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Denarius IMP CAES TRAIAN AVG GER DAC P P REST CAESAR, Venus, Aeneas, and Anchises

Issuer Roman Imperial Mint
Year 98-117
Type Standard circulation coin
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Reverse description The legendary Trojan hero Aeneas strides left in the field, depicted as a nude or semi-draped figure carrying his aged father Anchises upon his left shoulder; Anchises is shown as a bearded elder wearing a Phrygian cap and a draped garment. In his extended right hand, Aeneas holds the sacred Palladium, the statuette of Pallas Athena that guaranteed Troy's safety and later Rome's destiny. The composition evokes the founding myth of Rome and references the dynastic legitimacy of the Julio-Claudian and wider imperial lineage. A circular legend reading IMP CAES TRAIAN AVG GER DAC P P REST CAESAR runs around the periphery of the reverse field, identifying this as one of Trajan's celebrated restitution coinage issues restoring earlier Republican and Augustan coin types.
Reverse script Latin
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Additional information

This is a "restitution" issue — one of a large series struck by Trajan around 107 AD restoring types of earlier emperors and the deified Julius Caesar, reaching back nearly two centuries to reclaim Republican legitimacy. The Caesar/Venus type is among the most historically loaded in the group, invoking the gens Iulia's claimed descent from Aeneas and through him from Venus herself — a mythology Augustus had weaponized and Trajan was now borrowing without apology.

The restitution series was not sentiment. It was calculated political messaging during Trajan's Dacian triumph, anchoring a Spanish-born emperor to Rome's deepest founding narratives.

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