Trajan Silver Denarius RIC II Trajan 126

Monetary and Political Context

The denarius designated as RIC II Trajan 126 was struck during a transformative era of imperial Roman state finance. Following the conclusion of the First Dacian War in AD 102, Trajan assumed the victorious cognomen Dacicus and entered his fifth consulship on January 1, AD 103. His fifth consulate proved exceptional in longevity, as the emperor did not take up a sixth consulate until AD 112. Consequently, issues bearing the imperial consular formula COS V encompass almost an entire decade of prolific monetary production at Rome. During this timeframe, Rome engaged in the Second Dacian War (AD 105 to 106), which culminated in the complete subjugation of the Dacian kingdom, the suicide of King Decebalus, and the acquisition of the vast Dacian royal treasury. The influx of Dacian gold and silver directly revitalized the Roman treasury, funding massive public building projects such as the Forum of Trajan, the Markets of Trajan, and major infrastructural works throughout Italy and the provinces. Simultaneously, Trajan carried out significant monetary adjustments. While maintaining the silver denarius standard established during the Flavian reform and the reign of Domitian, Trajan oversaw a massive melting down and recoinage of worn pre-Neronian Republican and early Julio-Claudian silver denarii around AD 107, as recorded by the historian Cassius Dio. This systemic demonetization cleared light and highly worn denarii from general circulation, replacing them with newly minted imperial denarii struck to a uniform weight standard of approximately 3.2 to 3.4 grams at a fineness of roughly 89 to 90 percent silver. Within this expansive reminting program, the Pax type of RIC II Trajan 126 conveyed a powerful message: Rome's military triumphs were not merely destructive conquests, but the necessary foundation for civil tranquility, restored order, and general prosperity guaranteed by Trajan's benevolent leadership.

Mint Production and Technical Execution

RIC II Trajan 126 was produced exclusively at the central imperial mint in the city of Rome. During Trajan's reign, the Roman mint operated with a sophisticated division of labor, organized into multiple officinae or workshops that processed silver bullion, prepared coin blanks, engraved dies, and operated the manual striking apparatus. The technical execution of the series reflects the high artistic and mechanical standards achieved by the Rome mint during the early second century AD. Flans were cast in open or clustered molds and subsequently adjusted for weight, producing rounded silver blanks that occasionally exhibit subtle beveling along the edge or minor trace fissures caused by metal expansion under the force of the hammer. Die engraving for this issue demonstrates notable consistency in both portraiture and reverse composition. Dies were cut by hand into hardened bronze or iron using specialized gravers and punches for individual lettering and beaded borders. Engravers at Rome maintained a regular die axis, overwhelmingly aligning coins of this series to a strict six o'clock (or sometimes twelve o'clock) orientation, indicating the use of slotted die holders or hinged tongs designed to stabilize die positioning during striking. The production volume for Trajan's COS V denarii was enormous, requiring dozens of distinct obverse and reverse dies across several years of continuous operation. Despite minor differences in letter spacing, portrait modeling, and drapery folds inherent to manual die-cutting, the Rome mint achieved an extraordinary degree of uniformity across the surviving specimens of RIC II Trajan 126.

Obverse Iconography and Portraiture

The obverse of RIC II Trajan 126 presents a mature portrait of Trajan facing right, crowned with a laurel wreath whose ties fall gently down the back of his neck. In accordance with the precise catalogue definition of this type, the portrait displays drapery visible on the emperor's left shoulder, while the neck and chest remain predominantly bare. This particular bust configuration is an important diagnostic attribute, distinguishing the issue from companion varieties where Trajan is portrayed with an entirely bare neck and bust, or with full cuirassed and draped military attire. Artistically, the portrait belongs to the celebrated 'decennalia' portrait group and related stylistic phases identified by numismatists such as Paul Strack and Bernhard Woytek. Rejecting the idealized, Hellenistic youthfulness of Augustan portraiture and moving beyond the stark realism of the Flavians, Trajan's portrait balances verism with majestic sobriety. The emperor is depicted with his characteristic straight, combed-forward hair ending in neat bangs across the low forehead, a prominent and straight nose, firm jawline, and thin, set lips. The presence of light drapery on the left shoulder introduces a subtle civilian nuance, presenting the emperor as both a military commander deserving of the laurel crown and an accessible magistrate attending to the civil welfare of Rome.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse design of RIC II Trajan 126 depicts the goddess Pax standing left, draped in a stola and mantle. In her raised right hand, she holds out an olive branch, the universal ancient symbol of peace, conciliation, and civic harmony. Her left arm rests comfortably upon a low vertical column or pillar, while her left hand gathers or steadies the folds of her drapery. A ground line beneath her feet grounds the composition, and the scene is enclosed within a fine circular border of dots. The specific compositional device of Pax resting her arm on a column carries profound political symbolism. In Roman numismatic iconography, the column represents stability (stabilitas), endurance, and structural permanence. By leaning upon a column rather than actively moving or holding an attribute of military victory such as a cornucopia or trophy, Pax is depicted not as an ephemeral, fleeting truce, but as a permanent state of tranquility rooted in the institutional strength of the empire. This imagery formed a vital thematic counterweight to Trajan's martial coinage of the same years, which depicted trophies, captive Dacians, and Mars marching to war. RIC II Trajan 126 communicated that the severe expenditures and human costs of the Dacian campaigns were justified because they produced lasting security and prosperity for the Roman world under the watchful care of the princeps.

