TRAJAN
AD 98-117
AR Drachm. 2.87g, 20mm
MINTED: CAPPADOCIA, Caesarea, struck AD 112-117 (dated Cos 6)
REF: Metcalf 70b; Sydenham 198; W. Weiser 96 (this coin?)
OBVERSE: AYTOKP KAIC NEP TRAIANOC CЄB ΓЄPM ΔAK, laureate and draped bust right.
REVERSE: ΔHMAPX ЄΞ YΠATO ς, draped bust of female (Artemis?) left, holding spear and patera.
 
Grade/Notes:
Very Good.
With collector's ticket claiming "W. Weiser 96 (this coin)", apparently in reference to Wolfram Weiser's "Ein Teil eines umfangreichen Fundes kappadokischer Silbermünzen derrömischen Kaiserzeit", a study of 258 coins from a hoard discovered in 1980 near or at Caesarea which consisted of about 2500 silver coins found in four bronze jars. 
 
Historical Notes:
Caesarea in Cappadocia was one of the most ancient cities in the central Anatolian plains.  Located at the foot of Mount Argaeus, it was known originally as Mazaca and had been continuously inhabited since around 3000 BC, serving as a Hittite trading colony on the Great Silk Road, a Persian satrapy, a possession of Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire, and eventually as the capital of the Cappadocian kingdom.  By the time Cappadocia came under the direct rule of the Romans, the city had been renamed Caesarea (in honour of the first emperor, Caesar Augustus), and was one of the largest and most important cities in the region.  Caesarea was a major provincial mint, striking a large amount of both silver and bronze coinage that often featured on the reverse the sacred Mount Argaeus.  

At the time of its seige by the Sassanian king Shapur I in AD 260, Caesarea was said to have around 400,000 inhabitants.  Shapur had recently made Roman Emperor Valerian I a prisoner of war, and after he took the city of Caesarea, he butchered all the Roman soldiers within it, destroyed the city, and deported its entire population.  It would be a long time before the city was rebuilt and repopulated.