The Divinity of the Roman Emperor

a 7rot€crat. For the union of Roma with Octavian in this temple see T a c Ann. iv, 37. See Brit. Mus. Cat. Mysia, p . 137. On priesthood and league see Chapot, La Province proconsulate d'Asie, pp. 403-405; 482-489. K

14

1 6

148

THE

DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

him in the position of the god-king. At the same time that the request came from the provincials of Asia and Bithynia, the Roman citizens dwelling in Ephesus and in Nicaea, cities of the same provinces, apparently asked that they might be permitted to build temples to him. For them he probably could not point to the precedent set by proconsuls, and, though he might have found parallels in the honors which his father had accepted at Rome, he decided instead on another type of worship for them. He accorded them the privilege of erecting a shrine to Roma and his deified father, Divus Julius. He thus drew a sharp line between his Roman and his foreign subjects. From the latter he could, like the Roman proconsuls before him, accept worship as a god on earth, but to the former he permitted only the worship of his father upon whose apotheosis he depended for his power. The provision was in line with the course Octavian followed when he returned to Rome, and it indicated that the plans had been worked out in advance. It may be noted that in thus making a distinction between Romans and non-Romans Octavian had in a sense a precedent in the reported plan of Julius Caesar to have himself declared king not at Rome but in the provinces. Octavian might have cited Caesar's plan as justification for the acceptance of the position of king in Egypt. But outside of Egypt Octavian's course is not altogether in accord with Caesar's plan. Caesar at the time of his death had been, alike for Romans and non-Romans, a god, but he had not yet ventured to assume the crown that was the natural complement of his divinity. Octavian, under the influence of Antony's exaggerated divine pretensions that prepared the way for the oriental monarchy which he desired to establish, decided to reject along with the kingship the divinity that went with it. But he applied to divinity the dis­ tinction between Romans and non-Romans that Caesar was reported to have considered for the crown. 16

1 6

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AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

149

The worship of Divus Julius and the constant use of dim filius in Octavian's name of course suggested that he too might eventually hope for the apotheosis which had come to his father. The possibility comes out clearly in the newly com­ pleted Georgics which Vergil read to Octavian in Naples in the summer of 2 9 when the victor over Antony was on his way back to Rome. It was an official poem, written at the request of Maecenas, to aid in the revival of agriculture which the poet himself believed to be vital for the reconstruction of Italy. Though no one can find in its ringing sincerity any expression of sentiment that does not represent the poet's own convictions, it is the utterance of a man who, from his contact with the statesmen of his day, was aware of the ideas that were in the air and put them into words. The poet who, some ten years before, had in his enthusiasm called Octavian a god, no longer speaks of him in these terms. Instead, Octavian is now addressed as a man who loves the triumphs that men offered to him—the honors that were for a Roman in a measure a substitute for deification. By his course on earth he is pre­ paring his way to heaven—viamque adfectat Olympo. But heaven feels envious of the earth for possessing him and threatens to rob the wicked human race of its benefactor. 17

The poet, to be sure, does not show himself altogether reconciled to the attitude of Octavian to his own godhead. In the invocation at the beginning of the first book Vergil calls upon all the gods of the countryside, and then upon Caesar, whose position in heaven is not yet defined: 18

Tuque adeo quern mox quae sint habitura deorum concilia incertum est. The poet prays to him as lord either of land or sea and says that the scorpion in the sky is drawing back to leave space in heaven for the balance, the sign of Octavian's birth. Here 17

Geor. i, 503 ff.; cf. iv, 562. On the Greek elements in this invocation see Wissowa, Hermes LII (1917), 92 ff. On the date of the prologue see Gertrude Hirst, T.A.P.A. LIX (1928), 19 ff. 1 8

150

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

is a suggestion for a deification like that indicated already by the Julian star for Octavian's father. But the last lines of the prayer indicate that divinity may come before the god is translated to the heavens. The poet pleads with him to come forward in pity for the ignorant farmers and learn now to be called upon in the vows of men: Ignarosque viae mecum miseratus agrestis ingredere et votis iam nunc adsuesce vocari. There is a similar unwillingness in the beginning of the third book to accept Octavian's own definition of his divine position. The poet here promises to write of the battles of Caesar— a design that he later abandoned to write a national epic of the heroic age. The monument that his genius will erect to Octavian he likens to a solid marble temple in which his hero stands enshrined; to it will come victims for slaughter and a solemn procession with images of all Octavian's eastern triumphs. Vergil's reluctance in accepting Octavian's interpretation of his divine position was shared by the senate, which, at intervals from the victory at Actium until the return of Octavian, passed a long series of adulatory decrees. The senate was still a motley body, unwieldy because of its thousand members, many of them men of freedman and provincial stock, who felt little regard for the traditions of the Roman state. It was disposed to bestow on Octavian all the homage that it had once accorded to Caesar. Some of the honors simply recog­ nized his preeminence in the state without giving him any prerogatives of divinity. Among these may be mentioned the vows and prayers for his safety, notably the annual prayers for him with the senate and people of Rome which the public priests were henceforth to make at the beginning of the year. Of the distinctions that may be described as provisions for his divinity, some followed precedents already established by honors that Octavian had accepted. Thus the anniversaries 19

1 9

The best source for the honors is Dio LI, 19 and 20. the evidence see Heinen, pp. 139 ff.

For full citations of

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

151

2 0

of his victories at Actium and Alexandria (the latter day was henceforth treated as the beginning of his power) and the day of his return to the city were enrolled in the state calendar. Other distinctions which he received had belonged to his father. In this group were the bestowal of his name on one of the city tribes and the inclusion of his birthday in the calendar as a public holiday. Still others were new. Among these was the provision that his name should be included in the Salian hymn. This was an honor which Octavian, usually unmoved by flattering courtiers, mentioned with pride in his Res Gestae when in his old age he was looking back on his great achieve­ ments. Here at least his name seems to have been enrolled with the gods. 21

The most significant of the new honors for its subsequent relation to Octavian's divinity was the decree that a libation should be poured to his Genius at every banquet, both public and private. This is the first reference we have of the cult to Octavian's guardian spirit which was later to become the object of a state cult. The offerings accorded with the regular Roman tradition of sacrifices to the Genius; the proper offering was not a victim but flowers and incense and, above all else, unmixed wine. Moreover, the new libation had its parallels in the libation and toast to Alexander which we have associated with the Greek toast to agathos daimon, and the honors paid at banquets to the daimon of the Persian kings. The ceremony apparently had no parallel in the honors to Julius Caesar, though Caesar's Genius had been included in the official oaths. 22

23

The cult of the Genius of Octavian through these libations at banquets found its way into the private houses. An ode of 2 0

Strictly speaking the festival was the anniversary of Antony's death on the day before Alexandria fell. Res Gestae 10. \_Nomen meum senatus consulto mc]lusum est in saliare 21

carmen. 2 2

irdvTas 2 3

Cf. D i o LI, 20, 1: es re TOVS vpvovs

avrov

e£ taov rots 0eots kaypaea$ai..

Dio LI, 19, 7: Kal kv rots owo-trtots OV% OTL rots KOLVOZS dXXd Kal rots t5tots avrcp awkvb^v

kKkXevaav.

For a possible Roman parallel in the offerings given to Marius see ch. n, n. 48.

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

152

Horace written some fifteen years later shows that the libation had become a regular feature of the dinner of the Roman at the end of his day's work, and a wall painting in a private house of Pompeii shows a figure of Genius pouring a liba­ tion and beneath it in large letters the words ex s(enatus) c(onsulto). The reference is probably to the senatorial decree passed in 30 B.C. With the new worship of the Genius provided for in this libation we may associate a coin from the Roman mint which was struck before the year 2 7 . On the obverse it has Octavian's portrait; on the reverse an ithyphallic terminal 24

figure and the inscription IMP(ERATOR) CAESAR (Fig. 2 5 ) .

FIG. 25.

Ithyphallic Terminal Figure inscribed I M P . CAESAR.

The

Denarius.

representation emphasizes the original meaning of genius, which comes from the same root as gignere. The sacrifices to Octavian's Genius were voted when he was absent from Rome, and they seem not to have been recognized by him or included in any formal state ceremonies until he became pontifex maximus in 12 B.C. Then the emperor's Genius was put in the official oath form and was further made the object of a state cult with sacrifices of victims that were foreign to the Roman cult of the Genius. Meantime the custom of pouring libations to the Genius at every banquet was preparing the way for a more extensive cult such as developed later. The ceremony in a sense recognized Augustus as the father of the Roman state. It probably gave him much the same position that founders and patrons had in Roman 25

24

2 5

H o r . Carm. iv, 5, 31 ff.: Mau, Rom. Mitt. 1890, 244 (C.I.L. iv, 5285). Mattingly, Coins of the Rom. Emp. in Brit. Mus. I, p. 102.

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

153

colonies. Like the Greek worship of the agathos daimon of the living man, of which we have found traces, it was probably a species of heroic honor for a living man. Octavian celebrated his return much as Julius Caesar had signalized his in 46 B.C. First he held a great triumph and then with elaborate ceremonies and games he dedicated the temple of the divinity on whom he depended for the legitimization of his power. The triumph was threefold, representing, like Caesar's, victories of some years' standing; it ended with a magnificent display of the spoils of Egypt and with generous gifts to the people from them. Then the new temple on the spot where Caesar's body had been burned was dedicated to Divus Julius, the newly created god, whom Caesar dim filius had taken as the authorization of his power just as Julius himself had taken Venus, the ancient goddessmother of his race. In the year that followed Octavian was actively engaged in the construction and restoration of other religious monu­ ments. He showed his loyalty and devotion to the state religion by restoring all the shrines of the city that had fallen into decay. He tells us in his Res Gestae that they were eighty-two in number, and that none in need of repair was overlooked. At the same time he continued his dedication of new monuments and shrines that had particular associations with his own achievements. In the newly finished Curia he placed an altar of the goddess Victory to whom he owed his supremacy, and set up beside it an ancient statue of the goddess which he had brought from Tarentum and decked with the spoils of Egypt. Victory became the first of a long series of deified abstractions whose cults were especially associated with the emperor. As in the East, her image and the image of the attendant divinity Peace appear on the coins of the period. 26

On the Palatine Octavian dedicated in the year 28 the magnificent temple of Apollo with whom Diana and Latona 2 6

See Dio LI, 22, 1.

For full evidence see Heinen, p. 149.

154

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

were enshrined. Since the temple on the site once planned for Octavian's own house had been begun, the popular belief that Apollo showed special favor to Octavian had been greatly strengthened by the fact that victory over Antony had been won in sight of the great Acarnanian temple of Actian Apollo. The story that Octavian was Apollo's son probably found favor at Rome with many of the Asiatic Greeks who were accustomed to such legends in their eastern homes. Octavian gave encouragement to the legend by allowing a colossal bronze statue of Apollo with his own features to be erected in one of the porticoes attached to the temple. But in the cult of the temple he had no share. The temple enshrined for public worship not Octavian himself or his well authenticated divine ancestors, but his own patron god, a divinity of his private household,—Phoebus domesticus, as Ovid calls him. Octavian subordinated his own honors to those of the god to such an extent that he had some eighty golden statues of himself melted down to increase the rich treasure of the new temple. He gave the temple a great distinction that had hitherto belonged to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus— the custody of the Sibylline books which, as the revelation of Apollo's priestess, could fittingly be housed in the shrine of the god. He added to the temple porticoes and halls and libraries which provided for the enjoyment of the people monuments such as Caesar and Pompey had constructed before him. Structures of that type it had been impossible to erect beside the temple of Divus Julius in the crowded Forum. 27

28

29

2 7

Serv. on Verg. Eel. 4, 10: cui < A u g u s t o > simulacrum factum est cum Apollinis cunctis insignibus. Schol. Cruq. to Hor. Epist. i, 3, 17: Caesar sibi in bibliotheca statuam posuerat ad habitum et staturam Apollinis. See Gardthausen, op. cit. n, 2, 580, 33. In an inscription found near the ancient site of Alabanda in Caria (Dittenberger, O.G.I.S. 457) Augustus is referred to as 'ATTOWOOPOS 'EXev&epLov 2e(3a
See Richmond, " T h e Augustan Palatium," J.R.S. iv (1914), 193 ff. I agree with Richmond in accepting Pinza's identification of the temple of Apollo with the so-called temple of Jupiter Victor. Suet. Aug. 52: atque etiam argenteas statuas olim sibi positas conflavit omnis exque iis aureas cortinas Apollini Palatino dedicavit. 2 9

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

155

The renown of the new temple is attested by poems of Horace and Propertius. Vergil, who was beginning the Aeneid when the temple was dedicated, would have it that Octavian erected it in fulfilment of a vow of his ancestor Aeneas who throughout the Aeneid is a prototype of the emperor: Turn Phoebo et Triviae solido de marmore templum instituam festosque dies de nomine Phoebi. 30

After the dedication of the temple the quinquennial games voted by the senate to commemorate the victory at Actium were celebrated for the first time. So far Octavian had done nothing at Rome to encourage the worship of his own person as a god on earth. He had brought into prominence his deified father, on whose will he depended for his power, and his patron god, to whom he owed his great victory. But he had taken no stand with regard to the adulatory decrees that the senators kept passing. He was as a matter of fact intent not on the distinctions that his flattering courtiers were forcing upon him but on the real work of defining his own position and setting about the reorganization of the state. And it was on this definition of his position that his divinity depended. He was of course powerful enough to assume the position of the absolute monarch and to appear before his subjects as an incarnate god, but he could not con­ sistently do so. After Naulochus he had promised to restore the republic, and since that time he had fought a great war to defend the traditions and the sacred soil of Rome against an oriental monarchy. At the same time a real restoration of the republic was unthinkable and it was necessary to establish a regime that was new in its centralization of power but old in its association with tradition. 31

32

The first clear indication of the compromise which Octavian effected between monarchical power and the restoration of the republic came in the census of the year 28. He purged the lists 30

Aen. vi, 69 f. Dio LIII, 1, 4; cf. Res Gestae 9. The games were directed in turn by the consuls and the four chief colleges of priests. See Heinen, p. 144, n. 1. See Charlesworth, Camb. Hist. Jour, n (1926), 9 fT. 31

3 2

156

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

of the senate, removing from the body two hundred members who had gained admission during the period of civil war, many of them doubtless his most abject flatterers. At the head of the new list of senators he wrote his own name as princeps, a, purely honorary expression of primacy with no magisterial significance, a title that had been bestowed on the first men of the state from the early days of the republic. The Greek translator of the Res Gestae defines the Princeps for the Greeks who were not familiar with the term as the man having the first place in that peculiar quality of the Roman senate—auctoritas.™ Octavian himself laid great stress on this title and in his writing used the phrase me principe as the natural indication of his position. The princeps senatus was also princeps civitatis; the title expressed admirably the position of Octavian as the foremost citizen for whose welfare magistrates and priests offered sacrifice. But further definition was needed. Accordingly on the thirteenth of January of the year 27 Octavian convened the senate and handed over the extraordinary powers that he had been exercising. These are his own words about his act as he wrote them in his Res Gestae: "When in my sixth and seventh consulships I had put an end to civil war, having by the common consent of all secured possession of supreme power, I transferred the direction of public affairs (rempublicam transtuli) from my power to the jurisdiction of the senate and people of R o m e . In his own interpretation he was restoring the republic and that was the explanation of the act accepted among the historians of his age, but the position which the senate bestowed on him as a result of the "restoration" led in effect, as ancient historians of a later time recognized, to the beginning of a new form of monarchy. ,,

34

33

Cf. the Greek text of the Res Gestae divi Aug. ch. 7: TTP&TOV A^uo/xaros laxov rrjs avPKXrjrov. That a^icaixa is the translator's equivalent of auctoritas is clear from the new reading of ch. 34 which has lately been secured. See n. 40 below. How little the delegation of authority in the senatorial provinces really meant is clear from the newly-discovered stele of Cyrene which provides con­ firmation for Mommsen's belief that the emperor had imperium maius even in the provinces under the senate. See Stroux and Wenger, Abh. Bayer. Akad. 1928, 61 ff. TOTTOV

34

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

157

The speech which Dio gives as the emperor's pronouncement when he laid down his extraordinary powers is so much in line with Augustus' point of view as we see it in his Res Gestae and in the reports of contemporary w riters that it perhaps deserves more consideration than most of the speeches invented by the flatterer of the Severi. It certainly expresses well Octavian's attitude toward deification. Like all his pro­ nouncements up to the time, it insists constantly on his relation to Caesar. It cites as a basis for his renunciation of power Caesar's refusal of a crown. Moreover it suggests that, if envious men slay him as they slew Caesar, he will have Caesar's fortune in securing divinity, while his slayers will die a miserable death. Of his own divinity he has these words to say: " A s for immortality we could not possibly achieve it, but by living nobly and by dying nobly we do in a sense gain even this boon. Therefore I, who already possess the first requisite and hope to possess the second, return to you the armies and the provinces, the revenues and the l a w s . " Thus Octavian declares his position with reference to the divine honors that men were forcing upon him. On earth he is not a god, but he looks forward after death to a divine status won by virtue. The writers of the day accepted the idea as Vergil had already become aware of it before its formal enunciation. Octavian was the son of a god descended from a long line of divine forbears; his life of virtue and benefaction to his fellow men would ensure to him the same divinity that his father was enjoying. 7

35

It was a logical attitude for Octavian to take for it accorded with what has been happily called "the republican trans3 5

Dio

LIII, 9, 5: dOavaToi

pep

yap

OVK dp

bvprjdeirjpep

yevka&ai,

eK 8e 8fj TOV

I have quoted Dio in Cary's excellent version. Dio's speeches are usually inserted on occasions when speeches are known to have been made, though the discourses of Maecenas and Agrippa form an exception. For this portion of his history he is probably using Livy more extensively than any one else,. From him, and, better still, from Augustus' own memoirs, which he quotes in one case, he would have secured an impression in accord with Augustus' own conception. See the discussion of Dio's sources, and particularly of his speeches by Schwartz in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Cassius (40), 1719-20. /caXcos frjo-cu Kal en TOV KaXcos Te\evTT)cai

Kal TOVTO Tpoirov

Twd

KTupeda.

