The Via Traiana

225, Lot: 342. Estimate $500. Sold for $1400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 27.525 g, 5h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 115-116. Laureate and draped bust right / VIA TRAIANA in exergue, the Via Traiana reclining left on rock outcropping, head right, holding wheel. RIC II 637 var. (obv. legend); Banti 352 var. (same); BMCRE p. 219, † var. (rev. legend); Cohen 647 var. (obv. legend). VF, green patina with a few spots of red, tooled and smoothed.

The Via Traiana, constructed at Trajan's own expense between AD 109 and AD 113, replaced the Via Appia as the usual route between Brindisium to Beneventum, serving as an important link between Rome and the East.