Marciana, sister of Trajan

Aureus 112 or 114, AV 20 mm, 7.22 g. DIVA AVGVSTA – MARCIANA Draped bust r., hair elaborately dressed, above which crescent-shaped diadem. Rev. CONSECRATIO Eagle with spread wings walking l. on sceptre, head to r. C 3. BMC Trajan 648. RIC Trajan 743. Woytek 7171 (these dies). CBN 754. Calicó 1152a.
Extremely rare. Minor marks, otherwise good very fine

Trajan’s coinage reveals that he followed the pattern of celebrating relatives and ancestors that had been established by the Julio-Claudians and the Flavians. He portrayed his natural father, Trajan Pater, and his adoptive father, Nerva, the previous emperor who had made Trajan his heir on different coinages – sometimes individually, other times with their busts confronted. He also extended the practice to living relatives, initially his sister Marciana, his wife Plotina, and his niece Matidia, and towards the end of his life, his chosen heir Hadrian. With coinage for the emperor’s sister, Marciana, we find precedents in both previous dynasties, though in the larger scheme of imperial coinage it was an unusual practice. Trajan struck coins for Marciana both while she was alive and after her death and consecration, which may have occurred as early as 105 or as late as 114, but most likely in August, 112. The use of consecratio first appears on coins of Trajan’s female relatives, after which it was employed frequently for posthumous issues. Marciana seems to have been a woman of high character, but virtually nothing is recorded of her life. She lived as a widow throughout her brother’s principate, for she had lost her husband, Matidius Patruinus, prior to Trajan’s accession and chose not to remarry. She was close friends with her sister-in-law Plotina, and both women seem to have refused the title of Augusta in 98, when Trajan came to power, but later accepted, perhaps in 105.