158

THE

DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 36

formation of the doctrine of the divinity of kings.'' It was in line with the popular idea of Caesar's divinity that Octavian had made use of when he interpreted the comet as Caesar's soul and affixed the star to every statue of Caesar. By pursuing his course of virtue, he himself might hope for trans­ lation to the stars. Sic itur ad astra. It was a theory of godhead attained by divine immortality which accorded better with the ideas of the day than did the conception of the incarnate god on earth. There was need of a distinctive title to describe Octavian's new position, and the need was met by the name Augustus, which he accepted at a meeting of the senate three days after the "restoration." According to the ancient belief that a benefactor had founded a city afresh, Octavian viewed himself as the second founder of Rome and he wished to take the name of the original founder Romulus. He was dwelling on the Palatine close to the so-called hut of Romulus and the sacred centre of the city that Romulus was believed to have founded. But, though the name was actually proposed for him in the senate, Octavian, who was avoiding monarchy, naturally hesitated to take the name of Rome's first king. Instead he favored—probably he inspired—the suggestion of Munatius Plancus that he be called Augustus, and this was the suggestion that carried in the senate. The title was a new one but was nevertheless in its adjectival form in line with such titles as magnus and maximus which had been conferred on various republican heroes. Aside from the purely religious 37

88

See p. 53. On the name Augustus see Res Gestae, ch. 34; Livy, Per. c x x x i v ; Suet. Aug. 7; Ovid, Fasti i, 608 ff.; Flor. n, 33, 66; Dio LIII, 16, 6-8. On Augustus and Romulus see the important articles of Scott, T.A.P.A. LVI (1926), 82-105, and Hirst, A.J.P. XLVI (1926), 347 ff. See also von Premerstein. Phil. Woch. XLIX (1929), 848. One detail of importance for the association of the two is the tradition that the astrologer Tarutius was asked by Varro (cf. Plut. Rom. 12) to compute from the facts of Romulus' life the dates of his conception and of his birth. Presumably the request came after Octavian had entered the scene of action (perhaps after the augury of 43), for the dates which he computed have been shown to be in close correspondence with the dates of Augustus' conception and birth. Cf. Soltau, Rbmische Chronologie, pp. 434 ff.; BouchdLeclercq, UAstrologie Grecque, pp. 368 f. 37

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

159

connotation of the word, which we shall consider in a moment, augustus had special associations which were probably effective in making the emperor favor it. In the first place it was in the popular mind believed to be related in origin not only to augere but to augurium, and that relation gave it an association with Romulus who w as famous particularly for the augury by which he had established his rights as founder of the city. Octavian, like Romulus, it will be remembered, claimed to have seen twelve vultures as a sign that heaven favored his power. The occasion was his entry into Rome for his first consulship in 43. Romans who knew the line from the poem that was still the national epic of Rome (Ennius, Annales 502, Vahlen), 38

r

Augusto augurio postquam incluta condita Roma est, would think of Romulus when they heard the name Augustus. The title suggested in veiled form the name which the emperor had desired but had not dared take. It marked him as the new founder of Rome. Moreover, the word augustus through augere was related in origin to auctoritas, the peculiar quality of the Roman senate in which Augustus as princeps senatus excelled all other senators. It was a quality that depended for its potency on tradition rather than on any magisterial power. The emphasis that the emperor placed on the auctoritas suggested by the new name is clear from a passage in the Res Gestae which has recently been restored to us in its original form: "After this time," he says, speaking of the 'restoration/ " I surpassed all others in auctoritas, but of potestas I had no more than did those who were my colleagues in office." 39

4 0

3 8

For a discussion of the word augustus based on its origin and connotation see F. Muller Jzn. "Augustus," in Mededeelingen der konikl. Akad. van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Deel 63, Ser. A. Amsterdam, 1927, 275-347, and the review by von Premerstein, Phil. Woch. XLIX (1929), 845 ff. Augustus' patron divinity, probably as a result of the new name, is several times called augur in Augustan poetry. See Hor. Carm. i 2, 28; C.S. 61; Verg. Aen. iv, 376. The correctness of auctoritas in this passage, instead of Mommsen's reading dignitas is proved by the recent discoveries of fragments of the Res 3 9

4 0

160

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

But the word also had strong associations with divinity. Augustus was a synonym for sanctus and divinus, much less hackneyed than the other two words, and suggestive because of its relation to the sacredness of augury and to the idea of increase in augere. Livy, writing soon after the title was conferred, explains the word in several passages as meaning "more than human." For a corresponding Greek title to be used in the eastern half of the empire the word aefiaaros was apparently coined at this time from a root meaning "to revere." It suggests more definitely than its Latin equivalent the worship that in the East at any rate no legisla­ tion could prevent. The new name speedily came into general use. By a law passed in 27, the new name was given to the month Sextilis. This was a distinction that Augustus him­ self seems not to have acknowledged for nearly twenty years. 41

Augustus' new status that resulted from his so-called restoration of the republic was signalized not, as the position of a monarch would have been, by personal insignia such as crown and sceptre but by adornments for his house such as were familiar from republican precedents. By vote of the senate the doors of his house beside Apollo's temple on the Palatine were decorated with laurels, the symbol of Gestae at Antioch in Pisidia. The importance of the word here was pointed out by von Premerstein, Hermes LIX (1924), 95 ff. and Ehrenberg, Klio x i x (1924), 189 ff. See the article on auctoritas by Heinze, Hermes LX (1925), 348 ff. Livy, Epit. 134: Augustus quoque cognominatus est et mensis Sextilis in honorem eius appellatus est. For the senatus consultum and the lex see Macr. Sat. 1, 12, 35: Augustus deinde est qui Sextilis antea vocabatur donee honori Augusti daretur ex senatus consulto cuius verba subieci: cum imperator Caesar Augustus mense Sextili et primum consulatum inierit et triumphos tres in urbem intulerit et ex Ianiculo legiones deductae secutaeque sint eius auspicia ac fidem sed et Aegyptus hoc mense in potestatem populi Romani redacta sit finisque hoc mense bellis civilibus impositus sit atque ob has causas hie mensis huic imperio felicissimus sit ac fuerit, placere senatui ut hie mensis Augustus appelletur. item plebiscitum factum ob eandem rem Sexto Pacuvio tribuno plebem rogante. Sextus Pacuvius was tribune in 27. Cf. Dio LIII, 20, 2-3. For the use of the name before it was formally acknowledged by Augustus see C.I.L. in, 6627 (Dessau 2483). On the evidence see Seeck in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Iulius (Augustus), 361 ff.; Scott, Yale Classical Studies, n (1931), 224 ff. 41

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

161

permanent triumph, and the pediment, with which his house, like Caesar's, had been adorned, had in it an oak crown such as had been bestowed by tradition on one who had saved the lives of Roman citizens. This was an emblem of Jupiter, and Ovid twenty years later speaks of Augustus' home as like the house of Jove. Henceforth the laurel and the oak crown became the regular insignia of the emperor's residence, which soon took its name from the Palatium where it stood. The new symbols appear on coins and reliefs as the most common insignia of the new regime (Fig. 26). 42

43

FIG. 26.

1

Doors of Augustus Palace with Civic Crown and Laurel Branches. Aureus.

Besides these emblems, there was another bestowed at the same time that is also frequently represented on monuments as a symbol of the principate. The senate dedicated a golden shield to Augustus in the Curia Julia, inscribing on it the declaration that it was set up because of his virtus, dementia, iustitia, and pietas. This shield is most frequently shown on monuments in the arms of a figure of Victory who is writing upon it; it is often designated simply as the cl(upeus) v(irtutis) 42

Cf. Sen. Clem. I, 26, 5: Nullum ornamentum principis fastigio dignius pulchriusque est quam ilia corona ob cives servatos. Cf. also Suet. Claud.. 17: Fastigio Palatinae domus. Though the references are later than Augustus, the fastigium was probably decreed to him either at this time or when the house itself was provided for. The fastigium might well have been regarded as part of his inheritance from Caesar. Caesar had also been voted a statue with oak crown on the Rostra, cf. Dio XLIV, 4, 5. Cf. Ov. Trist. in, 1, 35 ff.: 4 3

" E t Iovis haec" dixi, "domus est?" Quod ut esse putarem Augurium menti querna corona dabat. Cuius ut accepi dominum, " N o n fallimur" inquam, " E t magni verum est hanc Iovis esse domum." There follows a passage explaining the laurels and the oak crown.

162

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

(Fig. 2 7 ) . The virtus which was one day to give Augustus immortality was the foremost of the qualities for which it was bestowed upon him.

FIG. 27.

Clupeus Virtutis.

Aureus.

The idea that Augustus was a man on earth, destined after his death, like his father, to become a god, took firm hold on popular fancy. We can see it most clearly in the odes of Horace, the expression of a man who until the defeat of Antony had in general refrained from mention of public affairs in his verse. Now we find him voicing with unquestioned sincerity a feeling for the emperor which can hardly fail to be a real indication of the sentiment of many others who, like Horace, were weary of the storm of civil war and saw in Augustus the only hope for peace and security. In the second ode of the first book, written probably before the settlement of 2 7 , Horace, bewailing, as he had long years before, the iniquity of an age given over to civil war, asks what god the people may call upon to aid the empire in ruin. He mentions all the chief divinities of Augustus' regime, Vesta and Jupiter, the two bulwarks of the Roman state, Apollo, Venus, and Mars, the special gods of Augustus and his house. And then to the group he adds the emperor himself whom he imagines in the guise of Mercury: sive mutata iuvenem figura ales in terris imitaris almae filius Maiae, patiens vocari Caesaris ultor. Modern criticism has built up a legend of Augustus as a

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44

Mercury on earth, but it is improbable that there is more significance in the passage than there is in Vergil's nearly contemporary suggestion of addressing the emperor as chief god of land or sea. More significant are the stanzas that follow in which the poet recognizes the emperor as one who, though destined to find his place in heaven, is lingering for a while among men as the foremost among them, the father of all: serus in caelum redeas diuque laetus intersis populo Quirini, neve te nostris vitiis iniquum ocior aura tollat; hie magnos potius triumphos, hie ames dici pater atque princeps, neu sinas Medos equitare inultos te duce, Caesar. And then in a series of poems written after the reorganization of 2 7 , in which the very qualities celebrated on the shield in the Curia are emphasized, one sees clearly enunciated the idea of Augustus as a man on earth who, like the greatest among the demigods, will win his place in heaven. Sometimes the reference is vague as in the following lines (Carm. HI, 2 , 2 1 f.) : virtus recludens immeritis mori caelum negata temptat iter via. Again it is more definite in the lines which predict that Augustus, like Pollux and Hercules, Bacchus and Quirinus, will by his justice and his tenacity of purpose attain the heights of heaven (Carm. HI, 3 , 9 - 1 2 ) : hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules enisus arces attigit igneas, quos inter Augustus recumbens purpureo bibet ore nectar. There follows an account of Juno's consent to the apotheosis 44

See Scott, Hermes LXIII (1928), 15 ff., and Bickel's arguments against him, Bonner Jahrb. e x x x m (1928), 13 ff. Cf. p. 276 below.

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

of Romulus which, given the current identification between Augustus and Romulus, may be taken as a direct reference to the deification that is one day to come to Augustus. He achieves it, we may note, on condition that he shall never rebuild Troy, undoubtedly a reference to the fear that the Romans had long felt of having their capital transferred to the East. In one of the poems of the group, to be sure, Horace, like Vergil in the Georgics, shows himself not altogether reconciled to Augustus' renunciation of divinity in his life­ time. He suggests that when he has completed his conquests by adding the Persians and the Britons to the Roman realm, he will indeed be a revealed god, a Jupiter on earth (Carm. m , 5, 1-4): caelo tonantem credidimus Iovem regnare; praesens divus habebitur Augustus adiectis Britannis imperio gravibusque Persis.

But later he again accepts the parallel between Augustus and the demigods, for when Augustus returned to Rome in 24 after his Spanish war Horace likens him to Hercules in his readiness to risk his life for glory. There is also a comparison of Augustus and Hercules in the Aeneid, which was being written at the time. 45

But, leaving the Aeneid for a later consideration, we may also find indirect references to Augustus and his divine status in the great history of Rome which Livy began to write at some time between 27 and 25. The historian seems to have the emperor in mind in his account of Hercules and Romulus, both of whom, as men who attained immortality by their virtues and benefactions, are prototypes of Augustus, in Horace's Odes. Livy has Romulus encourage the cult of Hercules because he was disposed to favor the immortality won by virtue to which his own fates were leading him. Augustus as the new founder of Rome would naturally be 46

4 5

Hor. Carm. m , 14, 1 ff.; cf. iv, 5, 35 ff.; Epist. n, 1, 5 ff. See Aen. vi, 801 ff. Liv. i, 7: lam turn immortalitatis virtute partae, ad quam eum sua fata ducebant, fautor. 4fi

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

165

credited with a similar attitude toward the worship of Romulus and Hercules. In his circumstantial account of the apotheosis of Romulus, Livy, like Horace in the poem just mentioned, seems to be thinking of the similar fate that is to come to Augustus. The historian applies the epithet augustus to both of these prototypes of Augustus, apparently intending to make his readers think of the emperor under the new title which had just been conferred upon him. Furthermore, in several passages in the early books Livy uses the word augustus in contrast to humanus in what would seem to be a conscious effort to call to mind the emperor's position. 47

The emperor's expectation of divinity after his death is also apparent from the coins of the period. The most charac­ teristic symbol of apotheosis, the eagle, appears with the civic crown and the laurel branches on a coin of the year 27 (Fig. 28).

FIG. 2 8 .

Eagle with Civic Crown and Laurel Branches. Aureus.

About this same time too the figure of Capricorn begins to be seen on the coins of the emperor (Fig. 29) . It was the sign of the month of his conception, which he, like Antiochus of Commagene, evidently preferred to the sign of his birth. There are no further references to the balance, the birth sign under which Vergil had predicted his apotheosis in the Georgics. 48

49

47

Liv. Praef. 7 ; i, 7 , 9 ; v, 4 1 , 8 ; v m , 6 , 9 ; VIII, 9 , 10. See Hirst, I.e. and my paper, Class. Rev. X X X I I ( 1 9 1 8 ) , 158 ff. Mattingly, op. cit. pp. 106, 1 1 3 ; Mommsen, Res Gestae, p. 150, sees in the eagle an association with the pediment (fastigium) on Augustus* house. Bickerman. Arch. Religionswiss. x x v n ( 1 9 2 9 ) , 8, argues that the eagle was used as a symbol of power rather than of apotheosis in the early Empire. But such a theory does not account for the eagle which Dio says was released from the funeral pyre when the body of Augustus was burned. Cf. Bouche-Leclercq, UAstrologie grecque, pp. 3 7 3 , 2 ; 3 8 4 ; 4 3 9 . 48

49

166

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

The preference of Augustus for Capricorn is perhaps explained by the fact that Capricorn was lord of the western seas. Augustus had attained his power as ruler of the West, and he liked to emphasize the supremacy of the West. The sign 50

FIG. 29.

Capricorn.

Aureus.

became one of the chief emblems on his coins throughout the empire, and its use may be interpreted as a direct reference to his coming apotheosis. It is clear that the new status of the emperor gave him potential divinity but no formal cult with the regular accom­ paniment of temple, priest, and festival. Offerings were made to the gods for him but not to him. Such worship as he had under the guise of his Genius with the libation of unmixed wine belonged in Roman rites to the cult of the Genius. The worship was informal in character and not in the hands of public priests. Augustus' cult, like his position of power in the state, was veiled. But his associates showed the same reluctance that the poets expressed in accepting the situation. When in the year 25 Agrippa completed the Pantheon, the beautiful temple that formed the centre of his extensive monuments in the Campus Martius, he desired to consecrate it as a temple to Augustus, but the emperor refused to accept the public cult that such a consecration would bring with it. And so, forced to accept Augustus' 51

5 0

Cf. Hor. Carm. n, 17, 19 ff.: Tyrannus Hesperiae Capricornus undae; Prop, iv, 1, 86: Lotus et Hesperia. . . . Capricornus aqua; Manilius iv, 791: Tu, Capricorne, regis quicquid sub sole cadente est positum. See Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes, p. 160, n. 7. 6 1

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AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

167

interpretation of his status, he dedicated it to the ancestors that Augustus would some day join, and placed cult statues of Venus and Mars and the deified Julius in the cella of the temple. In the deep forecourt he set up a statue of Augustus and one of himself. The temple with Augustus' divine ancestors enshrined in it and with statues of Augustus and his future colleague and son-in-law to greet all who entered became a true symbol of the house of Augustus and its future. 52

From the time when the name Augustus was conferred until the emperor's return from the East in 19 B.C. there is little or nothing to tell of divine honors bestowed on the emperor at Rome. Senate and people had accepted Augustus as the descendant of gods who would one day attain divinity himself. They no longer passed long series of special honors such as had marked the last two years of Caesar's life, or such indeed as had been heaped on Octavian after Actium. Even the vows and prayers for his health—which was now a source of particular anxiety—and the celebration of his return from Spain after an absence of nearly three years were kept within bounds. The special honors that were voted him within this period—and they were numerous—followed republican tradi­ tions. Even here Augustus was not ready to accept every­ thing offered. He refused distinctions that had precedents in republican institutions—titles that had been given to Sulla and Pompey. There were vigorous protests when he refused the censorship and the dictatorship, and laid down the consulship which he had held every year since the declaration of war against Cleopatra. Augustus finally appeased the people by accepting in a new form the tribunitial power, which, hence­ forth renewed each year, became the regular indication of the years of an emperor's reign. 62

For the Pantheon as a symbol of apotheosis see Wagenvoort, op. cit. p. 19, n. 3; cf. Nissen, Orientation in, pp. 339 ff. On the resemblance of the structure to the vault of heaven see Dio LIII, 27: 0o\oei8h OP rw ovpapco irpoakoiKep. The difficulty in attributing real significance to the remark is that the original Pantheon seems to have been rectangular.

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T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

But in the East the formal cult of the emperor under his new title Sebastos, the word chosen as the Greek equivalent for Augustus, developed steadily, and met with the sanction of Augustus. Henceforth, in official documents at least, there was a tendency to avoid calling the emperor Theos, though sometimes the word crept in. But there was no diminution in the worship that was accorded to him. Cities and leagues of cities continued to build temples to him, to appoint priests for his cult, and to establish yearly fes­ tivals and games in his honor. The fullest expression of such honors is found in a decree of the people of Mytilene, passed soon after the new title was conferred and sent out to a number of cities in the empire as testimony of the loyalty of the Asiatic city to the new rule. The fragments that have been preserved show that Mytilene had a temple and a priest of Augustus, that it celebrated games for the emperor after the manner of games for the gods, that the emperor's birthday was to be commemorated every month like the birth­ days of Hellenistic kings, that the birthday should be signalized by sacrifices like the sacrifices to Zeus, and that the victims were to be white oxen especially bred for the purpose. The public character of the honors is shown not only by the announcement of them made to various cities but by the formal notices sent to Augustus to be posted in his house and on the Capitol. 53

54

The new name of the emperor began soon to be used instead of Caesar to form the name of cities that were founded or refounded under his auspices, and Sebaste took its place beside Caesarea as rival of names like Antiochia and Seleucia in the East. When the province of Galatia was formed in 25, the name Sebaste was given to the chief cities of three Galatian tribes. In the numerous colonies that Augustus founded to 55

53

This is partly true even for Egypt. See Wilcken, op. cit. p . 120. Cf. the letter of Claudius found on a papyrus, H . Idris Bell, Jews and Christians in Egypt, London, 1924. 1.G. x n , 2, 25 f. Cf. Cichorius, Rom und Mytilene, pp. 34 f. Galatia was made a Roman province in this year, and its chief cities begin a new era in 25—a fact that seems to show that the cities were renamed at the time. For the evidence see Heinen, p. 154, 1. 54

65

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

169

provide for his veterans in Italy and in the provinces of the East and the West he probably had a cult as city founder and was worshipped under the name Genius coloniae as the father was worshipped in the family. Perhaps the altar found with a dedication to the Gens Augusta in Carthage comes from the shrine where his Genius was worshipped in the new colony of Carthage (Figs. 30, 31, 32). The prominence of Apollo 56

F I G . 30. Altar from Carthage.

The goddess Roma.

and Diana on the monument indicates that it belongs to a time when their worship was at the centre of Augustus' religious policy. The shrine is described as the first erected to the gens. The Caesareum which the wealthy Roman knight Vedius Pollio set up to imperator Caesar Augustus and the colonia Beneventana may have been the centre of such a cult at Beneventum. Beginning about the year 25, the name 57

6 6

Rostovtzeff, Univ. of Wis. Stud., Class. Stud, n, 134 ff.; Social and Economic Hist, of the Rom. Emp., PI. vi. For the inscription see Appendix in. Gastinel's interpretation of the altar, Rev. Arch, x x i n (1926), 40 ff. is fanciful. C.I.L. ix, 1556: P. Veidius P. f. Pollio Caesareum imp. Caesari Augusto et coloniae Beneventanae. According to Dio LIV, 23, Vedius Pollio died in 15 57

B.C.

170

THE

DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

FIG. 31.

FIG. 32.

Altar from Carthage.

Altar from Carthage.

