Year 16 of Trajan's reign corresponds to a period of intense military and logistical activity in the eastern empire — Trajan was deep in preparations for the first Dacian War's aftermath and already planning the Parthian campaign that would launch in 114 AD. Alexandrian civic bronzes of this regnal year are administrative byproducts of a province running at full capacity, supplying grain, troops, and materiel toward the eastern frontier.
The Alexandria mint dated coins by regnal year rather than consular year, a practice rooted in the Ptolemaic tradition the Romans inherited and never bothered to dismantle.
Year 16 of Trajan's reign corresponds to a period of intense military and logistical activity in the eastern empire — Trajan was deep in preparations for the first Dacian War's aftermath and already planning the Parthian campaign that would launch in 114 AD. Alexandrian civic bronzes of this regnal year are administrative byproducts of a province running at full capacity, supplying grain, troops, and materiel toward the eastern frontier.
The Alexandria mint dated coins by regnal year rather than consular year, a practice rooted in the Ptolemaic tradition the Romans inherited and never bothered to dismantle.