Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 114

Monetary Context and the Dacian Triumphs

The production of RIC II Trajan 114 belongs to an era of financial abundance and energetic institutional propaganda within the Roman Empire. Trajan's successful initial campaigns across the Danube against the Dacian kingdom under Decebalus between AD 101 and 102 yielded immense quantities of bullion, which replenished the imperial aerarium and financed major civil engineering works in Rome. Around AD 107, Trajan enacted a substantial recoinage policy reported by ancient historians, calling in worn Republican and pre-Neronian denarii to remint them into the contemporary imperial standard. The silver denarius served as the operational backbone of imperial finance, functioning as standard payment for legionaries, civil servants, and urban markets. RIC II Trajan 114 participates directly in this fiscal stream, delivering a coherent ideological message of victorious peace attained through divine martial favor.

Production Standards and the Rome Mint

RIC II Trajan 114 was produced exclusively by the primary imperial mint located at Rome. During Trajan's fifth consulship, the Rome mint operated with elevated capacity, employing dozens of officinae to supply vast coin volumes for state expenditure. Striking denarii involved cast flans hammered between hand-carved steel dies. Trajan's denarii during the AD 103 to 111 interval adhered to the established post-Domitianic metrological framework, exhibiting an average weight centered between 3.20 and 3.40 grams with a diameter typically spanning 18 to 20 millimeters. Metallurgical analyses of contemporary Rome denarii demonstrate a silver fineness of approximately 89 to 93 percent, maintaining the standard instituted by Nerva before minor shifts in alloy composition occurred later in Trajan's reign.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 114 displays a mature profile portrait of Trajan facing right. The emperor is represented with a laurel wreath bound behind the head, with drapery gathered distinctly over his left shoulder. Stylistically, the portrait belongs to the acclaimed middle-period decennalia style of Trajanic portraiture, characterized by straight-cut bangs, prominent facial contours, a firm chin, and realistic muscularity in the neck. The drapery on the shoulder adds a dignified civic-military dimension to the classical imperial image, contrasting with fully bare busts or heavy heroic cuirasses seen on other parallel issues. The surrounding inscription frames the head clockwise, presenting Trajan's accumulated military and constitutional authorities.

Reverse Iconography: Mars Victorious

The reverse iconography of RIC II Trajan 114 presents the god Mars advancing briskly toward the left. He is helmeted and dressed in short military attire, often described as a tunic or floating cloak that underscores forward movement. In his extended right hand, Mars cradles a winged Victory who proffers a wreath, while in his left hand he supports a military trophy upright over his shoulder. The trophy comprises captured enemy arms affixed to a wooden cross-pole, a conventional Roman emblem of vanquished foes. By uniting Mars with the statuette of Victory and a captured barbarian armament, the composition credits the god as the author of Roman triumph and guarantees divine patronage over Trajan's continuous pacification of the frontiers.

Epigraphy and Titulature

The obverse legend reads IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P, expanding to Imperatori Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate. This formula incorporates Trajan's victorious cognomina ex virtute of Germanicus, received under Nerva in AD 97, and Dacicus, assumed in late AD 102, together with his roles as chief priest and holder of tribunician power. The reverse legend continues the imperial title with COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC, resolving as Consuli Quintum, Patri Patriae, Senatus Populusque Romanus Optimo Principi. The designation of fifth consulship anchors the issue to Trajan's long tenure between AD 103 and 111 before his sixth consulship in AD 112. The title Optimus Princeps reflects the high senatorial esteem accorded to Trajan, formalized in reverse legends well before becoming part of his official personal nomenclature in AD 114.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Within the typology established by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in Roman Imperial Coinage, RIC II Trajan 114 is classified under the substantial series of denarii bearing COS V in combination with the OPTIMO PRINC reverse formula. In Bernhard Woytek's specialized monograph Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (MIR 14), these emissions are refined into discrete chronological phases based on stylistic evolution and minor legend arrangements. While broad cataloguing spans AD 103 to 111, the intensive production of the Mars with trophy and Victory type appears most concentrated between AD 103 and 107, coinciding with the celebratory atmosphere surrounding the Second Dacian War and its subsequent triumphal celebrations.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Recovery

Denarii of RIC II Trajan 114 achieved extensive dispersion across the empire and beyond its official boundaries. Hoard evidence from Britannia, the Rhine and Danube limes, the Italian peninsula, and the Levant consistently contains specimens of this type, often displaying light to moderate wear accrued over decades of circulation. Following Trajan's demonetization of older pre-Neronian silver, types such as RIC 114 formed the core currency pool that circulated alongside subsequent Hadrianic and Antonine emissions well into the late second and early third centuries AD. Specimens have also been recorded in barbarian contexts across the northern European Barbaricum, illustrating the international reach of Trajan's high-volume silver coinage.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume III: Nerva to Hadrian. pp. 64-66
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 114. ric.2.tr.114
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 252, no. 114
4. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117). Moneta Imperii Romani 14. MIR 14, nos. 199-201