Apollo.

Aeneas with Anchises and Ascanius.

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D

171

JULIUS

Augusta was sometimes given to colonies of the West, a new departure that showed the influence of the Caesareas and Sebastes of the East. Some of them still retain the name— for instance Caesaraugusta in Spain, the modern Zaragossa, and Augusta Praetoria in the Alps, the Aosta of today. Beyond the confines of the Roman Empire kings and princes, who owed their power to the recognition of Rome, named cities for Augustus, erected temples in his honor, and placed his likeness, laurel-crowned, on coins with their own diademed portraits (Fig. 33). Most significant was the 58

FIG. 33. Augustus and Artavasdes III.

Silver coin.

activity of Herod, king of the Jews. He called his great sea­ port Caesarea, and refounded Samaria under the name Sebaste, building in both cities splendid temples of Augustus. In fact he built shrines of the emperor in many cities of his kingdom, refraining only in the cities of Judaea. He went so far in bestowing honors that he felt it necessary to make apologies to his subjects for his violation of national customs, and declared that he acted under orders. 59

60

68

See the coin of the Armenian king Artavasdes, Brit. Mus. Cat. Galatia, Cappadocia, and Syria, p. 101; also the coin of the Thracian king Rhoematalkes, ib. Thrace, p. 208. Cf. Josephus, Bell. lud. I, 21, 2-7, esp. 4: TTJV Idiav x&pav kirXripcarev vacov. But it is clear from Josephus, Ant. x v , 9, 5, that temples were not built in Judaea: . . . vaovs kyelpcov, OVK kv rfj TCOV 'lovdaicov. . . . rr\v 5' e$-u) xkpav Kal ras iroXeis ourco KareaKevd^ero, 'lovdaiois pkv diroXoyovpevos pij KaO' avrov dXX' c£ kvroXrjs Kal irpouTaypdrcov ravra iroLe2v Kaiaapt 8k Kal 'FtopaiOLs TO prjdk TCOV oUeicov kd&v oaov rrjs kKdvcov Tiprjs karoxdadai x P ^pevos. The chief city in the kingdom of Juba and Cleopatra in Mauretania received Augustus' name. See Strab. xvn, 3, 12. For coins of the city with a representation of a temple of Augustus see Willers, Sum. Zeitschr. x x x i v (1902), 105. 69

t

a

60

L

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

An excuse for fresh distinctions in Rome was provided by the growth of Augustus' prestige beyond the boundaries of the empire. The long-standing Parthian question, which Antony had failed to solve and which Augustus regarded as part of his inheritance from Caesar, was finally brought to a peaceful solution in the year 2 0 through a victory that in the end was purely diplomatic, and the Roman standards lost by Crassus and Antony were restored. The event was celebrated as a great military victory. Augustus accepted from the senate an arch with a statue of himself in a quadriga; it was erected in the Forum beside the temple of his deified father. He himself built a small round shrine of Mars Ultor on the Capitol to receive the standards until the great temple which he was planning for the god should be completed. He modelled it on Romulus' shrine of Jupiter Feretrius, the temple in which were dedicated the spolia opima. The event was celebrated in literature and art, and the poems of Horace and Propertius and the reliefs and coins of the period show the importance given to the emperor's peaceful victory. It was in the glory of this victory that Augustus himself returned to Rome from the East on October 1 3 of the year 1 9 . The enthusiasm of the people found expression in fresh decrees of honors that were like those given the emperor at his return from the East a decade before. He was disposed to be even more chary about accepting them than he had been on the earlier occasion. He refused the triumph offered and returned to the city by night before he was expected. But the senate found a new type of distinction for him. At the Porta Capena beside the temple of Honos and Virtus where he entered the city they erected an altar of Fortuna Redux on which every year the pontifices and Vestal Virgins were to offer sacrifices on the anniversary of the day that had brought him back to the city (Fig. 3 4 ) . The day itself was henceforth to be known as the Augustalia. Augustus had special confidence in the future of his house at this time. The birth in 2 0 B.C. of Gaius, eldest son of

173

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

Julia and Agrippa, gave him a possible heir of his own blood. He had been bitterly disappointed in his hopes for his family. He had no son of his own. He had married his only daughter

FIG. 34. Altar of Fortuna Redux. Aureus.

Julia to his nephew Marcellus, son of his sister, Octavia, and he had bestowed distinctions on Marcellus that recalled the distinctions that he himself had received from his uncle. But Julia and Marcellus had no children, and Marcellus died at the end of the year 23. He was the first of the house of Augustus to be buried in the great Mausoleum in the Campus Martius where his epitaph has lately been found. Then Augustus turned to his friend Agrippa, the general to whom he owed his greatest victories and the statesman to whom some of his most effective civil policies were due. He married Julia to Agrippa, and gradually brought his son-in-law into closer association with himself, until finally, by conferring on him the tribunitial power, he made Agrippa practically a coregent. T o Agrippa and his sons, Augustus' own grandsons, 61

61

His memory is more effectively enshrined in the familiar lines of Vergil, Aen. vi, 868 ff. He was not deified but the poet Propertius (in, 18, 31 f.) was doubtless expressing an idea that was current when he represented Mar­ cellus' soul going to the stars by the same path that the souls of his ancestor, the victor at Syracuse, and of the deified Caesar had taken. On the inter­ pretation of the very confusing passage see the recent text of O. L. Richmond (Cambridge, 1928), who assumes that there is a lacuna in the lines; he prints as follows: At tibi, nauta, pias hominum qui traicis umbras, hoc animae portent corpus inane suae

qua Siculae victor telluris Claudius et qua Caesar ab humana cessit in astra via.

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEHOK

the emperor could look for the continuance of his house. There was not—there never was in fact—a formal declaration of succession. Such a declaration would have been funda­ mentally inconsistent with Augustus' own theory of his position as Princeps. But when another son Lucius was born to Agrippa and Julia in the year 1 7 , Augustus took a step that indicated his plans for the children. He adopted them both as his own sons. He could now look forward with confidence to the future of his house, and that fact, as we shall see, had an important bearing on his divine position. Moreover, at this time Augustus had special reason for confidence in the divine destiny of his house. A great poet had celebrated his house in the most truly national epic in the realm of letters. When Vergil abandoned his plan of writing of the wars of Augustus and turned instead to the writing of a heroic epic with Augustus' ancestor Aeneas as hero, the emperor followed the progress of the work with great interest. From Spain he wrote to the poet begging for portions to read in advance, and, before leaving for the East in 22, he listened in company with Octavia to the reading of a number of books. On his return from the East Vergil joined the emperor in Athens and accompanied him as far as Brundisium. There the poet died with his great work un­ finished. Undoubtedly the emperor must have been familiar with the poem in its later stages, and he must have had some realization of the effect that it would have in picturing himself and his house as the true representative of Roman power and Roman traditions on the Italian soil that the gods had destined as the centre of the power of Rome. Augustus prevented the execution of Vergil's order that the poem be burned, and entrusted to Varius and Tucca the task of preparing it for publication. We do not know how long the work of prepara­ tion lasted, but we can be sure from allusions to the Aeneid in Horace's Carmen Saeculare that the poem was known to the Roman world in May of the year 17. The Aeneid has nothing to say of the divinity of Augustus

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

175

and nothing directly of the apotheosis to come to him after his death. The apotheosis is however suggested in several refer­ ences to the divinity that is in store for members of his house. One of the most familiar is the passage from Jupiter's speech to Venus in the first book (286-289): Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar imperium Oceano famam qui terminet astris, Iulius

a magno demissum nomine Iulo.

Hunc tu olim caelo spoliis Orientis onustum accipies secura; vocabitur hie quoque votis.

The scholiast says that the lines refer to Julius Caesar, and the fact that Augustus is nowhere after the year 40 given the name Julius is perhaps in favor of this view. But the reference to the closing of the temple of Janus in the next lines shows that the scene cannot be dated before the year 29. Perhaps the poet was referring to the dedication in 29 of the temple of Caesar which was decorated with the spoils won from Antony and Cleopatra; Divus Julius might thus be spoken of as spoliis Orientis onustus. The dedication of his temple was the final act in the deification of Julius Caesar that signified his position in heaven. Augustus himself is probably to be recognized with Agrippa in the lines that follow (292 f . ) : Remo cum fratre Quirinus iura dabunt.

Again we may quote the authority of the Servian commentary for the identification which is already familiar from Horace and Livy. But if the earlier lines refer to Julius, there is no suggestion here of Augustus' coming apotheosis except in so far as he might be expected to achieve what had been achieved by Julius and Quirinus. In Anchises' speech in the sixth book the emperor is compared in his deeds with Hercules and Liber, though, unlike Horace, Vergil makes no definite refer­ ence to Augustus' acquisition of a divinity like theirs. But the expectation is certainly implied, for in an earlier portion

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

of the speech divinity is promised for all the house of the Julii ( 7 8 9 f . ) : hie Caesar et omnis Iuli progenies magnum caeli ventura sub axem.

To Aeneas himself, Augustus' prototype, Jupiter promises deification and to lulus after his victorious fight in the ninth book Apollo declares that his virtue is leading him to the stars. The youth is addressed as one begotten by the gods and destined to beget gods in turn ( 6 4 1 f . ) : M a c t e nova virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra dis genite et geniture deos.

But in general in the Aeneid Vergil is concerned with the Julii as descendants of the gods rather than as ancestors of gods yet to be. The comparative lack, of emphasis on the future apotheosis of Augustus in the Aeneid is in line with the purpose of the poem. It looks from the past of the heroic age forward, not into the distant future but to the immediate present, to the Rome of Augustus which, on the site destined for it by the gods, had gained dominion over the whole world. It deals not with vague hopes but with genuine accomplishment. And the fact accomplished is the bringing back of the Golden Age long promised by the wisdom of oracles to the Romans. The gods are returning to the land of Saturn, the last of the lands on earth that they left. The poet's prayer to live long enough to see the full glory of the age has been granted. But in the song which he writes in honor of the age, it is not, as in the fourth eclogue, the vague figure of the age that he glorifies. Rather it is the man who as long promised saviour will inaugurate it: Hie vir, hie est tibi quern promitti saepius audis, Augustus Caesar, divi genus, aurea condet saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arva Saturno quondam. 2

« Aen. vi, 791-794.

62

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE D E I F I E D JULIUS

177

It remained for Augustus to make a final inauguration of the new era, and he must have had the new poem in mind when he determined to signalize the renewal of the new age in 1 7 B.C. Conversely, it was probably under the influence of plans to celebrate a new age that Vergil wrote the lines quoted above. The idea of a new age that was current when the fourth eclogue was written more than two decades earlier was now in men's minds again. The celebration that had been projected then but not carried out was again in prospect. Some of the same symbols that had been used on coins in the period just before the eclogue, and had not been used since then, now reappear on coins—the comet, the crescent moon, the head of Sol. As we know from the fourth eclogue and from other sources, there had long been oracles in circulation that foretold a new era. A Sibylline oracle ordering that secular games be celebrated in this year in honor of the new age was now produced from the revised collection housed in Apollo's temple on the Palatine, and Augustan scholars were able to find reasons why the year was a proper time for the celebration. Like all ceremonies ordered by the Sibylline books, the games followed the Greek rite, and therefore were directed not by the college of pontifices in which Lepidus still held first place but by the quindecimviri sacris faciundis with Augustus as the presiding officer. We need not follow the details of the sacrifices by night in the Campus to the Moerae, the Ilythiae, and to Mother Earth, or the offerings by day to Jupiter and Juno on the Capitol. In essential character they probably followed records of republican celebrations of the same sort. But some of the details must have been new. 63

Among these is the position of the emperor and the con63

Coins of P. Clodius that date in 43 before the formation of the triumvirate have on them Sol with crown and rays on the obverse, and a crescent moon with stars on the reverse. See ch. iv, n. 22. Sol and the crescent and stars do not appear on coins after the year 40 until 18 B.C. In the latter year a coin with Augustus' portrait on the obverse has on the reverse a crescent with a star above it, and still another series of the same year has the radiate head of Sol. See Mattingly, op. cit. i, PI. i, 17, 20; PI. n, 2. Coins of the year 17 have on them the comet above a young laureate head, obviously Divus Julius; ibid, i, p. civ. 13

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

fidence in his house that comes out in the prayers that are preserved in the records of the secular games. Since the victory over Antony it had been customary to include the name of the emperor in state prayers, but it is apparently here for the first time that we have his house mentioned. Augustus begs for the favor of the gods not only for the Roman people, the Quirites and the quindecimviri sacris fachmdis, but for himself and his house (mihi domo familiae). The prayer for his house is indicative of the new position which the Aeneid had given to the past of the house of Augustus, and the new hope of the future, which Augustus himself had reason to feel because of the heirs that he now had. Another new feature of the ceremonies is the special honor for Apollo and Diana, the patron gods of Augustus on the Palatine Hill. There and on the Capitol twenty-seven boys and the same number of girls sang to the twin divinities a hymn that the poet Horace composed for the occasion. The poem reads today as if it were made to order. But though it lacks the fire of Horace's best patriotic verse, it celebrates with dignity the peace and fidelity, the virtue and plenty that the descendants of Venus and Anchises had brought to Rome and it begs for the blessing of Augustus' gods Apollo and Diana on the coming age. The influence of the Aeneid is apparent in Horace's poem for this occasion. It must have been in men's minds when Augustus made the same sacrifice to Mother Earth that Aeneas had made to the earth goddess under another name, Maxima Juno. Augustus' relation to that sacrifice, which signified Aeneas' arrival at his promised land, is apparent from several representations of the scene in Augustan art which we shall consider later. And when Augustus went through the whole ceremony, which technically was described by the words saeculum condere, men must have had in mind the ringing lines of Vergil: Augustus Caesar divi genus, aurea condet saecula.

AUGUSTUS, SON OF THE DEIFIED JULIUS

179

The formal declaration of the new era was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Vergil. It is as the founder of the new age that we see Augustus in a statue that seems to date from the period, the Augustus of Prima Porta, the finest of all the portrait statues of the emperor. It is perhaps the earliest example we have of the great monumental art which celebrated the emperor and his house. Augustus is represented as an imperator addressing 64

FIG. 3 5 .

Drawing of Breastplate, Augustus of Prima Porta.

his troops. The figure, slightly more than life size, has great dignity and power. His richly sculptured breastplate has on 64

For the dating of the statue see Studniczka, Rom. Mitt, x x v i (1910), 2 7 - 5 5 . He notes that the face of Amor in the statue is strangely realistic, and he would see in it an attempt at a portrait of the emperor's baby grandson, Gaius.

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

it scenes that are significant for his reign. In the centre is the event which was foremost in every one's mind at the time, the return of the Parthian standards (Fig. 35). Above, under a figure of Caelus, is Sol preceded by Aurora, Luna with­ drawing before him, the symbols of the era which we have seen on coins, and below is Mother Earth with two children. On either side are Augustus' patron divinities, Apollo and Diana. The correspondence between the figures on the breast­ plate and the gods named in Horace's secular hymn is extra­ ordinary. Great artists were uniting with great poets in doing homage to Augustus and the new era that he had brought to Rome.

CHAPTER VII T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

The religious distinct ion. of Augustus' position was already great. The emperor was the descendant of divine ancestors who would one day join his forbears in the apotheosis that was to come to him after his death. Venus Genetrix, Mars Ultor, and Divus Julius were the chief objects of the worship; to them were added certain deified abstractions—Victoria, Fortuna, soon afterwards Pax, which typified qualities of the ruler. In the Roman state calendar which had once been reserved in all its celebrations for the gods, the emperor was honored on a number of days. They included his birthday, now almost always celebrated by circus games, the days of his victories in Sicily and at Actium, the anniversary of Antony's death, the day of his return in 19—a day that had a special name, the Augustalia. The calendar also included the dedica­ tion days of his shrine of Mars Ultor on the Capitoline and of his altars of Victoria and Fortuna Redux. 1

But on those days and on other occasional festivals the emperor was not worshipped as a god. Libations and sacrifices were made to the gods—particularly to Jupiter and Mars— for the blessings that had come to Rome from Augustus. But so far there seems to have been for Roman citizens only one regular cult act performed for the emperor, and that was the libation that, by senatorial decree of the year 30, was poured to his Genius at all banquets both public and private. How general the custom of pouring that libation had become is clear from the fact that in the ode of Horace (iv, 5) summon­ ing Augustus home from the West in 13 B.C. the poet describes 1

See the evidence given by Mommsen in his notes on May 12, July 4, August 1, August 28, September 2 and 3, 23 and 24, October 12, December 15, in Comm. Diurn. C.I.L. I, l . 2

181

182

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

the Roman farmer pouring the libation at dinner after the day's work is done: Hinc ad vina redit laetus et alteris te mensis adhibet deum. T e multa prece, te prosequitur mero defuso pateris et Laribus tuum miscet numen uti Graecia Castoris et magni memor Herculis.

Here is the libation to the Genius of the Emperor—in this case* as often, called numen—associated with the gods of the hearth, the Lares whom the Romans interpreted as the spirits of the dead ancestors. The Lares here are not, as is generally believed, the Lares Augusti who soon came into prominence. They were the gods of the individual family who regularly had an offering of food at the end of the Roman cena? We find the libation associated with the offering to the household Lares in Ovid's account of the Caristia, a family Move feast,' and in Petronius' description of Trimalchio's dinner.

2

4

The emperor under the veil of his Genius—Horace frankly calls him deus and the prayers address him as Caesar or Augustus with no mention of the Genius—was thus receiving worship with the gods of the household. Here was a form of 2

See Mommsen, Ges. Schrift. vn, p. 180, whom I followed in T.A.P.A. LI (1920), 124. On numen and Genius see Pipidi, Rev. Et. Lat. 1931, 1 ff. Verg. Aen. vin, 283 and I, 730 with Servius' comment on the latter passage; Hor. Sat. n, 2, 124; cf. Bliimner, Rom. Privatalt. p. 399, n. 14. Ov. Fast, II, 633 ff. (cf. Frazer's note ad loc.): 3

4

Et libate dapes, ut grati pignus amoris nutriat incinctos missa patella Lares, iamque ubi suadebit placidos nox umida somnos, larga precaturi sumite vina manu, et 'bene vos bene te, patriae pater, optime Caesar,' dicite subfuso (sic sacra verba) mero. In Petr. 60, the honor to the emperor's Genius (which here takes the bizarre form of cakes and fruit that emit saffron) comes just before the images of Trimalchio's household Lares and his Genius are brought in. The offering is made here toward the end of the cena, before the secunda mensa. The words of the guests as they rose for the ceremony were Augusto patri patriae feliciter.

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

183

cult at public and private banquets which prepared the way for a more formal state worship. But there was for long an obstacle to such a development. Augustus as Princeps undoubtedly thought of himself as the head of the state family, but he was not as yet head of the official state religion. He was not the chief priest of the Penates which Aeneas had brought from burning Troy. Lepidus still held the office of pontifex maximus which Augustus regarded as part of his inheritance from his father. There had been a good opportunity to secure the priesthood when Lepidus was discredited in 36, but Octavian at the time was insecure in his position and did not venture to accept it when the people offered it. Later, after his victory over Antony, when he had become the defender of Roman traditions, Augustus could not consistently deprive Lepidus of the office which by the mos maiorum was held for life. And so, though he apparently lost no opportunity of slighting Lepidus, the emperor left his former colleague in possession of the office that represented the religious power of the ancient kings. Here was the one position in the state in which Augustus did not have primacy. It was a very important one both because it had belonged to Caesar and because Augustus laid such stress on the religious character of his power. When Lepidus finally died at a ripe old age in 13 B.C., it was a matter of course that Augustus would be elected to the office. The popular assembly called to designate him was not held until March 6 of the following year. For the occasion, Augustus tells us in his Res Gestae, a throng from all Italy such as had 5

6

6

Compare Augustus' words in his Res Gestae 10: [_Pontif]ex maximus ne fierem in vivi Qc]onle[^ae locum populo id sace]rdotium deferente mihi, quod pater meu[s habuit, recusavi~\. Cf. Suet. Aug. 31. Although Augustus' election to the office is clearly attested for the year 12 by the Res Gestae and by the Fasti, Dio (LIV, 27, 2) assigns it to the year 13. Mommsen is probably right in explaining Dio's mistake by the suggestion that the death of Lepidus took place in 13. See his edition of the Res Gestae, 45. There was similarly an interval between the death of Augustus (August 19 of 14 A.D.) and the election of Tiberius to the office of pontifex maximus (March 15 6

of 15 A . D . ) .

