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Denarius - Trajan S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, Fides

Issuer Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD)
Year 103-111
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Weight 3.3 g
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Obverse lettering IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P
(Translation: Imperator Traiano Augustus, Germanicus, Dacicus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Consul Quintum, Pater Patriae. Supreme commander (Imperator), of Trajan, emperor (Augustus), conqueror of the Germans, conqueror of the Dacians, high priest, holder of tribunician power, consul for the fifth time, father of the nation.)
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Mintage ND (103-111)
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Issued during Trajan's Dacian Wars period, this denarius belongs to a deliberately propagandistic emission celebrating Roman civic virtues at a moment when the emperor was reshaping the empire's northeastern frontier. The SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI legend — "to the best princeps, by the Senate and People of Rome" — was Trajan's own innovation, a title formally voted to him in 114 AD but appearing on coinage as early as 103, used instrumentally to frame military conquest as constitutional governance. Fides, the personification of good faith and kept oaths, carried pointed meaning during a period when Roman treaty obligations with Dacia had just been systematically violated.

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