TYPE Roman Empire, Trajan (98-117 AD), brass sestertius DESCRIPTION . Obv: Laureate head of Trajan to right, Latin legend: IMP CAES NER TRAIAN OPTIMO AVG GER DAC PARTHICO PM TR P COS VI PP around (traces) Rev: River-god (river Tiber, or Genius of the Aqua Traiana) reclining under arched grotto supported by two columns, holding reeds and resting on urn from which water flows legends: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI around, AQUA TRAIANA in ex, S C to its sides (traces of all) REFERENCE: RIC 608, Coh 23 GRADING: VG, hairline crack, rare ORDER INFO: R2838, $85 A famous metropolitan aqueduct and classical triumph of Roman engineering and architecture combined. One of the 11 aqueducts of Rome, The Aqua Traiana was completed in 109 AD, with the aim of supplying water to the expanding west bank of Tiber by drawing its supply from springs at the north-west corner of the Lake of Bracciano (lacus Sabatinus). Functioning for many centuries thereafter, it was a major resource (to be disabled or to be secured in wartime) and a key to the city during its Byzantine recapture from the Goths by Belisarius under Justinian I. Pictured here is one of its terminal stations, known as castellum, from which many lead pipes used to radiate. Its exact location was ascertained only in the 20th century, following excavations under the American Academy in Rome.