143, Lot: 229. Estimate $150. Sold for $232. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 24.22 g). Rome mint. Struck AD 115. Laureate and draped bust right / Trajan seated on platform right, accompanied by two officers and one guard, addressing five soldiers. RIC II 655; Cohen 176. Fine, green patina, obverse porous, reverse clear. Scarce reverse.

Trajan extended the Empire's borders to their greatest limit. After two major campaigns (101-103 and 105-106 AD), he incorporated Dacia as a Roman province. In 114, in consequence of the installation of a a Parthian puppet on the throne of Armenia, Trajan annexed the area as another Roman province and then extended operations into Mesopotamia. The reverse of this coin depicts Trajan's acclamation by the troops as imperator for the eighth time, which occurred with the fall of the city of Singara in 115 during the campaigns on the eastern frontier.