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

never been seen at Rome came to the city. The day of the election was henceforth entered in the calendar as one of the most important dates of the Roman sacred year. The election to the new office made necessary an immediate adjustment in Augustus' residence, for custom required that the pontifex maximus dwell in the villa publica in the Forum. The senate apparently attempted to make some special pro­ vision for the emperor's residence but Augustus declined the offers. But since he did not wish to leave his residence on the Palatine beside the relics of Romulus' early city and his own great temple of Apollo, he turned the domus publica over to the Vestal Virgins and made a part of his own house public domain. In that part he erected his own altar and shrine of Vesta equipped with a palladium and an ever burning fire just as was the shrine in the Forum. The new monuments were the centre for the worship of the goddess of the hearth and the Penates of Augustus and the state. The altar and shrine were dedicated on April 2 8 of the year of his election to the new office. 7

8

In effect, by making a part of his house public domain Augustus was making his private household worship an official cult of the Roman state. His household cult included not simply Vesta and the Penates but the Genius of Augustus and the Lares. The Genius of the emperor was already honored with the gods of private houses by libations but the Lares of the imperial household so far seem to have had no public worship. Augustus proceeded to give them a place in the state religion, and at the same time to extend the cult of his Genius. He found a most effective means of bringing the Lares of his house and his Genius into the life of the Roman populace. The Romans had shrines of the Lares not only in the household where the Lares were the ancestors of a par­ ticular family but at the crossroads where they were more generalized spirits of the dead. Apparently the Romans, like 7

See the fragmentary statement in Dio LIV, 27. Ov. Fast, iv, 9 4 9 ff. See the Fasti Praenestini for April 28, C.I.L. i, l , p. 236. 8

2

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T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

many other peoples, had worshipped at the crossroads the spirits of the dead and also the life force, Liber Pater, a phallic divinity. The spirits of the dead at the crossroads or compita were known as the Lares Compitales, and they had an ancient worship in Italian cities with a riotous spring festival in which organizations of slaves and freedmen were the chief partici­ pants. In Rome at the end of the Republic the associations taking part in this celebration, the Compitalia, were suppressed with the other collegia. After that the shrines at the cross­ roads fell into disuse in the capital, though they apparently continued to be maintained in the cities of Italy. 9

10

And so Augustus at this time returned to his work of re­ storing shrines and renewed all these sanctuaries at the compita. In them he placed fresh statues of the Lares, now known as Lares Augusti, not vague spirits of the dead but the ancestors of his own house. Between the statues of the Lares he set up a new image in which we may recognize a god akin to the ancient Liber Pater of the crossroads—his own Genius. The reorganization of the shrines is celebrated by Ovid, who comments, on the three divinities that now take the place of the two formerly enshrined there: 11

Bina gemellorum quaerebam signa deorum; viribus annosae facta caduca morae. Mille Lares Geniumque ducis qui tradidit illos, urbs habet et vici numina trina colunt.

12

The new cult was instituted as part of the emperor's work of reorganizing the entire municipal system of Rome, and it was put into effect gradually in all the vici of Rome. Each vicus in later records dated its years of existence from the time when it was reorganized, and the earliest date for any one precinct is 12 B.C., the year when Augustus became pontifex maximus; 9

Cf. Varro ap. Aug. CD. VII, 21. There was a statue of Liber Pater on the Ara Gentis Iuliae in Rome. See A.J. A. x x i x (1925)*, 308. Caesar was responsible for their final suppression. See Suet. Jul. 42. For a possible republican anticipation of this combination compare the honors accorded to Marius Gratidianus. See ch. n. n. 48. 1 Fast, v, 143 ff. l u

11

2

186

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 1 3

the latest is the year 7 B.C. under which Dio mentions the city reorganization. The cult was like the old worship at the compita in that it belonged particularly to slaves and freedmen. Each vicus had four freedman magistri who served in each year and the same number of slave ministri, titles that had belonged to the ancient cult of the Lares Compitales. From the vici of Rome several altars showing the new cult have come down to us. From the scenes on them it is clear that, the worship was accompanied by the sacrifice of victims, a pig for the Lares and a bull for the Genius of the emperor. The worship spread speedily throughout Italy and the in­ scriptions from the vici of many towns and from the pagi or country districts give us the names of freedman magistri and slave ministri such as we find in Rome. Sacrificial scenes on the altars show that the offering of victims to the emperor became a regular feature of the cult. The wide extent of the cult is clear from the ruins of Pompeii where the altar of the emperor's Lares and Genius is a regular feature of the street crossing. 14

The institution of the new cult is represented on an altar which does not, like most of the monuments of the cult, belong to an individual vicus. It was set up to the emperor by the senate and people, apparently in some central position. Unfortunately there is no record of where it was found to aid in deciding what the position was. The date of the altar is fixed only by the fact that the emperor is called pontifex maximus. It is therefore not earlier than March 6, 12 B.C., and from the fact that one of the scenes on it represents the 15

13

For the evidence see the commentary on C.I.L. vi, p. 454. The cult also seems to have been instituted in some municipalities in this same year, for an inscription recording four magistri Augustales primi from Nepet in Etruria belongs to 13-12 B.C. See Appendix in. For the evidence that the Magistri Augustales, in some cases at least, performed the same functions as the vicorum magistri see T.A.P.A. XLV (1914), 235 f. " See Altmann, Rom. Grabaltare, pp. i f 5 ff. Cf. C.I.L. vi, 445-454, 3095730962. See Amelung, Die Skulpturen des Vat. Mus. n, p. 242; C.I.L. vi, 876. For a full discussion of the altar see my article on " T h e Mother of the Lares," A.J.A. x x i x (1925), 299 ff. 15

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

187

institution of the cult of the Lares, which began in 12 B.C., it is probably to be put in that year. The scenes on the altar are worth describing in some detail. The front (Fig. 36) of it

FIG. 36. Altar of the Belvedere—Front.

shows a floating Victory holding a shield, a copy of the statue set up in the Curia in 27, and afterwards used as an emblem of the emperor. With the goddess appears another important emblem of the principate, the two laurel trees, one on either side. On the shield—the clwpeus virtutis—is the inscription: Senatus populusque Romanus imp(eratori) Caesari divi i(ilio) Augusto pontif(ici) maxim (o) imp (eratori) co (ri)s(uli) tnb(unicia) potestat(e). The face opposite this one (Fig. 37) represents an apotheosis of a man who is being drawn upward by four winged horses. Above are Sol and Caelus. The scene prob­ ably represents the deification of Augustus. The accom­ panying figures are members of the imperial household, on the left a man who may be Tiberius, to whom Julia was

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

married not long after the death of Agrippa, on the right probably Julia with the young Gaius and Lucius. It is the

FIG. 37. Altar of the Belvedere—Rear.

narrow faces of the altar that are significant for the new cult of the imperial Lares. One of them (Fig. 38) shows an altar with the figure of a man in the posture of sacrifice, his mantle drawn up over his head. On the other side of the altar are three figures, pne of whom holds a statuette representing a Lar and is reaching out to take a similar statuette from one of the other figures. This must be the institution of the cult of the Lares Augusti. The fourth face is related to the same cult (Fig. 39). On rocky ground beneath the trunk of a tree lies the sow whose discovery was for Aeneas the sign that he had reached his promised land (Aen. HI, 390): litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus. Beneath her are her young, though the sculptor had not room for all thirty of them. Beside the sow stands Aeneas leaning on a staff, and in front of him is a seated figure of a woman

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

189

completely shrouded in a mantle. She is a form of Mother Earth, the Maxima Juno to whom Aeneas is commanded to sacrifice the sow. Now we hear in Roman cult of the mother 16

FIG. 38. Altar of the Belvedere—Side.

of the Lares, a form of Mother Earth for whom and her children the Lares a sow and her young formed the proper sacrificial victims. Such a sacrifice must have formed part of the ceremony by which the emperor instituted the cult of the Lares. Again, as at the secular games, we find Augustus performing the sacrifice that Aeneas had also made. It is tempting to find in this use of the familiar sow with her young some symbolic reference to Augustus' own life. Perhaps the thirty young here denote the years that he had waited for the office of pontifex maximus which ought properly to have come to him as part of the inheritance of Caesar. Concerning the place of the Lares Augusti in state cult out16

Cf. Carcopino, Virgile et les Origines d'Ostie, pp. 71G ff. and PI. XVIII.

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

side of the worship in the Laravium on the Palatine and at the crossroads we have little knowledge, but of the Genius of the emperor there is much more to tell. The Genius 17

FIG. 39.

Altar of the Belvedere—Side.

Augusti speedily became for Roman citizens the object of a great state cult. It provided for the Roman emperor under veiled form a worship which was no less a ruler cult than was the more declared worship of the Hellenistic king as a revealed god on earth. As was true of the oriental ruler cult, the new worship became a symbol of the state and the observance of it became an expression of loyalty to the state. Just as in the East it was customary to take official oaths by the ruler himself or by his Tyche, so among the Romans the official oath by the Genius of the emperor was established. Such an oath by Caesar's Genius had been instituted before his death but it was one of the dictator's divine honors that his son seems hitherto to have refrained from taking over. Probably Augustus did not feel the same objection to it that he felt to many of Caesar's divine honors; after all the oath by the Genius 1 7

It is possible that the aedes Larum in summa sacra via which Augustus restored (Res Gestae 19) was rededicated to the Lares Augusti. Huelsen sug­ gested that the inscription Laribus Aug(ustis) sacrum (C.I.L. vi, 30954) belonged originally to this shrine. See Huelsen-Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom. i,

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T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

of the master was a regular feature of the ancient Roman cult of the man of the house. But Augustus might well have hesitated to have his name included in the oath before he secured the office of pontifex maximus which made him in religious cult the head of the Roman state family. The custom of taking oath by the emperor's Genius is referred to by Horace in the first epistle of the second book, a poem that cannot be exactly dated but is probably to be placed close to the time of the emperor's election to the high priesthood. Horace begins with the familiar comparison of Augustus and the demigods—Romulus, Liber, Castor and Pollux, and Hercules, who won divinity not in their lifetime but only after death had removed them from envy. With Augustus, he declares, the case is different; men give him worship while he is still with them (15 f . ) : 18

19

Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores iurandasque tuum per numen ponimus aras.

20

Evidently altars were being erected at this time, and provision had already been made for the oath which was later to become an important factor in the relation of the Christians to the 1 8

Plaut. Capt. 977; Ter. An. 289; Tib. iv, 5, 8; Sen. Epist. 12, 2. Mommsen, op. cit. pp. 179 ff. assumes from Horace, Carm. iv, 5, 31 ff. and Epist. n, 1, 15 f. that the Genius was formally enrolled in state cult at some time before the end of the year 13. His interpretation is accepted by Heinen, p. 160. I also accepted it in T.A.P.A. LI (1920), 124, but it now seems to me more probable that the establishment of the Genius as an official cult came as a natural result of Augustus' policy of making his household gods the object of public worship. Mommsen, op. cit. p. 179, dated this epistle in the latter part of 13, seeing in the use of praesens a reference to Augustus' recent return upon which he was given honors that had perhaps been decreed some time before, and therefore could be described by the word malurus. But, as Kiessling immediately pointed out (Phil. Untersuch. n. p. 59, n. 13), the word praesens really indicates the fact that Augustus is being honored as a god on earth in contrast to Hercules and Liber, who had to wait until after their death for such homage. The poem may date between the death of Lepidus and the election of Augustus to the priesthood on March 6 of 12 B.C., during which time the altars may have been in process of erection. Perhaps maturus is used to call attention to the fact that Augustus had finally acquired honors long due him. 1 9

2 0

192

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

Roman empire. The association of the oath with the office of pontifex maximus is supported by the fact that it was on March 6, the anniversary of Augustus' election as pontifex maximus, that the Paphlagonian cities took their oaths of allegiance. The new cult, in so far as it was like the Roman household worship of the master, was based on native Roman precedents, and those precedents, together with the fact that it was not instituted until after Augustus' rule was firmly established, must have been responsible for its success. But it departed from the household cult of the Genius in one very important detail, namely in the nature of the offering to the god. It was customary in Roman cult to make only bloodless offerings to the Genius—unmixed wine, such as was poured in the libation to the emperor, and incense and flowers. In the new cult, the emperor's Genius, as we know from the scenes on the altars from the vici, and from the mention of sacrifices in the Acts of the Arval Brethren, was worshipped by the sacrifice of victims. 21

22

The victim chosen was a bull. An ox was the proper offering for Jupiter and most of the gods, and later for the deified emperor. The choice of a victim for the Genius is consistent with the root meaning of the word genius in its relation to gignere. The Genius is properly the life force, and, if the blood of a victim was to be shed for it, an animal in the full strength of life was the proper offering. The eastern ruler cult provided precedents for this victim. The bull had been a symbol of the king in Assyrian and Egyptian religion. It was moreover a form of the god Dionysus with whom Alex­ ander and after him the Ptolemies and the Attalids were in some instances identified. It is of importance to determine where in Rome public 2 1

Dittenberger, O.G.I.S. 532. The oath is taken by the emperor, not by his Genius. Cumont, Rev. Et. Gr. x i v (1901), 37 ff. notes that it is the earliest example of such an oath outside of Egypt. Censorinus, de Die Nat. 2, 1-2. The porcus bimenstris of Horace, C. in, 17, 14, is probably for the Lares, the agnus of iv, 11, 6 for other gods. 2 2

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE C U L T

193

23

sacrifices to the emperor's Genius were made. Besides the chapels at the compita, from which we have a number of altars showing the sacrifice, the emperor's household shrine on the Palatine was probably the scene of sacrifices which belonged not to limited regions but to the whole state. More­ over, the Capitoline Hill, as we know from the Acts of the Arval Brethren, was later the scene of public sacrifices to the Genius of the living emperor. Very likely such sacrifices were instituted there at the time when Augustus was made pontifex maximus. There must have been a special altar established for them. The site was a fitting one, for it placed the Genius close to the great god that typified the power of Rome—Jupiter Optimus Maximus with whom the Genius was henceforth named in the official oath of the state. 24

25

26

The worship of the Genius was in veiled form a worship of the emperor himself. That fact is clear from Horace's words in which he speaks of the emperor receiving his own cult in person. In speaking of the cult of the Genius he uses the word praesens, the regular designation of the incarnate god. But the Genius also denoted the future of the house, the divine force which was to produce future generations of Augusti. Besides the official cult of Augustus' divine ancestors, Mars 2 3

Private sacrifices to the Genius could apparently be made before any statue of Augustus. Augustan evidence on the subject is lacking, but for Tiberius see Dio LVIII, 4, 4. In the later imperial cult we hear a great deal of offerings to the statues of the emperors. See Henzen, Acta Fratrum Arvalium, passim. The Ara Gentis luliae on the Capitoline is known from one reference in the Acts of the Arval Brethren and from the records on a number of military diplomas, the originals of which were placed on the altar. It may have been established in 12 B.C. (see A.J.A. x x i x (1925), 307, n. 2), but it now seems to me more likely that it was identical with the altar to the numen Augusti estab­ lished by Tiberius probably in 13 A.D. Still that altar may have been built on the site of a temporary altar which had been in use since 12 B.C. The official oath had originally been taken by Jupiter Optimus Maximus and the Di Penates. The Genius of the living emperor was afterwards inserted and subsequently names of all deified emperors. Under Domitian the oath is given as follows: per Iovem et divom Aug(ustum) et divom Claudium et divom Vesp(asianum) Aug(uslum) et divom Titum Aug(ustum) et genium imp(eratoris) Caesaris Domitiani Aug(usti) deosque Penates (C.I.L. n, 1963). 14 24

2 6

2 3

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T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

and Venus and Divus Julius, there was now a worship of the procreative power that would insure the continuance of the blessings which the Julian house had brought to Rome. It was consistent with the development of the cult of the Genius to give the emperor's birthday, the Genius' chief festival, a place of greater prominence in the calendar. It had been a public festival since the battle of Actium, but at first it had been simply the occasion for sacrifices to the gods in thanks for the welfare of the emperor. Later, though without special ordinance to provide for it, it had become the regular custom to celebrate the day, under the initiative of the praetor in charge, by circus games, and in the year 8 B.C. Augustus permitted the circus games on this date to be entered in the calendar as a regular festival. Victims were also offered to the Genius of the emperor on his birthday. In the same year that his birthday was marked in the calendar by a type of celebration that put it on a par with the festivals of the great gods, Augustus accepted another distinction that had been passed by senatorial decree and popular lex but had apparently never been acknowledged by Augustus himself. This was the naming of a month Augustus, a distinction that proved to be the most enduring of all his divine honors. The month for which he accepted the name was not his birthmonth September which the people had originally favored but Sextilis. As the month in which he had first taken the fasces in 43 and had secured final victory over Antony in 30, it was the proper date for the celebration of the beginning of his rule. 27

28

29

2 7

Dio LV, 6, 6. For the evidence for the constantly increasing honors that accompanied Augustus' birthday see Heinen, p. 145, n. 2. The Calendar from Cumae, C.I.L. x, 3682 (i, l , p. 229), a record of festivals of the imperial house inscribed between 4 A.D. and Augustus' death, has only one provision for a sacrifice, and that is on Augustus' birthday. The Acta Fratrum Arvalium provide regularly for sacrifice of bulls to the Genius of the living emperor on his birthday. For the year 8 B.C. as the date of the honor see Dio LV, 6, 6-7; Censorinus, de Die Nat. 22 (who, evidently counting from the year 27, places it in the twentieth year of the reign of Augustus). Suetonius associates the acceptance with Augustus' adjustment of the calendar in 8 B.C. Otto Seeck, in Pauly2 8

2 9

2

195

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

August 1, the date of the entry into Alexandria, became the chief festival of his power. The new provisions gave him two great festivals like the celebrations of eastern kings—his birthday and the birthday of his power. It was perhaps at this time that the emperor began to have a sacred fire borne before him in processions. The custom, known from literary evidence from the time of Marcus Aurelius and later, has recently been carried back to the Augustan Age through an ingenious interpretation of can­ delabra found on a series of Augustan aurei (Fig. 40) . The 30

FIG. 40.

Candelabrum.

