ROMAN EMPIRE, Trajan Denarius - Jupiter (RIC II 298)

AR Denarius
Rome 115-116 AD
2.98g

Obv: Laureate draped bust of Trajan (R)
IMP TRAIANO OPTIMO AUG GER DAC PM TRP PP

Rev: JUPITER stg (L) holding thunderbolt and sceptre, protecting Trajan who holds a branch.

Minted after the Antioch earthquake in 115 AD; Trajan was in the city at the time and was lucky to survive. Cassius Dio recounts - "Great numbers were suffocated in the ruins. Those who lay with part of their body buried under the stones or timbers suffered terribly, being able neither to live any longer nor to find an immediate death... Trajan made his way out through a window of the room in which he was staying. Some being, of greater than human stature, had come and led him forth, so that he escaped with only a few slight injuries; and as the shocks extended over several days, he lived out of doors in the hippodrome"
COS VI PP SPQR


RIC II 298 RSC 108