Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1434. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (27.50 gm). Struck circa 112-115 AD. Laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder / ARAB ADQVIS in exergue, Arabia standing facing, head left, holding branch and bunch of cinnamon sticks?; to left, forepart of camel standing left. RIC II 614; BMCRE 977 note; Cohen 34. Good VF, glossy reddish-brown patina, light roughness, small flan flaw on obverse. ($500)

Nabataea had been of strageic and economic importance to Rome because it controlled the trade routes bringing myrrh and other luxury items from Yemen and India. Consequently, its kings experienced some degree of autonomy and acquired a great deal of wealth and influence. When the last of these kings, Rabbel II, either died or became incapacitated, in 106 AD, Trajan, fearing a disruption in trade, sent in the Roman army under A. Cornelius Palma Frontonianus and took the Nabataean capital of Petra. They subsequently annexed (ADQVIS[ita]) the territory as the province of Arabia Petraea, fortified the frontier and, by 114 AD, completed the Via Nova Traiana, linking Bostra to Aqiba, and thereby ensuring the trade routes be kept open and Arabian goods continue to flow into Rome.