Aureus.

custom of bearing fire before the king went back to the court of the Persians where the fire typified the hvareno, the idea of kingly glory, and from them it went down to the Hellenistic kings; for them the fire of Hestia, familiar in Greek religious traditions prepared the way for the Persian custom. At Rome the fire was naturally associated with the flame of Vesta, and when the emperor's own shrine of Vesta was established, the flame on the altar carried before him was probably kindled Wissowa, s.v. Iulius (Augustus), 361 f. has suggested that Augustus acknowl­ edged the new name of the month on the bronze tablet on which he issued his provisions for the calendar (Macr. Sal. I, 14, 15). For an interpretation of the evidence somewhat different from mine see Scott, Yale Classical Studies* ii, 224 ff. See Drexel, Phil. Woch. XLVI (1926), 157 ff. The aureus is ornamented on the obverse with a youthful portrait inscribed CAESAR within an oak crown and on the reverse with a candelabrum surrounded by a wreath in which are bucrania and paterae; the inscription on the reverse is AUGUST. Drexel's interpretation of the portrait as Gaius and the AUGUST of the obverse as an abbreviation of Augustalia (cf. Willers, Rom. Kupferpragung, p. 178, 2) is unlikely, for the portrait is an Augustan type and the division of the emperor's name on the two sides of the coin is a very common one. The coin can hardly be later than 11 B.C. See Bahrfeldt, op. cit. p. 137: Mattingly, op. cit. i, p. cxxvi. 3 0

196

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 31

from there. The custom had its Roman antecedents, for it was usual to carry lighted incense before the triumphing general. The position of the house of Augustus became steadily more prominent. It had a grievous loss in the death of Agrippa, which occurred hardly two weeks after Augustus had received the office of pontifex maximus. Like Marcellus, he was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus, and the emperor also delivered the funeral oration. Although he was not enshrined in formal state cult it was current doctrine that Agrippa, like Marcellus and the great heroes of the republic, had gone to the stars. A coin of this year shows Augustus in the toga, his hand upon the clupeus virtutis that symbolized his own future apotheosis, placing a star upon the head of Agrippa (Fig. 41). 32

33

34

35

To strengthen his house at a time when his grandsons were too young to have any part in administrative affairs Augustus turned to his able though unsympathetic stepson, Tiberius, caused him to divorce his wife and marry Julia, and eventually accorded him a triumph and a share in the tribunitial power. « See Cumont, Rev. d'hist. et litt. relig. i (1896), 441 ff. Appian, Lyb. 66. See Otto, 'ETrtTiyxoW (in honor of Swoboda), pp. 194-200. Cf. Appendices i and n. Mommsen had already drawn the parallel between the fire borne before the emperors and the torches carried before the magistrates. Cf. Staatsrecht i , p. 424, especially n. 4. Otto's parallel with the tiiumph is more significant, for there the objects carried are described as thymiateria. Agrippa, as Augustus' colleague in the tribunitial power, and as the real representative of the empire in the East duiing the years 16-13, had had the most extensive honors. He was hailed as saviour and founder of cities, some of which took his name, and games were celebrated in his honor. See Heinen, p. 176 and Gardthausen i, pp. 740 ff.; 836 ff. Cf. Appendix in. In Rome Agrippa always guarded against excessive honors for himself. His prowess in war had made him the successor of the great conquerors of the republic, but he persis­ tently refused to accept a triumph. According to Dio LIV, 29, 8, a comet (apparently Hal ley's comet) hung over the city for several days just before the death of Agrippa. See Gardt­ hausen n, p. 504, n. 31. Mattingly i, p. 26. As Mattingly notes, this is " a sort of unofficial consecration of Agrippa." Bickermann, Arch. Rcligionswiss. x x v n (1929), 8, n. 4, objects to the statement, but it is clearly an expression in art of the same idea that Propertius in, 18, 31 ff. puts into words about Marcellus. See ch. vi, n. 61. 32

3

33

34

35

197

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

The young Gaius and Lucius became steadily more prominent, particularly after Drusus, Augustus' favorite stepson, had died and Tiberius had gone into voluntary exile at Rhodes. The title principes iuventutis conferred upon them by the knights

FIG. 41. Augustus placing a Star on Agrippa's Head.

Denarius.

was interpreted as a forecast of their attainment of the principate in the state. Ovid addresses Gaius thus: nunc iuvenum princeps, deinde future senum.

36

and the title later became the regular designation of the heir to the succession. The family of Augustus is represented as a great princely house on the sculpture of the Ara Pacis, an altar which was vowed on Augustus' return from the West in 13 B.C. and was dedicated in January, 9 B . C . It showed that the dynasty was inspiring a great monumental art worthy to be placed beside the poetry that celebrated it. Without any of the customary insignia of royalty, the emperor and his family are figures of great stateliness and majesty. With the long friezes on the sides were combined scenes at the east and west entrances that showed the destiny of Rome. At the east there was a representation of the goddess Roma seated on a mass of armor and across from her a goddess with two little children and a group of attendant figures and attributes (Fig. 42). She is obviously a form of the earth goddess, 37

38

3 6

Ovid, A. A. i, 194. On the title Princeps iuventutis, see Mommsen, Staatsrecht n , pp. 826 ff.; Rostovtzeff, "Romische Bleitesserae"; Klio, Beiheft in, 59 ff. See also J.R.S. xiv (1924), 158 ff. Res Gestae 12. Cf. C.I.L. I, l , Comm. Diurn. under July 4 and January 30. On the arrangement of the slabs, see Studniczka, Abh. Sack. Ges. d. Wiss. Phil.-hist. Kl. x x v n (1909), 90 ff. See also H. Wagenvoort, Mededeelingen van het nederlandsch historich Institut te Rome i (1921), 100 ff. 3

37

3 8

2

198

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

and the figures at the other end provide strong support for A. W. Van Buren's suggestion that she is Italia as we know her from the famous description in the GeorgicsP At the

FIG. 4 2 .

Terra Mater, Ara Paris, east.

west end of the monument connected by a procession of priests and senators with the goddess Roma was a fragmentary relief showing the god Mars, the sacred fig tree under which Romulus and Remus were found, and, according to the most probable reconstruction of the scene, the Lupercal with the wolf suckling the twins. This slab commemorating the legend of the founding of Rome has a real connection with the figure of Roma. Across from this slab and connected by the pro­ cession of the imperial house with the figure of the earth goddess was a scene which resembled the one we have described on the Vatican altar (Fig. 43). Aeneas is about to sacrifice the pregnant sow, the victim which was the proper offering for Mother Earth in her various manifestations. In the Aeneid the sight of the victim with her young is the omen that reveals to Aeneas that he has reached his promised land of Italy, and wj.R.S.

in

( 1 9 1 3 ) , 1 3 4 ff.

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

199

the connection between the two slabs provides additional basis for the suggestion that the goddess, with whom the sacrifice of the sow must be associated, is a specialized form of the earth goddess, Italia. The reliefs are thus richly symbolic of

FIG. 43.

Aeneas about to sacrifice the Sow, Ara Pacis, west.

the divine destiny of Rome which the house of Augustus, through the aid of Augustan Peace, was bringing to fulfilment. Pax Augusta was another deified abstraction added to the imperial worship, and henceforth, as at the altar of Fortuna Redux which commemorated Augustus' return from an earlier journey, magistrates and priests made annual sacrifices at the altar. By the time the monument was dedicated there was already another festival in Rome for Peace, with two other abstractions, Salus and Concordia, who were here for the first time associated with the emperor in public cult. 40

4 0

Dio LIV, 35, 2; cf. Ovid, Fasti m , 881 ff. See Heinen, p. 163, n. 3.

200

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

Their images were erected in 10 B.C. with a sum of money which had originally been collected to set up statues of the emperor himself. They had a festival in common with Janus on April 30, and they seem to have had a shrine in union with the god. An ill-timed uprising of the Dacians and the Dalmatians prevented the formal closing of the temple of Janus which was planned for this year. 41

There was one more great monument of the house of Augustus to be dedicated—the temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus which had long been in process of con­ struction. A few months before it was dedicated in the year 2 B.C. Augustus' position as head of the Roman state family was further signalized by the title pater patriae which was conferred on him at a meeting of the senate held on February 5. Valerius Messala, who acted as spokesman for the occasion, began his speech with a prayer for the future of Augustus and his house. Here was another honor that was closely analogous to one of Caesar's—the title parens patriae bestowed on him in 45. The new title was by special decree inscribed in the Curia, in the vestibule of the Palatine house, and on the quadriga of the emperor set up in the Forum of Augustus, which was dedicated in the same year. The temple in the centre of this Forum honored Mars, the father of Augustus' house, and the two fathers, Mars, and Augustus, are associated in the prayers of Ovid for the young Gaius who was to start for the Orient in the following year: 42

Marsque pater, Caesarque pater, date numen eunti, nam deus e vobis alter es, alter eris. 43

The new temple of Mars Ultor and the Forum in which it stood formed the most imposing of all the monuments of the emperor, and the great celebration that attended its dedication represented the final achievement of all that Augustus had striven for from his youth. Caesar had himself planned to 44

41

42

43

44

Dio LIV, 36, 2. Res Gestae 35; Suet. Aug. 58. A.A. i, 203 f. Suet. Aug. 29; Dio LV, 10; Res Gestae 21.

201

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

enshrine Mars, the father of his house, as worthily as he had enshrined Venus the mother. Probably the dedication of the temple would have been the culmination of his war against the Parthians; certainly the god is associated with the struggle against the Parthians. The young Octavian had vowed a temple to the god on the field of Philippi, and had given the god the title Ultor which indicated his function of avenger of the death of his son Caesar. The plans for the temple were long delayed, for Augustus wished to build it in a Forum like Caesar's, thus giving his divine ancestor, who, as god of war, had been kept outside the pomerium, an honored place inside the sacred boundaries of the city. He found it a difficult matter to secure the needed site, and the process of purchasing the land took years; the irregularity of the plan of the Forum, which can be plainly seen now that the site has been fully cleared, bears witness to the fact that he never succeeded in securing enough land to give the Forum a symmetrical plan. When the Parthian standards were brought back in the year 20, the new temple had probably not even been begun, and a small shrine of Mars Ultor had to be erected to receive them on the Capitol. The temple and the Forum were not yet complete in 2 B.C. but the emperor did not wish to delay the dedication longer. He chose as the dedication day August 1, the date already known as the formal beginning of his rule. 45

The Forum with its statues of the Alban kings, its repre­ sentations of Roman generals who had triumphed, and its elogia recording their honors, perpetuated the history of the Roman race and its glory in war. The temple was made a 46

45

For this shrine and its dedication day (probably May 12) see Mommsen's discussion, Comm. dium. for May 12 and August 1, C.I.L. 1, l ; cf. Heinen, p. 169, n. 1. In attempting to interpret Horace, Carm. i, 12 as a poem inspired by a walk through the Forum of Augustus, D . L. Drew (Class. Quart, x i x (1925), 159 ff.) overlooks the fact that the galleries of the Forum of Augustus were adorned with statues of Roman generals who had triumphed, and not simply with monuments of "Roman worthies." As he himself says, the Romans in Horace's ode "are, on the whole, rather unwarlike." There is the further 2

46

202

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

centre for the army and for preparation for war. Here the youths, on taking the toga virilis with appropriate ceremonies on the Capitol, were to come to be inscribed among men of military age, and here the cavalry commanders, the seviri equitum, were to celebrate an annual festival, the ludi sevirales or Martiales, in which the newly enrolled sons of the nobility were to have the leading part. The temple was to be the starting point from Rome for generals bound on foreign wars; the senate was to meet here to deliberate on awarding triumphs, and the triumphing generals, still giving their spoils to Jupiter on the Capitol, were to dedicate here to Mars their sceptre and their crown. Here too all military standards recovered from the enemy were to be placed. Thus the temple, like the great shrine of Apollo on the Palatine, usurped some of the privileges of the national temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. 47

This temple, which Augustus had waited forty years to dedicate, combined the worship of Augustus' divine ancestors with the new cult of the Genius. In it, as in the Pantheon, three gods were enshrined, Mars, the chief divinity of the temple, and with him Venus and the deified Julius whose death his father Mars had avenged. But at the temple— perhaps on an altar within the precinct of the Forum— sacrifices were also instituted to the Genius of the emperor. 48

49

difficulty that the statues could hardly have been begun at the time when Horace's ode was written. Mommsen, in his discussion of the elogia of the Forum, C.I.L. i, l , pp. 186 f. suggests that there is an allusion to the monuments of the forum in Horace, Carm. iv, 8, 13 ff. and, though the statement has been questioned, it seems probable. The statement made in modern handbooks that the youths of the imperial house went to the temple of Mars Ultor to take the toga virilis is an unjustifiable deduction from Dio's fragmentary statement, LV, 10. The provision seems to have been that all youths when they assumed the toga of manhood went to the temple of Mars Ultor as well as to the Capitol; the latter, however, remained the site of the chief ceremony. Cf. the bas-relief with Mars, Venus Genetrix, and Divus Julius found in Carthage. Gsell, Rev. Arch, x x x i v (1899), 35 ff., argues that they are copies of the cult statues of the temple of Mars Ultor. Cf. Fig. 44. The performance of sacrifices to the Genius of the living emperor in this Forum is attested for a later period in the Acta Fratrum Arvalium. See Henzen's edition, pp. lxxv, 29 and 37; lxxxvi, 1; xciv, 88; xcvi, 18. It seems probable that the sacrifices were instituted when the temple was founded. 2

4 7

4 8

4 9

T H E FORMATION OF A STATE CULT

203

In later times this temple was the regular scene of sacrifices to the Genius of the living ruler whoever he might be. It was thus closely associated with the conception of the future of the imperial power. The combination of the Genius with

FIG. 44.

Venus Genetrix, Mars Ultor, and Divus Julius.

Relief from Caithage.

Mars was a natural one, for Mars himself was a divinity closely related to Genius. He was a power of fertility, and the bull, the usual offering to the Genius, was the victim regularly sacrificed to him. Augustus was not even now in theory a god on earth. The poets of the period, in spite of the new note of flattery that is characteristic of Augustus* later years, still speak of godhead as something that he will attain after his death. In his life­ time the cult was directed not to the emperor as a god on earth but to his shadowy attendant spirit. But the cult given his

204

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

attendant spirit had taken on the character of the Hellenistic ruler cult, and the Genius was but a thin veil for the emperor himself. It had the sacrifices and the festivals that belonged to a god, and, like the cult of most of the great gods of the Roman pantheon, its worship was in the hands of the college of pontifices. A man might sacrifice to his own Genius and Augustus himself as pontifex maximus was in the curious position of being high priest of his own cult. The only real appurtenance of divinity that the Genius lacked was a temple, and that was a distinction which it never secured either for Augustus or for any other emperor in Rome. Its place of worship was an altar associated with the shrines of other gods.

C H A P T E R VIII T H E INSTITUTION OF THE STATE C U L T IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

The establishment of the state cult at Rome soon had its effect on the provinces and the municipalities. In the East, to be sure, the worship of the emperor seems already to have become practically universal in the cities and in the leagues of the various provinces. New temples and new altars were constantly being set up, but those erected as late as 12 B.C.— for instance the temple of Augustus which the prefect of Egypt dedicated in that year at Philae —were probably not institu­ tions of a new worship but new monuments to house a worship that already existed. If the older provinces were like Paphlagonia, every city had its shrine of Augustus. What seems to be new at this time is the activity of Roman officials in pro­ moting the cult. Its value for maintaining rule had been so fully realized that the authorities were deliberately extending it. Hence the interest of the prefect of Egypt in securing adequate monuments for the worship. In Asia the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus, probably in 9-8 B.C., carried through a reform of the calendar in honor of Augustus, and henceforth the year began with the birthday of Augustus, a day that was itself called Sebaste. The first month was known as Kaisarios. Roman officials may have been similarly active in other portions of the East, where the emperor's name and his titles are used as designations for months and sometimes for days. 1

2

1

For the inscriptional evidence used in this chapter see the collection of Augustan inscriptions relating to the imperial cult in Appendix in. Names of months in various cities are preserved in the Hemerologia, pub­ lished by Kubitschek, " D i e Kalenderbucher von Florenz, Rom, und Leyden," Denkschr. Akad. Wien. LVII, 3 (1915). Often the source of the calendar is not indicated. One series of months is as follows: Aphrodisios, Anchisios, Romaics, Aineadaios, Kapetolios, Sebastos, Agrippaios, Livaios, Octavios, Iulaios, 2

205

206

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

Roman authorities must also have been responsible for securing oaths of allegiance from the inhabitants of regions added to the empire. When Paphlagonia was incorporated in the province of Galatia in 6 B.C., all the inhabitants, both native and Roman citizens, were forced to take an oath of allegiance of a prescribed form that must have come from the governor of the province or his deputies. The oath, of which a copy has been preserved to us, was administered in every city of the region at the altar of Augustus before the temple of Augustus. The date when it was taken was the sixth of March, the anniversary of Augustus' election to the office of pontifex maximus, which we have seen reason to associate with the establishment of official oaths by the emperor. The oath was taken by the Greek triad familiar in oaths, Zeus, Ge, and Helios, and by all the gods and goddesses and Augustus himself—not in this case, as usually in Greek records, by his Tyche. The Paphlagonian record is revealing for the position of the emperor in the East. It was to him in person and to his children and grandchildren—not to Roma or to the state— that allegiance was sworn. For the population, both native and Roman, Augustus was himself the representative of the power of Rome. Beside him Roma was taking a subordinate position. Elsewhere we see in both municipal and provincial cult a tendency for the goddess Roma to disappear from the titles of priests and temples. No doubt she did, as Suetonius tells us, have a share in every temple dedicated to Augustus, but the personality of one man in power over a very long period became far more important than Roma as a representative of Neronaios, Drusaios. Usener (quoted in Boll, Catal. cod. astr. gr. n, pp. 139 ff.) is probably right in dating this calendar in 18-17 B.C. If it belongs to that time, it would seem to be strongly under the influence of Livia. A calendar of Cyprus, dating soon after 12 B . C , is made up entirely of titles honoring the Emperor: Aphrodisios, Apogonikos, Ainikos, Iulios, Kaisarios, Sebastos, Autokratorikos, Demarchexusiakos, Plethypatos, Archiereus, Hesthios, Romaios. See Nilsson, Die Entstehung und religiose Bedeutung des griechischen Kalenders, pp. 59 f., and Kenneth Scott, Yale Classical Studies n (1931) 201 ff., an article which appeared too late for me to make full use of it.

