Christians
of
Pontus
, telling Pliny to leave them alone
unless they were openly practicing the religion. He built several new buildings,
monuments and roads in
Italia
and his native
Hispania
. His magnificent complex in Rome
raised to commemorate his victories in
Dacia
(and largely financed from that
campaign’s loot)—consisting of a
forum
,
Trajan’s Column
, and Trajan’s Market still
stands in Rome today. He was also
a prolific builder of triumphal arches
, many of
which survive, and rebuilder of roads (Via
Traiana and
Via Traiana Nova
).

One notable act of Trajan was the hosting of a three-month
gladiatorial
festival in the great
Colosseum
in Rome (the precise date of this
festival is unknown). Combining chariot racing, beast fights and close-quarters
gladiatorial bloodshed, this gory spectacle reputedly left 11,000 dead (mostly
slaves and criminals, not to mention the thousands of ferocious beasts killed
alongside them) and attracted a total of five million spectators over the course
of the festival.

Another important act was his formalisation of the
Alimenta, a welfare program that helped orphans and poor children throughout
Italy. It provided general funds, as well as food and subsidized education. The
program was supported initially by funds from the Dacian War, and then later by
a combination of estate taxes and philanthropy.^[13].
Although the system is well documented in literary sources and contemporary
epigraphy, its precise aims are controversial and have generated considerable
dispute between modern scholars: usually, it’s assumed that the programme
intended to bolster citzen numbers in Italy. However, the fact that it was
subsidized by means of interest payments on loans made by landowners restricted
it to a small percentage of potential welfare recipients (Paul
Veyne has assumed that, in the city of
Veleia
, only one child out of ten was an actual
beneficiary) – therefore, the idea, advanced by
Moses I. Finley
, that the whole scheme was at
most a form of random charity, a mere imperial benevolence^[14].

 Maximum
extent of the Empire

In 113, he embarked on his last campaign, provoked by
Parthia
‘s decision to put an unacceptable king
on the throne of Armenia
, a kingdom over which the two great
empires had shared
hegemony
since the time of

Nero some fifty years earlier. Some modern historians also attribute
Trajan’s decision to wage war on Parthia to economic motives: to control, after
the annexation of Arabia, Mesopotamia and the coast of the Persian Gulf, and
with it the sole remaining receiving-end of the Indian trade outside Roman
control – an attribution of motive other historians find absurd, as seeing a
commercial motive in a campaign triggered by the lure of territorial annexation
and prestige – by the way, the only motive for Trajan’s actions ascribed by Dio
Cassius in his description of the events. Other modern historians, however,
think that Trajan’s original aim was quite modest: to assure a more defensible
Eastern frontier for the Roman Empire, crossing across Northern Mesopotamia
along the course of the river
Khabur
in order to offer cover to a Roman
Armenia.

Trajan marched first on Armenia, deposed the
Parthian-appointed king (who was afterwards murdered while kept in the custody
of Roman troops in an unclear incident) and annexed it to the Roman Empire as a
province, receiving in passing the acknowledgement of Roman hegemony by various
tribes in the Caucasus and on the Eastern coast of the Black Sea – a process
that kept him busy until the end of 114^].
The cronology of subsequent events is uncertain, but it’s generally believed
that early in 115 Trajan turned south into the core Parthian hegemony, taking
the Northern Mesopotamian cities of
Nisibis
and
Batnae
and organizing a province of
Mesopotamia
in the beginning of 116, when coins
were issued announcing that Armenia and Mesopotamia had been put under the
authority of the Roman people.

In early 116, however, Trajan began to toy with the conquest
of the whole of Mesopotamia, an overambitious goal that eventually backfired on
the results of his entire campaign: One Roman division crossed the
Tigris
into
Adiabene
, sweeping South and capturing
Adenystrae
; a second followed the river South,
capturing Babylon
; while Trajan himself sailed down the
Euphrates
, then dragged his fleet overland into
the Tigris, capturing
Seleucia
and finally the Parthian capital of
Ctesiphon
. He continued southward to the
Persian Gulf
, receiving the submission of
Athambelus, the ruler of
Charax
, whence he declared Babylon a new
province of the Empire, sent the Senate a laurelled letter declaring the war to
be at a close and lamented that he was too old to follow in the steps of
Alexander the Great
and reach the distant
India
itself. A province of
Assyria
was also proclaimed, apparently
covering the territory of Adiabene, as well as some measures seem to have been
considered about the fiscal administration of the Indian trade.