Epigraphy and Imperial Titulature

The legends on RIC II Trajan 126 are rendered in classic Roman monumental capitals, carefully balanced along the outer perimeter of both faces. The obverse legend reads IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P, inscribed clockwise from the lower left. This formula abbreviates Imperatori Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico, Pontifici Maximo, Tribunicia Potestate, rendering the emperor's titles in the dative case ('To the Emperor Trajan Augustus, conqueror of the Germans, conqueror of the Dacians, Chief Priest, invested with Tribunician Power'). The dative case is of major ideological significance: rather than presenting the coin merely as an official proclamation by the emperor (in the nominative), the legend frames the coinage as an honoring dedication presented by the state or Senate to Trajan. The reverse legend completes this dedicatory sentence: COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC, which expands to Consuli Quinto, Patri Patriae, Senatus Populusque Romanus Optimo Principi. Translated in full connection with the obverse, the inscription reads: 'To the Emperor Trajan Augustus Germanicus Dacicus, Chief Priest, holder of Tribunician Power, Consul for the fifth time, Father of the Country: The Senate and the Roman People [dedicate this] to the Best Prince.' The title Optimus Princeps ('Best Prince') had long been informally bestowed on Trajan by the Senate due to his deference to senatorial dignity and civil moderation; its formal integration into the regular reverse coinage from AD 103 onward underscores the unprecedented consensus between the ruler, the aristocracy, and the populace during this golden age of imperial rule.

Typology and Chronological Classification

In the standard reference work The Roman Imperial Coinage (Volume II, originally compiled by Harold Mattingly and Edward A. Sydenham), this issue is catalogued as RIC II Trajan 126. Within Mattingly's framework, Trajan's COS V issues span from AD 103 to 111, representing one of the largest single groupings in the reign. Because Trajan retained the title COS V throughout this eight-year period, establishing a precise internal chronology within the broad RIC 126 classification has required detailed examination by subsequent scholars. In his comprehensive modern corpus Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (MIR 14), Bernhard Woytek refined the chronological structure of Trajan's coinage through meticulous die analyses, hoard stratigraphy, and epigraphic shifts. Woytek classifies this specific obverse bust variety (laureate head right with slight drapery on the left shoulder) paired with the Pax leaning on a column reverse under his MIR 14 type sequence, specifically dating the primary striking of this variety to the middle of the COS V period, circa AD 107 to 108, following the final conclusion of the Second Dacian War and coinciding with the extensive melting and restriking of older silver coinages. While older numismatic catalogues grouped RIC 126 broadly across the entire span of AD 103 to 111, modern scholarship demonstrates that it was concentrated during the post-Dacian stabilization phase. It is closely related to adjacent catalogue numbers that bear identical legends but feature bust variations, such as completely bare necks or fully draped and cuirassed busts, as well as distinct reverse personifications such as Aequitas, Felicitas, or Annona.

Circulation, Hoards, and Monetary Life

Silver denarii of Trajan, including RIC II Trajan 126, circulated extensively throughout the provinces of the Roman Empire and occasionally beyond its imperial frontiers. Because the issue was struck in substantial quantities during the post-Dacian reminting era, it achieved wide geographic distribution. Examples of this type are routinely documented in imperial silver hoards discovered across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine and Danube frontiers, Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula. The coin fulfilled essential everyday economic functions, serving as standard currency for military payrolls, civil administration expenses, municipal tax collections, and inter-provincial commercial transactions. Due to its high metal quality and the relative stability of the Roman monetary system during the second century AD, RIC II Trajan 126 enjoyed an unusually prolonged circulation life. Denarii of Trajan remained in active commercial circulation alongside the coinages of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Many specimens survived in currency until the massive debasements of the Severan dynasty and the mid-third century crisis, when older second-century denarii of superior silver fineness were systematically withdrawn, melted down, or hoarded by private individuals seeking to protect their wealth. Consequently, surviving specimens in archaeological contexts display wear patterns ranging from nearly uncirculated examples hoarded shortly after striking to heavily worn pieces that circulated for more than a century.

References

1. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume III: Nerva to Hadrian. London: British Museum Press, 1936
2. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC II Trajan 126. ric.2.tr.126
3. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume II: Vespasian to Hadrian. p. 253, no. 126
4. Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts, Teil I: Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Traian. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1931
5. Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117) (Moneta Imperii Romani 14). Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010