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

207

the Roman state, and she was perhaps relegated to a sub­ ordinate place in the shrines. There is a further fact of some significance that becomes clear from a consideration of the Paphlagonian oath. Even Roman citizens took oath by the emperor and apparently went with the natives to the altars of Augustus at the temples in each city to swear their allegiance. There is no word of the cult of the deified Julius for whose worship with Roma Octavian had granted permission to Roman citizens in Asia and Brthynia in the year 29. That cult of the deified Julius seems in fact to have left no traces in our records. Various factors might have contributed to its disappearance. In spite of Augustus' restraint in conferring citizenship, the most prominent natives, for whom the priesthood of Roma and Augustus was reserved, became citizens. It was illogical to debar Romans from a cult of which their citizens were priests. Moreover, the establishment at Rome of a formal ruler cult under the guise of the Genius provided a precedent for the participation of the Romans of the East in the cult of the emperor. Perhaps the divinity that the citizens worshipped was in theory the Genius of the emperor. But still it was the living emperor and his living family rather than his deified father who was the object of worship' for Romans and nonRomans alike. 3

In extending the imperial cult in the East, the authorities seem to have taken full account of the religion of the peoples with whom they came in contact. Thus in their treatment of the Jews the Romans followed in Egypt and elsewhere the precedents of the Hellenistic kings. While statues of the emperor were being erected in all temples, the Jews were not required to place his statue in the synagogues where there were no images in human form. They were permitted to 4

3

Thus we have dedications made by the cities and the Roman tradesmen dwelling in them, Cf. I.G.R. iv. 2 4 9 : 6 STJ/XOS Kal ol irpayp.a)Tev6p.€voi wap' rip.lv 'Pwjuaiot]. See Philo Judaeus, Leg. ad Gaium 2 1 - 2 3 , 1 4 0 - 1 5 8 , where the writer, com­ menting on the statues of Caligula placed in the synagogues, cites the precedents 4

208

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

make prayers not to him but for his safety. Here the Roman representatives showed the practical attitude that charac­ terized the development of the cult of Augustus. It was employed as an effective means of government and was modified to accord with the beliefs of men whose religion was opposed to the exercise of the cult in its fullest form. When citizens at Rome and in the East were no longer excluded from the cult of Augustus, it was an easy step to extend the worship to the provinces of the West. The emperor had found in the leagues, with their organization about the cult of himself and the goddess Roma, an effective means of establishing his power, and when he organized the cult of the Genius at Rome, Augustus seems to have realized at the same time the value it offered in the West, especially in the more distant and less Romanized provinces. There were not ready to hand in these regions the established sacred leagues that served for the cult in the East, but the assemblies which had been employed already in Roman administration of the West could be developed into something similar. The first move to establish such a provincial cult came in the significant year 12 B.C. On Augustus' departure from Gaul in 13 B.C. at a time when the defeat of Lollius by the Germans had not yet been avenged, he left his stepson Drusus behind as his legate in Gaul and Germany to prosecute his plans of extending Roman dominion to the borders of the Elbe. Drusus, facing the difficulties of the German war, needed for his plans a united Gaul behind him, and there was at the time confusion in the three Gauls, the province that had but lately been formed from Caesar's conquests. The Gallic census, accom­ panied by a complete survey of the land, was nearing its completion, and the Gallic tribes were dissatisfied with the 5

of the Ptolemies and of Augustus and Tiberius. Augustus' consideration of the customs of his subjects is especially stressed. The synagogues had previously been adorned not with statues but with such monuments of the emperor as golden shields, crowns, pillars, and inscriptions (20, 133). On the Jews and the imperial cult see Juster, Les Juifs i (1914), pp. 339 ff. Cf. Chap, vn, n. 59 above. See Guiraud, Les Assemblies provinciates dans Vempire romain, Paris, 1887; Kornemann in Pauly-Wlssowa, s.vv. concilium and conventus. 5

STATE C U L T IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

209

treatment that they had received from the hands of the Roman officials who had supervised it. Drusus performed the census over again, and summoned the chiefs of all the tribes to a great celebration at Lugdunum on August 1, the day of Augustus' entry into Alexandria. Two years later on the same date the tribes dedicated a splendid altar to Roma and Augustus at the site near Lugdunum where the first assembly had been held. The altar is represented on coins from the imperial mint in Lugdunum (Fig. 45). It was a great marble structure 6

7

FIG. 4 5 .

Altar of Roma and Augustus at Lugdunum.

Bronze coin.

decorated with imperial emblems and flanked on either side by granite columns on which stood statues of Victories. It was surrounded by statues that represented the sixty Gallic tribes who assembled here every year to do honor to the emperor; the tribes in the organization occupied a position like that of the cities of the eastern leagues. To take charge 6

There is a contradiction in the date of the establishment of the altar between the epitomist of Livy c x x x i x , who records it under the year 12, and Suetonius, Claud. 2 , who places it in 1 0 B.C. The explanation of the contradiction which I have given was suggested by Guiraud, op. cit. p. 4 5 ; Gardthausen i, pp. 1 0 7 1 , 1085 f. For another explanation see Toutain, Rec. de Mem. Centenaire, Societe nationale des antiquaires de la France ( 1 9 0 4 ) , pp. 4 5 5 ff. Toutain argues that there is no evidence that Drusus had any connection with the establishment of the altar; he would see in the institution of the provincial cult a spontaneous movement on the part of the provincials. But the fact that the altar was dedicated on the same date and at the same place where Drusus had assembled the provincials seems to associate Drusus with the altar. It is possible that Augustus himself, who was in Gaul on August 1, 1 0 B . C , was present at the dedication. 7

Mattingly i, pp. 9 2 f. 15

For a description of the altar see Strabo iv, p. 1 9 2 .

210

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

of the cult a high priest was appointed who, like the high priest of the eastern provinces, was chosen each year from the most distinguished citizens of the province. The provincial cult of the emperor was extended first, it would seem, to other military commands where the difficulties of maintaining loyalty made it desirable for Roman authorities to use every means to hold the subject peoples. It was probably not long after the establishment of the altar at Lyons that the altar of the Ubii was dedicated at Cologne in the province of the two Germanies. When in 2 B.C. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus carried Roman arms to the Elbe, he established an altar of Augustus on the banks of the river. This was a place of worship that was destined to be abandoned when the military command of eastern Germany was given up after the defeat of Varus. Probably we should add to these new and unsettled provinces, where the imperial cult was established under Augustus, the old and settled region of Gallia Narbonensis, from which a significant record of the cult has been preserved. The bronze plaque of Narbo, dating hardly later than the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, shows the activity of the imperial government in certain details of the cult—the regulations for priests and wives of priests and finally for ex-priests. It proves that the priest and his wife, the flaminica, were bound by taboos that recall the Roman conditions of the flamen Dialis and his wife. If the 8

9

10

11

12

8

The Lingones of Belgic Gaul went further than the assembly at Lyons, for they dedicated not an altar but a temple to Augustus, and it received official recognition when Drusus went personally to dedicate it. See Cassiodorus, Chron. under 9 B . C : Drusus Nero et L. Quinctius. His £ons(ulibus) apud Lingonum gentem templum Caesari Drusus sacravit. This theory was suggested, but carried rather too far, by Krascheninnikov, Philol. LIII (1894), 157 ff. The altar existed in the year 9 A.D., when it is recorded that the priest broke his fillets and joined the enemy; cf. Tac. Ann. i, 57. It probably ante­ dated the altar on the Elbe. 9

1 0

1 1

Dio

LV,

5ta/3ds 4>i\iav

10a:

6 yap

Ao^itrtos . . . TOV 'AXfiLav

re rots kneivQ (iapfiapois

avvkdeTo

IdpvaaTo. 12

C.I.L. XII, 6038; see Appendix in.

p.rj8ev6s

oi

kvavTt.ovp.kvov

Kal (3cofj.6v kw' avTOv TQ

KbyovaT^

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

211

inscription is really early, it indicates that the flamen from the very beginning was given an outstanding position in the community like that of the archiereus of the eastern provinces. There are no other provincial cults that can be shown to have been instituted in the West during the reign of Augustus. The three centres where the provincial cult is surely attested are then Lugdunum for the three Gauls, Cologne for the two Germanies, and the Elbe for eastern Germany. The monu­ ment in each of these places was an altar, not a temple. It has of course been recognized that the cult may have been insti­ tuted under Augustus in other provinces for which the records have not been preserved, but it has been generally assumed by scholars that in a number of regions the cult was not established until later. The chief basis for such an assumption is pro­ vided by data which seem to place the institution of the cult in Hither Spain under Tiberius and in Africa under Vespasian. It is worth while to consider the evidence. 13

In Spain a statement of Tacitus under the second year of Tiberius has been taken as fixing the beginning of the cult. " T h e request of the Spaniards that they might build a temple to Augustus in the colony of Tarraco was granted, and a precedent was provided for all the provinces." But there was an altar of Augustus at Tarraco while the emperor was still alive. The story was told that the Tarraconenses once reported to the emperor that a palm had sprung up on it. Although the altar may have been a municipal monument, there is also a possibility that it was provincial. During the Augustan Age altars were in three instances the centre of worship for the provincial cult in the West. In at least one 1 4

15

13

See the set of rules formulated by Kornemann, Klio i, 117. A safer guide for the imperial cult in the provinces is Hirschfeld, Kleine Schri/ten, pp. 471 ff. A dissertation on the beginnings of the imperial cult in the provinces of the West is being prepared at Bryn Mawr College by Miss Aline Abaecherli. Tac. Ann. I, 78. Quint, vi, 3, 77: Augustus nuntiantibus Tarraconensibus palmam in ara eius enatam, "apparet," inquit, "quam saepe accendatis." The altar with the palm on it is represented on coins of Tiberius. See Wallers, Num. Zeit. x x x i v (1902), 104f. 14

18

212

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

place, Lugdunum, a temple was later in existence in addition to the altar. It is not impossible that the temple for the worship of Hither Spain was added to an altar already existing in the Augustan Age. The precedent provided by the state­ ment of Tacitus would then refer to the building of temples and not to the institution of the cult of the emperor. In Africa the basis for dating the institution of the cult in the reign of Vespasian is provided by a sacerdos provinciae Africae anni CXIII, who can be dated about the year 184. The period from which the hundred and thirteenth year is counted is then about the time of the accession of Vespasian in 70, and the general assumption is that the imperial cult was instituted in that year. But the year may refer either to a reorganization of the imperial cult or to an era of the province. The provincial cult may well have existed long before the era in question. 16

There is therefore no definite evidence of the institution of the cult in provinces later than the time of Augustus. It is not unlikely that the provincial cult was established as a part of the regular process of government in all the provinces of the West before the death of Augustus. The cult in the western provinces was inspired from a b o v e and was established more as a convenient adjunct to effective administration of the provinces than as an expression of real religious policy. The league which fostered it was usually not, as in the East, a natural ethnic unit of peoples. It generally coincided with the boundaries of the province. The people who made up the league were not accustomed to the cult forms and they seem never to have been strongly attracted to the worship of the Emperor. The cult was doubtless most popular with the provincial nobility who valued it for the 17

18

16

Cf. Toutain, Les cultes paiens dans Vempire romain, pp. 79 f. There is no inscriptional evidence in support of Suetonius' statement (Aug. 59) that in the provinces quinquennial games for the imperial cult were established paene oppidatim. On "planmassige Organisation von Rom aus" in the provincial cult of the West see E. Bickel, Bonner Jahrb. 1928, 1 ff. Bickel perhaps overemphasizes the cultural significance of the worship. 1 7

1 8

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

213

19

distinction which its priesthood gave them. Even among them it doubtless had its opponents, like the priest at the Ara Ubiorum who broke his fillets to join his German brothers, As in the East, the goddess Roma was united with the emperor in Lugdunum and Tarraco and probably elsewhere, though, as often in the East, her name does not appear in the titles of temples and priests. After the death of Augustus, he himself and the deified emperors, who were enshrined with him, were given a share in the cult, apparently with the living ruler. It is impossible to say whether the cult in the western provinces was directed toward the Genius of the reigning emperor or toward the emperor himself as deus praesens. The victim sacrificed at Lugdunum was, like the victim sacred to the Genius, a bull. But if the distinction between the Genius and the deus praesens was a vague one in the mind of a poet like Horace who was close to the emperor, we may be sure that it was proportionately vaguer as the distance was greater from Augustus himself, the person who was most inclined to insist on the fiction of the attendant spirit as object of the cult. It is therefore not surprising to find an association of Roman citizens in business in Africa making a dedication to Augustus Deus. It is worth noting that there is only one literary parallel from Augustus' reign for the attachment of the word deus to the name of the emperor, and that is in an elegy of another court poet, Propertius. 20

21

While peoples of the West were adopting the cult of Augustus, a group of the kings of the East, who had been naming their cities Caesarea and Sebaste, determined to honor the new cult of the Genius. They planned to complete the colossal temple of Olympian Zeus begun by Pisistratus at 1 9

For a Gallic opponent of Caesar who became priest at Lyons, see Dessau 7041. 20 Mattingly i, pp. 78 ff. Prop, in, 4, 1 (c. 22 B . C ) : 2 1

Arma deus Caesar dites meditatur ad Indos. For the African inscription see Dessau 9495.

214

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 22

Athens and to dedicate it to the Genius of Augustus. There is no record of the date of this plan, but it seems probable that it should be assigned to the period after 12 B.C. when the kings would have means of knowing of the new importance of Augustus' Genius in Roman cult. For some reason the plan was never carried out, and the great shrine lay unfinished until Hadrian undertook the work and dedicated it to the great god for whom Pisistratus had begun it. While the imperial authorities were encouraging the develop­ ment of the cult in the West, the western municipalities seem to have had a cult of the emperor only for the lower stratum of the population, the slaves and freedmen who had a part in the worship of the Lares and Genius at the crossroads. But about the time of the dedication of the temple of Mars Ultor in 2 B.C. we begin to hear of festivals and temples and priests of the emperor in the cities of Italy. They indicate a cult in which not only the slaves and freedmen but the whole population and particularly the municipal nobility had a share. The worship seems in its origin to have been spontaneous, and not directly inspired from above, though no doubt its develop­ ment was aided by the encouragement of imperial authorities. The earliest records have come to us from port towns where contact with the East probably had its part in bringing about the institution of the worship. The Campanian city Neapolis instituted quinquennial games in honor of Augustus, and celebrated them for the first time, it would seem, on the first of August, 2 B . C , the very day of the dedication of the temple of Mars Ultor. Dio's account of the games follows directly on his description of the dedication of the Roman temple. "These were the celebrations in honor of Mars," he says. " T o Augustus himself a sacred contest was voted in Neapolis, 23

24

2 2

Suet. Aug. 59: Reges amici atque socii et singuli in suo quisque regno Caesareas urbes condiderunt et cuncti simul aedem Iovis Olympii Athenis antiquitus incohatam perficere communi sumptu destinaverunt Genioque eius dedicare. See pp. 184 ff. and Appendix m . For the evidence see T.A.P.A. LI (1920), 116 ff. 2 3

24

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

215

the Campanian city, nominally because he had restored it when it was prostrated by earthquake and fire, but in reality because its inhabitants alone of the Campanians tried in a manner to imitate the customs of the Greeks.'' The games bore the high-sounding title Italica Romaia Sebasta Isolympia; they were modelled upon the Olympic games and upon the provincial festival of the emperor in Asia, the Romaia Sebasta of Pergamum. There was a temple of Augustus in Neapolis which figured in the celebration. 25

Here was a worship of the emperor as deus praesens very much like his cult in the East. It can hardly be reconciled with the statement which Dio makes elsewhere that neither Augustus nor any other emperor permitted himself during his lifetime to be worshipped in Italy as a god. Augustus gave his hearty support to the great Neapolitan games, and was present at the fourth performance of the festival just before his death in 14 A.D. It is possible that the Greek character of Neapolis, attested not only by the statements of ancient writers but also by the predominance of the Greek language in the records of the city, may have enabled Augustus to class the city as Greek and to except it from conditions that applied to municipalities of genuine Italic tradition. 2 6

But there is no Greek tradition to explain the temples and priests of Augustus which begin to appear in other cities of Italy at this time. At Pompeii there was a priest of Augustus soon after the year 2 B.C. About the same year a temple of Roma and Augustus was erected in the forum of Pola. At Pisae there was an Augusteum in 2 A.D. and in 4 A.D. a flamen Augustalis to officiate in the cult. At Cumae a calendar of festivals which provided for the sacrifice of a victim to the 27

25 Dio LV, 10, 9. Cf. also LVI, 29, and Strabo v, 246; Suet. Aug. 98; Claud. 11; Veil, II, 123, 1. 26 Dio LI, 20; see ch. vi, n. 13. Earlier evidence for a temple of Augustus has been found in Vitruvius' statement (v, 1, 7) that in his basilica at Fanum Fortunae he arranged the columns ne impediant aspectus pronai aedis Augusti. This is the only passage in the de Architectura which points to a date after 30 B.C. For the difficulties of interpretation see T.A.P.A. hi (1920), 120. 2 7

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T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

emperor on his birthday was set up, presumably in a temple of Augustus, between 4 and 14 A.D. There were moreover at some time before the death of the emperor a temple of Roma and Augustus at Terracina, and priests of Augustus at Verona and Praeneste. The evidence that has been preserved on the stones that have chanced to escape destruction is inevitably fragmentary. We may add to it the records of temples and priests of Augustus from other towns that are either undated or that belong t o ' a later period; these records, it has been shown, refer to the cult of the living emperor whoever he might be. It is likely that even before the death of Augustus a temple and a priest of Augustus became a regular feature of the official cult in the cities of Italy. The temple seems usually to have been erected in the city forum and the priest was chosen for life tenure from the foremost members of the municipal senate. Sometimes—oftenest perhaps in port towns which had direct contacts with the East—the goddess Roma was included with Augustus in the titles of priests and temples. But whether her name appears in the titles or not, she probably always had some share in the cult of the temples. 28

But was this worship thus instituted for Roman citizens identical with that accorded the emperor in the cities of the East? Was Dio simply mistaken in his statement that Italy knew no such worship? As a Roman senator he had means of knowing the true state of affairs and his opinion cannot be rejected without careful consideration. For an answer to the question we may turn to the monuments of Pompeii which here, as so often, have preserved for us the solution to a puzzling problem. There is on the east side of the Forum of Pompeii a small temple with a deep forecourt (Fig. 46). In the court directly in front of the temple stands a quad­ rangular marble altar adorned with the civic crown and the laurel branches, emblems that show its relation to the cult of 2 8

For this interpretation of flamen (or sacerdos) Augusti (or Augustalis) see Toutain, op. cit. I. pp. 43-51; Geiger, De Sacerdotibus Augustorum Municipalibus (Halle, 1913), pp. 14-18.

STATE C U L T IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

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the emperor. On its front is a sacrificial scene in which the victim is clearly a bull. The altar has its closest analogies in the altars dedicated to the Lares Augusti and the Genius

FIG. 4 6 .

Temple of the Genius Augusti at Pompeii.

of the emperor from the vici at Rome. The victim is the regular offering to the Genius. The altar and the temple to which it belongs were then evidently the centres of the cult of the Genius of the emperor. At them the sacerdos Augusti, known in the records of Pompeii, officiated. The word genius was, to be sure, suppressed in the title of temple and priest, but that was not without parallel. At Trimalchio's dinner, when the guests poured the customary libation to the Genius of the reigning emperor, what they said 29

29

SeeT.A.P.A. LI ( 1 9 2 0 ) , 1 2 8 ff., and Delia Corte's review, Rivista Indogreco-italica vi ( 1 9 2 2 ) , 1 5 4 ff.; also Sogliano, Mem. Acad. Arch. Lettere e Belle Arti di Napoli, 1923, 2 3 5 ff. The monument is indicated on most recent maps as the temple of Vespasian, in accordance with Mau's identification of it. The earlier designation given it by the Italian excavators, templum Genii Augusti, is more nearly correct. It was apparently rebuilt after the earthquake of 6 3 , but it was consecrated to the living emperor, whoever he might be. The building next door (the so-called Lararium publicum) was perhaps the shrine of the deified emperors.

