The sestertius was the basis of Roman coinage. Though military accounts seemed to have been recorded in denarii, most civil amounts were expressed in sestertii. It was a large, bronze coin, about the size of a half dollar, and generally thicker. To qualify for the status of a senator a citizen had to be worth a million sestertii. An ordinary man could usually live on a single sestertius a day in the first century AD. These large bronze coins are eagerly sought by collectors because they offer some of the finest portraits of the emperors. There is no doubt whatever that this is what Nero looked like, double chins and all.

The style of portraiture changed constantly during the centuries of the empire. Under the first emperor, Augustus, it was more or less realistic, but Augustus's appearance was clearly idealized in the mold of Alexander the Great. But from his heir Tiberius on, the style became brutally accurate. Every wart, and wrinkle, and lopsided feature of emperors such as Vitellius, Claudius, and Nerva were accurately recorded. From about the second century on, though, emperors sported manly military beards, and begin to look rather the same in spite of realism. Then in the third century, standards fell quickly, so that by the reign of Gallienus in the 260's the busts were crude in the extreme. By the end of the third century, a new robust military style emerged, in which all emperors had basically identical square heads like boxers, and represented the "idea" of emperor and supreme military commander more than an individual. The stage had been set for the 4th. century style, and Christianity as the state religion. From Constantine on, all emperors with few exceptions looked stoned -- wall eyed, unearthly, their gazes fixed on heaven rather than the corruption of Earth. Blah! Give me the ugly puss of Nero any day!

Though generally terrifically expensive, this nice bronze cost me "only" $75. The incscription "NERO CLAUD CAESAR AUV GERM" is his full name -- Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. The reverse reads "VICTORIA AUGUSTI" signifying the personification of Victory. SC stood for Senultus Consultum, a formula meaning the money was struck by the authority of the senate.