Jak rzymski cesarz Trajan zdobył Indie : epizod z historii numizmatyki albo popis nowożytnego erudyty: Adolf Occo i jego dzieło

Abstract

The article opens with a presentation of the figure of Adolph Occo III (1524—1606), the author of Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata. He is one of the most prominent representatives of the numismatic literature, today mostly forgotten. In subsequent parts of the work, Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata serves to present the methods of preserving the memory of Trajan, the ruler of the Roman Empire between 98 and 117AD, in numismatic material. The author analyzed Occo’s records of legends and descriptions of the iconography of numismatics and the emerging image of emperor Trajan, interested in the East and its conqueror. The recognized, designated marks of this image are a common part of the ancient tradition and that stemming from later times, concerned with Trajan as a conqueror. There are, however, other elements, introduced as a novum exclusively by Adolph Occo, who included them within his descriptions of Trajan’s numismatics. Such reading of Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata allows to see the author as an extraordinary erudite.