218

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 30

was simply Augusto patri patriae feliciter. The altar in front of the temple was probably used, like the altars of Augustus in the Paphlagonian cities, for the official oath which Roman citizens took by the Genius of the emperor. The altars and temples and priests in other cities of Italy, perhaps in municipalities of the West generally, were, like those of Pompeii, places for the cult of the Genius. Thus Dio's state­ ment that Augustus and the later emperors were not wor­ shipped in Italy until after they had died is shown to be in a sense true, for the cult was offered not to the emperor in person but to his shadowy attendant spirit. Thus too we see that the Genius of the emperor, which had been worshipped for some years in the vici of the cities, was made an object of official cult that concerned not merely the lower stratum of the population but all the citizens. The new ruler cult had come as a vital force into the life of the Roman municipality. In the forms of the cult the individual town had great latitude, and there are great differences in the titles of the priests and in the festivals celebrated. Although the munici­ palities had accepted the Julian calendar and had posted up in their market places and public buildings the list of festivals and commemoration days observed at Rome, they seem to have decided for themselves which days they would hold sacred. Pisae followed the lead of the Roman senate in voting that the anniversaries of the deaths of Gaius and Lucius be considered "black days." Iguvium in establishing games in honor of the Victoria of Augustus was apparently instituting a local model of the great Actian games at Rome. Cumae, with an extensive list of festivals of the imperial house, omitted important sacred days of the Roman calendar and included some dates that seem not to have been celebrated at Rome. Though the Julian calendar was in general use, the cities were free to begin their year on any date they wished, and many of the cities chose the day of Augustus' first visit to them as their New Year's Day. 31

3 0

Petr. Sat. 60; cf. Ov. Fasti ii, 633 ff. Suet. Aug. 59. A visit of Augustus may have determined the beginning of the year at Cumae (a date between July 13 and Aug. 19). 31

STATE C U L T IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

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32

Sometimes Augustus' heirs, particularly his much loved adopted sons Gaius and Lucius, had a share in the cult. Probably in their case too the Genius was the object of the cult. It is almost certainly to them that the temple to the heirs of Augustus was dedicated in the Campanian town Acerrae. T o them as patrons of the colony the beautiful Corinthian temple at Nimes (Nemausus) known as the Maison Carree was erected, very likely while they were still alive. 33

34

The importance of the cult in the municipalities of Italy and the W e s t was increased by the creation of new offices, half priestly and half administrative, known as Augustales and seviri Augustales. They were held chiefly by freedmen, though in some towns the younger members of the local aristocracy held them. The two titles, with other variations, are found in different parts of Italy and the western provinces, their distribution being determined apparently by the earlier organizations in the regions where they grew up. Thus in Southern Italy there had been organizations, made up largely of freedmen, which were known as Mercuriales, and less often as Apollinares, Concordiales. These were gradually replaced by the Augustales, who speedily became far more widespread than the earlier groups. Augustus' name was thus substituted 35

36

3 2

The dedications to the Juno of Livia, C.I.L. xi, 3076, and Ephem. Epig. v, 640 (Dessau 116, 120), both belong to private cult. C.I.L. x , 3757 (Dessau 137). See Beaudouin, Ann. de Venseignement superieur de Grenoble in (1891) 94-97. Among the few non-Italian records of the cult which belong to the Augustan period is one providing evidence for the first priest of Baeterrae which is not later than 4 A.D. The sacerdos perpetuus who set up the first templum of the Gens Augusta at Carthage may belong to this period, though it is possible that his dedication was earlier. See p. 169. His title sacerdos perpetuus is different from the titles of other priests of the emperor in Africa who are regularly called flamines or flamines perpetui; his office may be analogous to the sacerdos Genii Coloniae known in other cities of the empire. For the inscriptional evidence for Baeterrae and Carthage see Appendix m . On the dated evidence for these officials see T.A.P.A. XLV (1914), 235. On their origin see J.R.S. x i v (1924), 159 ff. 33

34

35

5 6

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

for the name of a god, and the holders of the title, defined in some inscriptions as cultores domus divinae, were united in the observance of the cult of the emperor, presumably the Genius and the Lares. They set up dedications to the emperor, gave games, and built at their own expense public works. In northern Italy there had been local officials known as seviri who, like the seviri equitum Romanorum at Rome, were apparently drawn from the knights of the municipalities and took a leading part in exercises and games of the men of military age. As the freedman population, for which Augustus was anxious to make provision, grew in numbers, there was instituted in some towns a similar office of sevir for freedmen, selected from the older and more prominent members of the libertini. In Mediolanum these men are called seviri seniores to distinguish them from the younger freeborn seviri, called iuniores. With the extension of the imperial cult, the seviri seniores assumed the additional title Augustales, and presently were known simply as seviri Augustales. Their function was much like that of the Augustales of the south, though, unlike the Augustales, they were at first limited to boards of six. Although in general the freeborn seviri tend to disappear, leaving the office as the special prerogative of freedmen, there is no uniformity in the titles. In some towns it is the young aristocrats who become seviri Augustales. In the Gallic city Narbo, though the office of freeborn sevir apparently did not exist, there was originally a composite board made up of three freedmen and three knights from the local population. The board was instituted in the year 11 A.D. when the city dedicated an altar to the numen (that is Genius) Augusti, and their duty was to sacrifice victims to the numen Augusti on the birthday of the emperor and on certain other days, and at the same time 37

3 7

The scholiasts on Horace, Sat. n, 3, 281, writing from a time when the cult at the compita had probably died out, seem to have been confused in their statement that the Augustales were in charge of the cult of the Lares Compitales. The subtitle cultores Larum et imaginum, given in some cases to the Augustales, shows their association with the imperial Lares, though probably their activity was not at the compita where the xicorum magistri functioned.

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

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to distribute incense and wine to the people for offerings to the same divinity. These honorary titles for freedmen went to a more prominent group than did the office of the vicorum magistri who did service at the crossroads in all the towns. Probably they were selected from the freedmen who had a high census rating. The new office gave to the wealthy freedmen of the towns a dignity appropriate for a group which was constantly becoming more important; at the same time the institution enabled the townsmen to profit from the wealth of men who might other­ wise have been less disposed to turn their money toward public causes and public monuments. The municipalities, either through public vote or through private benefactions, often had monuments erected in them that were suggested by the monuments of the imperial house in Rome and sometimes modelled on them. Pisae had cenotaphs of Gaius and Lucius at which funeral offerings, such as the priests and magistrates made at Rome, could be given to the dead by the local magistrates. Arretium had elogia that were copied from those of the Forum of Augustus. Pompeii had a shrine of Fortuna Augusta built by a local magistrate, Praeneste an altar of Pax Augusta. Various towns had cults of Augustan Victoria, Concordia, Salus, Felicitas, and other abstractions which may have been insti­ tuted on Roman models in the reign of Augustus. Carthage had a monument adorned with a bas-relief that resembles the famous Terra Mater or Italia on the Ara Pacis, and accom­ panying it a slab with three statues, Venus Genetrix, Mars Ultor, and Divus Julius (Fig. 44). But here again the indi­ vidual municipality was free to follow its own desires in the monuments that it erected. 38

In Italy at least, the municipal cult of the emperor seems to have been a more spontaneous institution than was the 3 8

There is no reason to suppose, as Heinen does, that the aedes Fortunae Augustae of Pompeii was erected immediately after the altar of Fortuna Redux was dedicated in Rome.

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

provincial cult. It was less stereotyped in its forms and its festivals. The citizens of Italy were at first not so eager to urge on the emperor divine honors as were the Roman senators with their adulatory decrees or the Roman citizens of the East in contact with Orientals who turned to divine honors as the most natural way of expressing loyalty and enthusiasm. There are no instances recorded where the emperor refused divine distinctions from Italian towns. But the citizens of the municipalities, after nearly a century of disorder and confusion, were highly sensible of the peace and prosperity that Augustus had brought to Rome. They had gone in great numbers to Rome to vote at the comitia that chose Augustus as pontifex maximus, and they had become familiar with the worship of the Lares and the Genius of Augustus which had been instituted at the street crossings of their towns. It was natural that they should respond to the ideas of their time and institute for all the citizens a worship that could give expression to the deep feeling of the people for the blessings that the rule of Augustus had brought. The new cult was doubtless encouraged from above. It provided an effective means of securing the loyalty of the citizen body, and it offered in its priesthoods distinctions for the chief men of the cities which bound them to the emperor. Moreover, there must have been definite encourage­ ment from imperial authorities in the development of dis­ tinctions for the richer and more prominent freedmen in the towns. The large numbers of wealthy freedmen provided a real problem in state administration and Augustus was anxious to secure for them positions of dignity and honor in the state. It was like his general policy to adapt the titles that expressed their distinctions to the peculiar conditions of the individual towns. 39

The municipal cult of the emperor differed from the cult at Rome chiefly in that special priests and temples were insti­ tuted. Whereas in Rome the Genius had its official cult in the 39

See Duff, Freedmen in the Early Roman Empire (1928).

STATE CULT IN PROVINCES AND MUNICIPALITIES

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emperor's household shrine on the Palatine, on the Capitol, and at the temple of Mars Ultor, in the cities there were special temples for the Genius, called Augustea, such as Rome did not have until after the death of the emperor. While in Rome the sacrifices to the Genius were performed by the colleges of priests, and notably by the pontifices with Augustus at their head, in the municipalities the offerings were made by special fiamines and sacerdotes.

CHAPTER I X THE

DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS

Augustus was more than sixty years old when he dedicated the temple of Mars the Avenger which united the past and the future of his house. In the next few years men were looking forward to the day when, his own apotheosis achieved, he might look down from his place in heaven and see heirs of his blood ruling the world. The idea is clearly expressed in the crude iambics that consecrate the temple to Gaius and Lucius at Acerrae: Templum hoc sacratum her[edibus qui] quod ger[unt] Augusti nomen felix [Mis] remaneat, stirpis suae laetetur \i[t regno] parens. nam quom te Caesar tem[pus] exposcet deum caeloque repetes sed[em qua] mundum reges sint hei tua quei sorte te[rr] huic imperent regantque nos felicibu[s] voteis sueis. 1

But Augustus was deprived of the heirs on whom the future of his house depended. Lucius died at Marseilles in 2 A . D . and Gaius died in Lycia two years later. The bodies of the two young princes were brought to Rome, being borne through the municipalities on the shoulders of the noblest men of the cities. Like Marcellus and their father Agrippa, they were buried without formal deification. But by decree of the senate the state assumed the official cult at their tomb. Henceforth on the anniversaries of their death, days to be called religiosi like the dies Alliensis, and on the Parentalia, magistrates were to offer a black ox and a black sheep with milk, honey, and oil 2

1

C.I.L. x, 3757 (Dessau 137). The fourth word in the first line was restored by Mommsen as her[oibus]" and was interpreted as a reference to the enshrinement of Gaius and Lucius (who obviously were still living) among the Lares Augusti. But I know of no case where the images of living men were included among the imperial Lares. For the divine honors bestowed on Gaius in the east see Heinen, p. 177. il

2

224

T H E DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS

225

3

to the Manes of the youths. It was a distinction that corre­ sponded to the hero cult offered to the illustrious dead in the Greek cities. For Rome we have no record in the historical period before this for the assumption by the state of the offer­ ings at the tomb, though it is not unlikely that there were similar provisions, at least for the members of the house of Augustus who had previously died. T o secure the future of his house Augustus had to make provision at once for an heir to take the place of the youths. He adopted Tiberius and also Agrippa Postumus, the younger brother of Gaius and Lucius, whose character seemed to unfit him for the succession. He caused Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, the son of his brother Drusus. It was on this youth and on Tiberius' own son Drusus that the ultimate hopes for the succession rested, and especially on Germanicus, who was himself the grand nephew of Augustus and had married Agrippina, sister of Gaius and Lucius. Through Germanicus and Agrippina there might still be heirs who were the direct descendants of Augustus. But Augustus' real reliance in the succeeding years was Tiberius, and his position as the emperor's immediate suc­ cessor was made steadily clearer. His victories in the wars against Germans, Dalmatians, and Pannonians, the last of whom threatened Italy with greater peril than it had known since the invasion of Hannibal, enabled the emperor to present him to the people as a conquering general. Although rumor was rife with reports of difficulties between the emperor and his stepson, both Augustus and Tiberius emphasized the harmony between them. T o celebrate it Tiberius added another deified abstraction, Concordia Augusta, to the im­ perial cult. He restored and rededicated the ancient temple on the lower slopes of the Capitol which had been built to mark the end of the long struggle between patricians and plebeians. 4

3

See the Pisan inscriptions, C.J.L.xi, 1420, 1421 (Dessau 139, 140). The inscriptions make it clear that the Pisan provisions were based on Roman precedents. C.I.L. i 12, p. 308; Ov. Fasti 1, 639 ff.; Dio LVI, 25, 1; Suet. Tib. 20. The most probable year for the dedication is the one given in the Fasti Praenestini, 10 A.D. For 14 A.D. as a possible date see Heinen, p. 173, n. 1. 4

{

16

226

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

In the last years of the life of the aged Augustus Tiberius was presented to the people as the successor on whom the cares and the distinctions of the principate had already in large measure devolved. Either in 12 or in 1 3 Tiberius celebrated his twofold triumph over Pannonians and Dal­ matians, which had been postponed for four years because of the disaster of Varus. Like the great triumphs of Caesar in 46 and of Augustus in 29, it marked in a sense the beginning of the new rule. The scene has been immortalized for us by the great cameo of Vienna, the Gemma Augustea (Fig. 47), 5

FIG. 47.

Gemma Augustea.

which shows Tiberius at the moment when, before beginning the ascent of the Capitol, he descended from his chariot to throw himself at the feet of Augustus. The emperor is 6

6

On the date see the evidence provided by the new fragment of the Fasti Praenestini as discussed by Wissowa, Hermes LVIII (1923), 372 f. Suet. Tib. 20. For the cameo see Furtwiingler, Antike Gemmen, P I . LVI. 6

T H E DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS

227

represented not as an aged man but as an ageless god. He is seated beside the goddess Roma, his sign, the Capricorn, over his head. He is being crowned with the oak crown by a figure who is probably Oikumene, the inhabited world. Beneath his chair is the eagle, like the oak crown, an emblem of Jupiter. Behind him are Caelus, the region that is to claim him after his death, and the earth mother with her two children, a symbol of his sojourn on earth. They are the same figures that are represented on the Augustus of Prima Porta and on the Vatican altar. But the scene on the cameo is more truly a deification. On the left Tiberius, attended by Victory, is descending from his chariot to approach Augustus whose divinity is indicated by the fact that he is enthroned with Roma. It is as if already he is watching from heaven the deeds of his house on earth. It was probably soon after his triumph that Tiberius dedi­ cated an important public monument, the altar of the Numen Augusti, none other than the Genius of Augustus, the guardian spirit that had come to be representative of the enduring qualities of the imperial power. With the Numen Augusti another deified abstraction, Felicitas, shared in the worship. The location and the character of the altar, at which henceforth the magistrates and the four great colleges of priests were to make sacrifice, are unknown, but it is probably identical with the Ara Gentis luliae on the Capitoline Hill which we hear mentioned in later records as a landmark of the region. Certainly the altar of the Gens is the proper place for the worship of the Genius. 7

At last there was a great monument for the worship of the Genius of the ruler in Rome. It perhaps served as a legiti­ mization of Tiberius' power, as Venus Genetrix and Divus Julius had served for Caesar and Augustus. It declared to the world the future of a race sprung from gods, which was 7

See the entry in the Fasti Praenestini with Mommsen's very probable restoration. C.I.L. I, l , p. 308: Pontifices o.[ugures XVviri s(acris) i(aciundis) VII] vir(i) epulonum victumas inm[oZ]ant n[umini Augusti ad ararn g]uam dedicavit Ti. Caesar Fe[licitat]i q[uod Ti. Caesar aram] Aug(usto) patri dedicavit. 2

228

T H E D I V I N I T Y OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

destined by virtue of the power denoted by the Genius to be the fathers of gods. Augustus died at Nola in August of the year 14 shortly after having witnessed the musical and gymnastic events of the fourth celebration of the Neapolitan games in his honor. His body was borne all the way from Nola to Rome by the senators of the municipalities and colonies. It was carried by night along the Appian Way and it rested by day in the basilica or the chief temple of each town. At Bovillae, the ancient home of the Julian house, Roman knights met the procession and bore the body to the house of the emperor on the Palatine. The senate assembled to hear the reading of Augustus' will and of the other documents which he had left. Though the emperor, in conformity with the theory on which his rule was based, named no successor, the designation of Tiberius as his chief heir made his wishes clear. 8

Then the senate, postponing the decrees of divine honors for the soul of Augustus, turned to the consideration of the homage to be paid to his mortal remains. The emperor himself had left among his papers directions for his funeral. The most excessive honors were suggested by senators, but Tiberius followed the precedent set by Augustus and refused them. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the ceremony from becoming as disorderly as the funeral of Julius fortyeight years before. The funeral was of course public, with two funeral orations in the Forum, one by Drusus from the Rostra and one by Tiberius from the speaker's platform op­ posite it on the temple of Divus Julius. In the version of the latter oration which we have in Dio there is emphasis on the resemblance of Augustus to Hercules, the demigod with whom he had been so often compared; the natural inference that, like Hercules, he would attain immortality by his virtue is brought out by Dio at the conclusion of the speech: " It is fitting that 8

The position of Tiberius came out clearly when in the following year he was performing the census with Augustus, and the emperor, because of an omen which seemed to portend his death, bade Tiberius complete the ceremonies alone; cf. Suet. Aug. 97.

T H E DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS

229

we should not mourn for him but that while we now at last give his body back to Nature, we should glorify his spirit like that of a god forever. The body of the emperor lay on a gold and ivory couch covered by purple and gold hangings. Above it was a wax image in triumphal attire and other splen­ did images stood near by. It was carried to the Campus Martius by senators. Behind came images of all his noble ancestors except Caesar, who as a god could not have his image carried in a funeral procession, and also images of famous Romans from Aeneas down—a pageant like the one that Anchises had shown to Aeneas in the lower world. Upon the pyre where his body was placed men cast their triumphal adornments. As the pyre was lighted, an eagle was released from it and flew to heaven as a symbol that Augustus' soul was not to go down to earth with his body. It was a detail that was repeated at the funerals of later emperors who were deified. A group which included the aged Livia remained on the spot watching the embers for five days; then the bones of the emperor were carried to the Mausoleum where several members of his family had already been laid to rest. ,,

9

Apparently before the meeting of the senate to vote on the consecration of Augustus, a Roman senator declared under oath that he had seen Augustus ascending to heaven—a proof of his divinity that Tacitus compared with the testimony of Proculus Julius for the divinity of Romulus. Similar oaths are attested for later deifications. The senate met on the seventeenth of September and formally enrolled Divus Augus­ tus in state cult with the divinity that the poets had so long 10

9

Dio LVI, 42, 3. See Cumont, Eludes Syriennes, pp. 72 ff. In the face of the evidence presented by Cumont, it is hard to understand Bickermann's argument (Arch. f. Religionswiss. x x v n (1929) 9 ff.) that the eagle in the early empire denoted power, not apotheosis. Suet. Aug. 100; Dio LVI, 46. On the later use of the same custom see Seneca, Apoc. 1 and Weinrich's comment on the passage, p. 24 of his edition. Bickermann, op. cit. believes that the custom of having the emperor's apotheosis attested under oath later died out, and that the double funeral ceremony known for later emperors carried with it in the burning of the emperor's wax image the evidence for apotheosis. 1 0

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T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR 11

been promising him. The name was modelled on the divine name w hich Caesar had been voted in his lifetime and which had finally become fixed when Augustus had effected Caesar's deification. It remained to provide Augustus with the regular accompaniment of cult—the temple and the priest. The other accompaniments—festivals and sacrifices—he al­ ready had in abundance, at least for his Genius. A temple was decreed, and Tiberius and Livia were to build it. The process lasted long, and the temple was not finally dedicated until the succeeding reign of Caligula. Meantime his worship centred at the temple of Mars Ultor where a golden image of him on a couch was placed. As had happened for Caesar, a priest was also decreed for Augustus, a distinction that marked out the deified emperors from most of the gods who had no special priests for their cult. Germanicus was appointed to the office of first flamen of Divus Augustus. At the same time Augustus had a priestess appointed—his wife Livia. The priest and priestess seem to have been modelled on the Flamen Dialis and his wife the flaminica, although they were not, like Jupiter's priest and priestess, man and wife. T

12

13

But these distinctions were not enough. Besides the regular priesthood, the senate instituted a sacred college of the noblest senators, the sodales Augustales, to devote itself to his worship. The college was organized along the lines of the ancient sodales Titii w hich Romulus was alleged to have created in honor of his colleague, the Sabine Titus Tatius. Among the first members were Tiberius, Drusus, Germanicus, and Claudius. There were moreover special provisions for his festivals. His birthday was to have games of the same type as the Ludi Martiales in honor of the ancestor of his race. The Augustalia was henceforth to be celebrated in his honor by the tribunes of the people who for the festival were to wear triumphal attire in the circus. Besides these provisions for T

