Moneta Imperii Romani 14: Traianus

Research project P 14232 Moneta Imperii Romani 14: Trainanus Michael ALRAM 06.03.2000 "Moneta Imperii Romani" (MIR) is a series studying the coinage of the Roman Emperors in monographic form. The project was founded by the late Austrian numismatist Robert G6bl and is housed at- the Numismatic Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In contrast to other catalogues or the international reference book ,Roman Imperial Counage" (RIC) the primary aim of MIR is to show the- systematic and chronological context of the coins within a certain time period. Up to inow studies on the coinage of Tiberius and Gaius (MIR 2/3), Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus (MIR 18), Maximinus Thrax (MIR 27), Aurelianus (MIR 47) and Valerianus 1, Gallienus, Saloninus, Regalianus, Macriamis and Quietus (MIR 3 6, 43, 44; in press) have been presented. The reign of Trajan is specialy suited for another study: firstly, there aren`t nearly any deeper historiographical sources for the time of Trajan. Therefore, the coin images always played a very important role in reconstructing the history of -the time. Secondly, there are a lot of highly disputed crosses and financial measures in the time of Trajan: one has to think only of the inflow of the Dacian gold and silver booty, of the withdrawals of coins and the "restored coins", of the debasement of the denarius as well as of the reduction of the weight of the aureus. Resulting from the fact that on most of Trajan`s coins only very few datable hints can be found, a reliable chronological order of the coins is still lacking. This can be seen as one of the principal reasons for the harsh disputes about the political and ideological history as well as on the monetary economy during Trajan`s reign. It is thus the aim of MIR 14 to present an actualised critical catalogue of all the coin types of Trajan and to reconstruct the minting system. Only by bringing the coins into precisely datable emissions they will become a truly useful source. On this intensive historical and economic interpretations will be based. For reconstructing the emissions it will also be necessary to examine coin hoards and to do die studies. In this way MIR 14 will be an important step forward for the MIR-Series methodologically.

M. Ulpius Traianus (98-117 AD) was one of the most important emperors in the history of Rome: He enlarged the empire`s territory by creating new provinces (e. g. Dacia and Arabia), changed the face of the capital and of many parts of Italy by spending heavily on public building and was regarded as the ideal ruler by the Romans: He was called "Optimus princeps", and this honorific appellation also appears on coins issued under his government. Since there are only very few reliable literary sources for this period, coins are vital for our understanding of the history, culture and ideology of Trajan`s rule. Numismatically speaking, his reign was characterised by heavy minting in all metals and by coin issues of extraordinary beauty and great historical relevance: His Latin-legend mainstream issues normally feature the emperor and his name and titles on the obverse, whereas the reverses show gods and personifications closely associated with the emperor, buildings or even historic scenes. This is why the numismatic evidence is of paramount importance for ancient historians and archaeologists alike. In the research project just finished, the entire evidence available for the Latin legend coinages of Trajan`s reign was collected and analysed by modern scientific standards for the first time. Working from a basis of more than 30.000 individual coins, a monograph designed to be the new standard reference work for the emperor`s mainstream issues was prepared for the Viennese series MIR (Moneta Imperii Romani). In this book, both structure and chronology of Trajan`s coinage are thoroughly analysed and all the types and variants occurring are catalogued in minute detail. The most important scientific result of our research work is the new chronological classification of Trajan`s coinage from 103 to 111: During this period, in the years between the emperor`s fifth (103) and sixth consulates (112), the titulature appearing on his coins remained unchanged, so that it was hitherto impossible to date a COS V coin more precisely than "103-111". Innovative typological and stylistic analysis of the large body of numismatic material assembled in the course of the project made it possible to split up the COS V issues into small groups and to provide precise datings for all of the relevant coin types. This is a major scientific progress which will have a considerable bearing on all future historical, archaeological and numismatic studies of Trajan`s reign and of the Roman Imperial period in general.