However, as Trajan left the Persian Gulf for Babylon – where
he intended to offer sacrifice to Alexander in the house where he had died in
323 B.C.- a sudden outburst of Parthian resistance, led by a nephew of the
Parthian king, Sanatrukes, imperilled Roman positions in Mesopotamia and
Armenia, something Trajan sought to deal with by forsaking direct Roman rule in
Parthia proper, at least partially: later in 116, after defeating a Parthian
army in a battle where Sanatrukes was killed and re-taking Seleucia, he formally
deposed the Parthian king
Osroes I
and put his own puppet ruler
Parthamaspates
on the throne. That done, he
retreated North in order to retain what he could of the new provinces of Armenia
and Mesopotamia.

It was at this point that Trajan’s health started to fail
him. The fortress city of
Hatra
, on the
Tigris
in his rear, continued to hold out
against repeated Roman assaults. He was personally present at the
siege
and it is possible that he suffered a
heat stroke while in the blazing heat. Shortly afterwards, the

Jews inside the Eastern Roman Empire rose up in rebellion once more,
as did the people of Mesopotamia. Trajan was forced to withdraw his army in
order to put down the revolts. Trajan saw it as simply a temporary setback, but
he was destined never to command an army in the field again, turning his Eastern
armies over to the high ranking legate and governor of Judaea,
Lusius Quietus
, who in early 116 had been in
charge of the Roman division who had recovered Nisibis and
Edessa
from the rebels; Quietus was promised
for this a consulate in the following year – when he was actually put to death
by Hadrian
, who had no use for a man so committed
to Trajan’s aggressive policies.

Early in 117, Trajan grew ill and set out to sail back to
Italy. His health declined throughout the spring and summer of 117, something
publicy acknowledged by the fact that a bronze bust displayed at the time in the
public baths of
Ancyra
showed him clearly aged and edemaciated.
By the time he had reached Selinus in
Cilicia
which was afterwards called
Trajanopolis, he suddenly died from
edema
on August 9. Some say that he had adopted
Hadrian
as his successor, but others that it
was his wife
Pompeia Plotina
who hired someone to
impersonate him after he had died.

Hadrian
, upon becoming ruler, recognized the
abandonment of Mesopotamia and restored Armenia – as well as
Osroene
– to the Parthian hegemony under Roman
suzerainty – a telling sign the Roman Empire lacked the means for pursuing
Trajan’s overambitious goals. However, all the other territories conquered by
Trajan were retained. Trajan’s ashes were laid to rest underneath Trajan’s
column, the monument commemorating his success.

 Building
activities

Apollodorus of Damascus. Notable structures
include
Trajan’s Column
,
Trajan’s Forum
,
Trajan’s Bridge
,
Alcántara Bridge
, and possibly the
Alconétar Bridge
. In order to build his forum
and the adjacent brick market that also held his name Trajan had vast areas of
the surrounding hillsides leveled.

 Trajan’s
legacy

Unlike many lauded rulers in history, Trajan’s reputation has
survived undiminished for nearly nineteen centuries.

Ancient sources on Trajan’s personality and accomplishments
are unanimously positive. Pliny the younger, for example, celebrates Trajan in
his panegyric as a wise and just emperor and a moral man.
Dio Cassius
admits Trajan had vices like heavy
drinking and sexual involvement with boys, but added that he always remained
dignified and fair. The
Christianisation
of Rome resulted in further
embellishment of his legend: it was commonly said in
medieval
times that
Pope Gregory I
, through divine intercession,
resurrected Trajan from the dead and baptized him into the Christian faith. An
account of this features in the
Golden Legend
.

Theologians, such as
Thomas Aquinas
, discussed Trajan as an example
of a virtuous pagan. In
the Divine Comedy
,
Dante
, following this legend, sees the spirit
of Trajan in the Heaven of
Jupiter
with other historical and mythological
persons noted for their justice.

He also features in
Piers Plowman
. An episode, referred to as
the
justice of Trajan
was reflected in several art
works.

In the 18th Century King

Anton Raphael Mengs
to paint The Triumph of
Trajan on the ceiling of the banqueting-hall of the
Royal Palace of Madrid
– considered among the
best work of this artist.