TYPE Roman Imperatorial, Octavian (42 - 27 BC), bronze sestertius (dupondius?), struck 38 BC honoring Julius Caesar, 19.55g DESCRIPTION . Obv: Bare head of Octavian to right, legend: CAESAR DIVI F Rev: Laureate head of deified Julius Caesar, legend: DIVOS IVLIVS REFERENCE: SR 465, Syd 1335, Cr 535/1, RPC 620 GRADING: AF / F, brown patina, slight roughness (rev.) and adj. marks (obv.), scarce ORDER INFO: R2929, $325 A decent specimen of this prized issue, featuring portraits of the first and foremost two of the Twelve Caesars. Good round flan and patina complement the typically (for this issue) low-relief, yet nicely styled portraits; this is all the more valuable, since portraiture of this era is usually in the "patrician" school and thus generally not aesthetically very pleasing, and later Augustan depictions are mostly of an idealized "Neo-Attic" style. While the present renditions do display some of this idealization (and understandably so, given the deification of the father - and appropriate hints for the adopted son - that they advertise), there is nevertheless a strong note of an expressive realism, and - at least in the case of the merely 25-year old Octavian - a rather atypical for him sense of an authentic, lifelike depiction.