Trajan AR Denarius. Rome, AD 103-111. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P, laureate head right with some drapery / S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, Dacian captive, in attitude of mourning, seated to right on hexagonal shield with Dacian rhomphaia (curved sword) below. RIC 218. 3.10 g, 17 mm Good very fine
Trajan had in AD 101-102 launched an offensive against the powerful Dacian king Decebalus with whom Domitian had signed an unfavourable (and some would argue shameful) treaty some twenty years before, the price of which was the payment of an annual 'subsidy' of eight million sestertii and the presentation of a diadem from Domitian to Decebalus. In that war, Trajan succeeded in defeating the Dacians in a series of pitched battles, and reduced Decebalus to the status of client king. The victory was celebrated with a triumph (Trajan's first), and later by the construction of the Tropaeum Traiani.