Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 56

Monetary Context and Historical Setting

The denarius catalogued as RIC II Trajan 56 emerged within the structured monetary system inherited from the Flavian dynasty and reformed under Domitian and Nerva. By the turn of the second century AD, the silver denarius served as the backbone of Roman transactional finance, military compensation, and state expenditure. When Trajan assumed the purple in AD 98 following the death of Nerva, he maintained the existing standards of weight and fineness, striking denarii at approximately ninety-six to the Roman pound (libra), yielding a theoretical standard of roughly 3.41 grams with a fineness fluctuating between 85 and 90 percent silver. The issue represented by RIC II Trajan 56 coincided with Trajan's Fourth Consulship, which commenced in AD 101. This period marked the outbreak of the First Dacian War (AD 101 to 102), a major offensive military campaign prompted by the perceived humiliations and financial subsidies associated with Domitian's earlier treaties with King Decebalus. Large-scale military operations required substantial coin output from the central administration to pay legionary salaries, establish supply depots, and maintain logistical lines between northern Italy and the Danubian frontier. The thematic deployment of Pax on an imperial war-period denarius highlights the nuanced nature of Roman propaganda, where outward aggression was routinely justified as the pursuit and restoration of internal stability and universal order.

Production Standards and Mint Attribution

Numismatic consensus attributes RIC II Trajan 56 exclusively to the imperial mint situated in the city of Rome. During Trajan's early reign, the Rome mint was the sole authorized facility producing official imperial silver denarii for general circulation throughout the western and Danubian provinces, in contrast to eastern provincial mints striking silver cistophori or drachms under distinct metrological traditions. Production at Rome followed strict bureaucratic control overseen by the procurator monetae, with individual officinae (workshops) executing engraving, flan preparation, and striking. Flans for this denarius were cast in open or tiered moulds, annealed, and struck by hand between engraved iron or bronze dies. In line with contemporary Trajanic silver output, the weight of individual surviving specimens centers within a bell curve between 3.10 and 3.45 grams, with typical diameters measuring between 18 and 20 millimeters and standard die axes aligned predominantly near 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock, reflecting typical mechanical alignment practices of the Rome mint. Bernhard Woytek's comprehensive die analysis in Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus demonstrates that early Trajanic denarii, including reverse types bearing Pax, were struck in substantial volume across several distinct workshop phases within the Fourth Consulship.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 56 features the laureate head of Trajan facing right. In this early phase of his reign, portraiture had begun to evolve beyond the quasi-Flavian, severe verism that characterized his earliest accessional issues, developing toward the calm, sober, and idealized imperial likeness that came to define the optimus princeps. Trajan is portrayed with flat, neatly combed hair falling across the brow, a prominent profile, a firm jawline, and a strong neck, crowned with a laurel wreath tied at the nape with fillets falling behind. This depiction emphasized masculine civic virtue (virtus), discipline, and imperial sobriety, deliberate departures from the perceived decadence of the late Flavian court. Die engravers occasionally executed minor stylistic variations in the cut of the facial features, the spacing of the laurel leaves, or the angle of the truncation at the neck, yet the obverse portrait remained tightly regulated and consistent across the workshops of Rome.

Reverse Iconography and the Personification of Pax

The reverse of the type displays Pax, the divine personification of peace, standing facing left. She is draped in traditional Roman stola and mantle, her head adorned with a wreath. In her extended right hand, she elevates an olive branch (ramus), the universal ancient symbol of pacification and diplomatic reconciliation. In her left arm, she cradles a cornucopia (horn of plenty), overflowing with fruits, which symbolized the agricultural abundance, commercial fertility, and economic prosperity brought about by peaceful Roman governance. The iconography of Pax on this denarius conforms to an established Julio-Claudian and Flavian visual vocabulary, but its appearance during active combat operations against the Dacians was loaded with political significance. Roman religious and ideological doctrine viewed Pax not as passivity, but as the direct outcome of victory through arms (Pax Parta Victoriis). By visualizing Pax simultaneously bearing the instrument of peace and the symbol of material wealth, the mint communicated that Trajan's military leadership was the fundamental prerequisite for civic stability and imperial prosperity.

Epigraphy and Titulature

The legends on RIC II Trajan 56 provide decisive historical and chronological data. The obverse inscription reads IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, expanding to Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus Germanicus. This formula highlights Trajan's lineage through his divine adoption by Nerva, his supreme civil and military authority (Imperator, Caesar, Augustus), and his victorious campaign on the Rhine frontier under Nerva in AD 97, which earned him the cognomen ex virtute Germanicus. The reverse legend reads P M TR P COS IIII P P, expanding to Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Consul Quartum, Pater Patriae. The reverse records Trajan's supreme religious office as Pontifex Maximus, his annual democratic and civil tribunician power (Tribunicia Potestas), his Fourth Consulship (Consul IV), and the formal title of Pater Patriae (Father of his Country), which he had accepted in late AD 98. Notably absent from the titulature is the cognomen Dacicus, which was granted to Trajan in late AD 102 following his initial triumph over Decebalus. The absence of DACICVS, combined with the presence of COS IIII, forms an unshakeable chronological boundary confirming that this issue was struck prior to the conclusion of the First Dacian campaign.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Within the typology of early Trajanic coinage, RIC II Trajan 56 represents a specific combination of obverse portraiture, reverse design, and imperial epigraphy. In the traditional framework established by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham in The Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC), this type is listed under the Fourth Consulship group of AD 101 to 102. Paul Strack refined this classification in his 1931 study, assigning the Pax with branch and cornucopia issues to the preparatory and early fighting stages of the Dacian expedition. Bernhard Woytek's modern corpus, Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (MIR 14), incorporates this type within Group 4 (AD 101 to 102), differentiating between minor variations in bust treatment and legend breaks. While neighboring issues in the RIC sequence feature alternative reverse allegories such as Victoria, Vesta, Hercules, or Mars, RIC 56 stands out as the standard peace denarius of the fourth consular emission. It is typologically distinguished from later Trajanic Pax types, which introduce altered iconography such as Pax setting fire to captured arms or resting her foot on a Dacian captive.

Circulation, Hoard Presence, and Monetary Lifespan

Denarii of type RIC II Trajan 56 circulated extensively throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire for decades following their emission. Substantial quantities entered circulation along the Danubian limes, supplied directly to the legions stationed in Pannonia and Moesia during the Dacian Wars. Findspot data and hoard evidence demonstrate that Trajan's pre-Dacian silver coinage spread rapidly into Britannia, the Gallic provinces, Germania, and the Italian interior. Major coin hoards from the second and third centuries AD, such as the Shapwick hoard in Britain and several continental European deposits, consistently contain Trajanic denarii of this type, often exhibiting considerable wear. Because Trajan undertook a sweeping demonetization and recall of worn pre-Neronian silver denarii around AD 107, post-reform imperial denarii such as RIC 56 formed a reliable, long-term component of the circulating silver pool, continuing in active daily exchange until the systemic currency depreciations of the mid-third century AD.

References

1. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117). Moneta Imperii Romani 14
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 56. RIC II Trajan 56
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 249, no. 56
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil I: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Traian. Teil I, Traian