Aureus - Octavian DIVI IVLI·F / Q·VOCONIVS VITVLVS

Struck in 40 BC, this aureus belongs to the period immediately following the Pact of Brundisium, when Octavian was consolidating his position against Antony and needed every ideological tool available. The title DIVI IVLI F — son of the deified Julius — had only recently become usable following Caesar's posthumous consecration in 42 BC, and Octavian deployed it aggressively on coinage as a claim to divine lineage that no rival could match. The moneyer Q. Voconius Vitulus is otherwise obscure; his name appears in no surviving literary source.