Aureus - Trajan TRIVMPHVS PARTHICVS

Issued in the final months of Trajan's reign or — more probably — posthumously under Hadrian, this aureus commemorates the Parthian triumph that Trajan never actually celebrated. He died at Selinus in Cilicia in August 117 AD before returning to Rome, leaving Hadrian to formalize the victory honors. The TRIVMPHVS PARTHICVS legend was a political statement as much as a memorial, helping Hadrian legitimize a succession that many in the Senate viewed with suspicion.

Hadrian subsequently abandoned Trajan's Parthian conquests almost immediately, withdrawing from Mesopotamia and Armenia — making this coin a triumph commemorated for a war whose gains lasted less than two years.