Denarius - Trajan S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, Felicitas

Trajan's "Optimus Princeps" title — formally bestowed by the Senate in 114 AD but already appearing on coinage well before that date — reflected a genuine political consensus rare in the Principate. The Senate awarded it unsolicited, a distinction no emperor before or after received in quite the same way. Felicitas on the reverse was not decorative flattery; it signaled prosperity tied directly to Trajan's Dacian campaigns, with war booty financing public works on a scale Rome had not seen since Augustus.