Denarius - Hadrian PARTHIC DIVI TRAIAN AVG F P M TR P COS P P PIETAS, Pietas

Hadrian struck this issue in 117 AD during the fraught opening months of his reign, when legitimacy was everything. His adoptive father Trajan died in Cilicia in August of that year, and Hadrian's accession — announced by the army before the Senate had any say — was immediately shadowed by suspicion. The PARTHIC title and the emphasis on pietas toward Trajan were deliberate: Hadrian needed to invoke his predecessor's prestige while simultaneously signaling that he would not continue Trajan's ruinously expensive eastern campaigns.

He abandoned Mesopotamia almost immediately after taking power.