Denarius - Hadrian and Trajan PARTHIC DIVI TRAIAN AVG F P M TR P COS P P

Hadrian's first coins as emperor were struck in the name of his adoptive father Trajan, whose death in August 117 AD occurred while the army was still campaigning in Mesopotamia. The adoption itself was disputed — Trajan's wife Plotina was widely suspected of fabricating or backdating the paperwork, and Hadrian moved quickly to secure legionary loyalty through donatives and careful propaganda before the senate could act against him.

This issue, citing Trajan's Parthian title, was part of that political consolidation — grounding Hadrian's legitimacy in a conquest he would almost immediately begin to abandon.