11

2

For the date see C.I.L. i, l . p . 329, Comm. diurn. for Sept. 17. On the formal consecration of Augustus see C.I.L. i, l , pp. 244, 248; Dio LVI, 46; Veil, n, 124. Dio LVI, 46, 1; Ovid, Pont, iv, 9, 107; Veil, II, 75. 12

13

2

THE

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231

celebrations, Livia instituted special games at private expense in his honor, to be held every year on the Palatine from the seventeenth to the nineteenth of January. They persisted until late in the empire. To insure faith in his divinity the senate passed the same provision that it had for Caesar— namely that his image, because it was the image of a god, should not be carried in funeral processions of the family. Tiberius showed himself deeply interested in promoting the cult of Augustus. In a letter written to the people of the Peloponnesian Gythium on receipt of a list of honors decreed by them to the deceased Augustus, he says: " I approve the idea that all men generally and particularly your city should reserve the honors which belong to the gods for the benefactions which my father has conferred on the human race." Such an expression of approval of honors for Augustus must have had its effect in inducing other cities to erect monuments for Augustus, though no doubt some of the cities, as Dio says, acted with reluctance. In the province of Hither Spain he gave formal permission for the erection of a temple of Divus Augustus in Tarraco, and thereby provided a precedent for the erection of monuments in all the other provinces. The precedent probably led to the establishment of temples in western provinces where hitherto the place of worship seems to have been an altar. In Rome Tiberius' desire that due reverence be paid Augustus was so well known that informers began to charge that the men whom they wished to ruin had sworn falsely by Augustus or had in some way dishonored his statue. At first Tiberius took the sensible position that a god could himself avenge the wrong done to him, but later he gave 14

1 5

16

17

14

2

Dio LVI, 46, 5; T a c Ann. i, 73; Suet. Calig. 56, 2; C.I.L. I, l , p. 308. See Kougeas, 'EXXT^IKCI i (1928), 7-44; 152-157. The text of the inscrip­ tion has been reprinted and discussed by: H . Seyrig, Rev. Arch, x x i x , (1929), 84-106; Kornemann, Abh. d. Schles. Gesellschaft fur Vaterland. Kultur I, (1929) Iff.; L. Wenger, Zeil. d. Sav. Stijt. f. Rechtsgesch. XLIV (1929), Rom. Abt. 308 ff. Cf. Rostovtzeff "L'Empereur Tibere et le Culte imperial" Rev. Hist. CLXIII, (1930) 1-26, and my paper, T.A.P.A. LX (1929), 87 ff. Dio LVI, 46. Tac. Ann. i, 78. 15

16

17

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ear to such charges and provided precedents for the develop­ ment of the "treason" trial based on charges that there had been infringements of the emperor's majesty and divinity. There was no difficulty about the acceptance of Augustus' divinity. It had been well prepared for by the cult that was given to his deified father and to his own Genius in his lifetime, and by the abundant memorials of his name in the temples and the festivals that kept him and his house before the minds of men. Very potent also for the success of his cult were certain popular ideas of the divinity of Augustus and his house which had no formal recognition in Roman state worship. There was the belief that a god was incarnate in the emperor and in the members of his family. For Augustus the favorite divinity was Apollo, but others, like Mercury, whom Horace suggests, or the long series of divinities mentioned by Vergil in the proemium of the Georgics, were also thought of. For Livia the favorites were Juno and Ceres, for Livia's sons the Dioscuri, for Gaius Ares. Then there was the legend that had already formed about Augustus before his death and that grew to great proportions afterwards. Although the vic­ torious Caesar had never inspired a legend, there grew up about his unwarlike successor a series of stories that recall the mythical incidents of the lives of great conquerors such as Alexander and Charlemagne. Like Alexander he was credited with a divine father. Both before his birth and in his youth his greatness was said to have been foretold by marvellous signs. The legend is best known from a series of stories in the biography of Augustus written a century after his death by the wonder-loving Suetonius who is also probably responsible for preserving some of the miraculous tales about the greatest Augustan poet. 18

19

20

21

18

Cf. Veil, II, 126: Sacravit p a r e D t e m suum Caesar non imperio sed religione, non appellavit eum sed fecit deum. See Kenneth Scott, Class. Phil, x x v (1930), 155 ff. The fullest treatment of the legend of Augustus (exaggerated in some details) is that of Deonna, Rev. d'Hist. Rel. LXXXIII, 32 ff.; 163 ff.; LXXXIV, 77 ff. See also Norden, Weber, and Kampers, opp. cit. passim. 21 Aug. 9 4 . 19

20

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233

The story of Augustus' divine birth, like the story of Scipio Africanus, was a variant of the account of the birth of Alex­ ander which is preserved in some detail in the Alexander Romance. It was said that Apollo came to Augustus' mother Atia in the form of a serpent. Suetonius quotes the details from an Egyptian writer on the wonders of the gods. Several of the stories associate Augustus with the sun-god—a familiar association for the world ruler that was especially fitting.for one who claimed Apollo as his father. Before his birth his mother was said to have dreamed that the fruit of her womb was carried to the heavens and spread out over the whole extent of earth and sky; in the same period his father is credited with a dream that the splendor of the sun's rays shone forth from the body of his wife. It was related that once as a baby he disappeared from his cradle and was finally discovered on the top of a high tower facing the rising sun. Another story quoted on the authority of a Syrian freedman of Augustus is a version of the slaughter of the innocents which was also told of a wonder child born in Palestine in the reign of Augustus. Other incidents recorded by Suetonius relate to the horoscope of Augustus and the destiny that it promised him. He had himself since the year 27 given great prominence to Capricorn, the sign of his conception, and the hour of his birth had been found to coincide with that of Romulus. The great Roman astrologer of the time, the senator Nigidius Figulus, was said to have told Augustus' father on the day of his birth that his son would rule the world. An astrologer of Apollonia, though ignorant of his identity, is reported to have made obeisance before Augustus when he learned the hour of his birth. There was a further legend that compared his destiny with that of Alexander. When his father made inquiry about his son's future at a shrine of Bacchus in Thrace, the flames on the altar were said to have leapt up above the roof of the temple, and the priests assured Octavius that only for Alexander had such an incident occurred. Then there were the dreams of Catulus and Cicero which

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were told to show the destiny that Jupiter had reserved for Augustus, and there were the signs given by frogs and fish and eagles to indicate that he enjoyed the favor of heaven. There were also the omens that he himself related in his memoirs—the twelve vultures that greeted his arrival for his first consulship and the comet that appeared at his games, a sign that many explained as a prediction of the destiny of Caesar's son. The stories are worth recording only because their very existence seems to indicate that there was a public sufficiently convinced of the destiny of Augustus to be interested in them. About these stories the same question arises that is constantly asked about Augustus' divinity. Did they originate through channels of propaganda or were they spontaneous expressions of devotion to the emperor? Certainly the omens that Augustus himself recorded and perhaps the story vouched for by his Syrian freedman may be classed as propaganda, but that was not necessarily the case with all the stories. The gratitude and admiration that Augustus inspired as a deliverer undoubtedly had their influence in building up his legend. Similarly the cult of Augustus both in his lifetime and after his death developed through a fortunate combination of organized propaganda and spontaneous expressions of loyalty. In the place that he gave his divine ancestors, in the organiza­ tion of the cult of the Genius, especially as we see it in the abandoned crossroads shrines, and in the institution of the provincial cult in the West the hand of the emperor is evident. In the formal provisions for his funeral and for his apotheosis and his subsequent cult there was further indication of en­ couragement from Livia and Tiberius. At the same time there were spontaneous honors for Augus­ tus that were inspired by real faith in his divine qualities. He was in fact a genuine deliverer who had brought peace and plenty where there had been war and desolation. As such he was welcomed with homage both in the East where divine honors were traditional and in Rome which had been changed

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by the admixture of eastern population and by the consequent breakdown of the old religion and the old political system. It would be of interest to determine the attitude of the educated Italian and of Augustus himself toward the ruler cult. The real facts are hard to find because of the lack of uncensored literature. In a period when the free speech of republican oratory was no longer known, we must turn to the poets as the best index of what the intelligent man was think­ ing. Vergil and Horace fall readily into the conception of the emperor as a man on earth, destined one day to be a god. Horace, who had once been opposed to Augustus, is especially significant for the genuineness of his sentiments and the ease with which in all sincerity he falls into the language of worship. He even views the Genius as a revealed god and fails to make a distinction between it and the emperor's person. But, like most of the educated men of his day, he had little faith in the old gods of the state and his references to the emperor as a being on the same plane as the gods are rather an expression of deep personal admiration than of real religious fervor. Augustus' achievements seem to him to place the emperor beside mortals who have joined the ranks of the gods—Hercules, Liber, and Romulus—and he thinks that Augustus, like them, will live in memory and cult. By the time of O v i d and Manilius the expression of Augustus' divinity—sometimes described as already achieved on earth, though more often recognized as not finally accomplished until after his death—are more con­ ventional. They are already tinged with the language of flattery that is so distasteful in the works of Lucan and Martial in the century that followed. Horace and Ovid are probably indicative of the development in the cult among the educated supporters of Augustus in Rome. From deep admiration 22

" S e e Kenneth Scott, "Emperor Worship in Ovid,'" T.A.P.A. LXI (1930), 43 ff. Of particular interest is the section on "Augustus as a praesens et conspicuus deus," 58 ff. Cf. Trist. n, 53-60; in, 2, 27 f.; in, 8, 12-16; iv, 4, 20; Pont, i, 1, 63. But Ovid's verses, especially those written in exile, seem to me too full of flattery to have served as a "potent vehicle of publicity for spread­ ing throughout the empire belief in the deification of the monarch."

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that expressed itself readily in the language of worship they came gradually to a conventional acceptance of his divinity and then unfortunately to the attribution of divine qualities to him in the language of conventional flattery. Augustus himself seems to have had a sense of humor about his divine honors. When the people of Tarraco told him that a palm had sprung up on his altar, he interpreted it as a sign that a fire was rarely kindled upon it. There is no indication that he cared for adulation in itself. The simplicity of his court, the informality of his relations with his friends, his prohibition of the name dominus in address are indicative of his attitude. In his Res Gestae, completed shortly before the end of his life, there is only one reference to an honor that placed him on a par with the gods and that is the statement that his name was included in the Salian hymn. 23

There probably was one feature of the cult in which Augustus had a personal interest, and that was the enshrinement of his memory in public worship. His cult made it certain that he would not be forgotten. It gave him as a reward for his virtues the immortality in memory of which the Roman poets loved to sing. That this was a significant characteristic of apotheosis is shown by the fact that for later emperors the antithesis of deification was damnatio memoriae. The bad emperor suffered a greater penalty than the withhold­ ing of deification; he was consigned to oblivion. His name was erased from public monuments and his festivals in the calendar were abolished. The attitude of a sceptical Roman on the question is clearly shown by the criticisms of Tiberius which Tacitus quotes in connection with his refusal of the temple offered to him by the people of Spain. Some people inter­ preted it as a sign of a degenerate spirit. " Cetera principibus statim adesse; unum insatiabiliter parandum, prosperam sui memoriam; nam contemptu famae contemni virtutes. It is in securing his enshrinement in fame that Augustus' Res ,, 2 4

2 3

Quint. Inst, vi, 3, 77.

24

Tac. Ann. iv, 38.

T H E DEIFICATION OF AUGUSTUS

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Gestae is an important document. A man's deeds and the virtus that characterized them gave him a claim to divinity, and Augustus' impressive list of his achievements has been compared with Zeus's account of his deeds which Euhemerus declared he found in mythical Panchaia. The list contained the deeds of Zeus which merited his enshrinement in lasting cult. It would be going too far to assert that the Res Gestae had the simple purpose of establishing divinity, which Euhe­ merus assigns to the legendary stele of Panchaia, but never­ theless in its lasting record of what Augustus himself considered his greatest accomplishments it is not without importance for his apotheosis. 25

But for Augustus the imperial cult was primarily an instru­ ment of politics. His own conception of the worship is indicated by his attitude toward his Jewish subjects. In Alexandria and in Rome and doubtless elsewhere in the empire he exacted from them no images and no sacrifices that were contrary to Jewish customs. The Jews them­ selves, Philo says, when he protests against Caligula's viola­ tions of Jewish religious law, realized that Augustus "was as much interested in supporting native customs among every people as he was among the Romans, and that in receiving honors he did not in a spirit of false pride destroy the laws and customs of any people; instead, he acted in accordance with the greatness of the supreme power which is appropriately dignified and exalted by such tributes." Among peoples unhampered by the Jewish aversion to polytheism and to the worship of images he ventured to foster his cult, even when, as in the provinces of the West, the people were unfamiliar 26

2 7

2 5

See Wilamowitz, Hermes x x i (1886), 623-627; see Mommsen's argument against interpreting deification as the object of the Res Gestae, Gesamm. Schr. iv, pp. 253 ff. Herod had claimed that he was obeying orders in building temples to Augustus but Josephus states that the king was really actuated by the desire to secure favor. See Ant. xv, 9, 5. Leg. ad Gaium 23, 153. The context of the passage is significant. See ch. v m , n. 4. 2 6

27

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with the forms of the ruler cult. He found in the worship an effective instrument of government. The acts of a god had permanent binding force. Just as in his lifetime Augustus made the oath by his Genius a symbol of loyalty to the empire, so after his death he expected and secured his formal enshrinement in the cult of the state which legalized his rule.

CHAPTER X T H E DEVELOPMENT OF AUGUSTUS' DIVINITY

Although other emperors might for a time depart from the type of divinity that he had established, Augustus had given to the imperial cult the forms that were destined, like most of his political institutions, to endure until the time of Dio­ cletian. It was to him and not to Caesar that later emperors looked back as the founder of their power, and it was his conception of the emperor's divine position that was destined to prevail. His immediate successor Tiberius made it his general policy to follow the precedents of Augustus and accepted sacrifices and oaths in the name of his Genius, though he made it clear that the adulation that came with divinity was not to his taste. T o the people of Gythium he wrote that honors such as befitted the gods were to be reserved for his father and that he himself was content with more moderate honors such as belonged to a man. But his letter did not close the door against divine honors from the Gytheates. When the people of Asia offered a temple to him, his mother, and the Roman senate, Tiberius accepted it, pointing to the precedent supplied by the temple of Roma and Augustus that his predecessor had accepted at Pergamum. But when Further Spain made an offer of a temple, he declined it; he had no precedent of Augustus here and he declared that he did not wish the homage of Augustus to be cheapened by promiscuous adulation. "'I call you to witness, conscript fathers," he said, according to the memorable words that Tacitus attributes to him, " and I desire posterity to remember that I am but a mortal, discharging the duties of a man; content if I may fill the highest place worthily. Enough and more than enough will men render to my memory, if they shall believe me worthy of my ancestors, thoughtful for your 239

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interests, unflinching in danger, undaunted by the enemies which I encounter in public service. These shall be my temples in your hearts, my fairest and most enduring images. But his words do not make it impossible that sacrifices to his Genius such as were known in Rome were also familiar in the provinces of the West. However little he cared about dei­ fication, he probably assumed that he would receive it after his death. ,, 1

2

The fact that when Tiberius died he was neither deified nor consigned to oblivion is to be explained not so much by his own attitude in his lifetime as by the failure of Caligula to press the question of his deification before a reluctant senate. For his own honors in his brief and stormy reign the mad Caligula went far beyond the example set by Augustus. He regarded himself as Jupiter incarnate and demanded extrav­ agant worship on every hand. After he had been murdered, his successor Claudius wisely returned to the precedents of Augustus, and henceforth they were followed in their most essential features. The festivals grew and the number of deified abstractions increased, but the emperor himself was not, in theory at least, a god in his lifetime. Even in Alexan­ dria Claudius objected to the use of the title " g o d , " and deprecated, probably no more effectively than Augustus, excessive honors. The temple which he accepted in the newly conquered province of Britain was simply a means of insuring the loyalty of a region which had no relations with the earlier divi? Elsewhere in the West he seems to have been honored chiefly through his Genius, and the cult of the Genius became firmly established as a symbol of loyalty to the empire. After his death he was enshrined as another divus; his apotheosis was made the subject of a keen satire which 1

Tac. Ann. iv, 38 (Ramsay's translation). See my paper on "Tiberius' Refusals of Divine Honors," T.A.P.A. LX (1929), 87-101. M. P. Charlesworth in his argument (Class. Rev. x x x i x (1929), 113 ff.) that Claudius did not follow the precedents of Augustus, does not seem to me to have taken full account of Augustus' refusals of divine honors. See my paper cited above. 2

3

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shows the attitude of a sophisticated Roman toward the ceremony. From Claudius to Diocletian the emperor who was enshrined as a god of the state was a dead emperor whose rule was adjudged to have made him worthy of the deification that legalized his acts. The word divus, which was regularly attached to the emperor's name to show his divinity, came gradually to have the meaning of "man made into god," and when it was proposed to erect a temple of Divus Nero during the lifetime of the emperor, Nero himself thought the proposal a bad omen and would not permit the temple to be erected. "For honors that belong to the gods are not paid to the princeps until he has ceased to be active among men," says Tacitus in commenting on the incident. Hence the words attributed to the dying Vespasian, " Vae, puto deus fio. " But the living emperor did not have to wait until after his death for a divinity that legalized his acts. He had it in his life­ time in the cult of his Genius. T o it men made sacrifices before his statues; by it, associated with the deified emper­ ors, Jupiter, and the Di Penates, men swore the official oath. As a symbol of loyalty to the rule, the Genius of the living emperor became far more important than the con­ secrated rulers; those who swore falsely by it could be charged with treason and those whose religion did not permit them to take the oath or make the sacrifices were liable to persecution. 4

5

Looking back over Augustus' long reign, we can see how he gradually established the divine position which later emperors were to inherit from him. When as a youth he came from Apollonia, bent on securing the full inheritance of Caesar with all the distinctions that Caesar's position brought with it, he found that Caesar before his death had prepared the way for the declared monarchy which he planned to establish by securing for himself the enshrinement in state cult that belonged to the Hellenistic rulers of his day. Another god in 4

Ann. xv, 74; cf. Appian, B.C. n, 148; Tertullian, Apol. 34; Suet. Vesp. 23. In their attitude toward the Christians later emperors did not always maintain the tolerance which Augustus had shown toward the Jews. 17 6

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the outworn state religion meant little in Caesar's time, and, though not yet fully inaugurated, the new honors had been readily voted by the senate which Caesar had filled with his creatures. The fact that Caesar still lived among men seems in no way to have acted as a deterrent for the distinctions. But the declaration of Caesar as king, which would have given real political significance to the divine honors, had met with an undercurrent of opposition. The title had not yet been conferred when the liberators, led by a descendant of the Brutus who had expelled the ancient kings, slew the man who desired to found a new kingdom. By making Caesar a martyr, his assassins, while they kept him from being declared king, actually turned him into a god. The feeling which their deed aroused for one who was seen to have been betrayed by those whom he had trusted was quickly transformed into worship, and Caesar became a god "not simply on the lips of men pass­ ing decrees but in the conviction of the masses." Already on Octavian's arrival Caesar's freedmen and veterans had gathered about the altar on the spot where Caesar's body had been burned, and were beginning to demand that the magis­ trates make his cult official by inaugurating sacrifices. Oc­ tavian realized the value of Caesar's deification as an author­ ization of his power, just as his opponent sensed the danger which the deification would spell for his ambition, and the youth immediately began his attempt to put into effect the divinity which had been decreed to Caesar before his death. In the struggle he was aided by the fortunate appearance of the comet at Caesar's funeral games. It was a popular belief, which had come to Rome from the East, that the souls of great men were translated to the stars, there to enjoy a divine immortality. Octavian interpreted the comet as the soul of the deified Caesar, and placed a star as a symbol of Caesar's translation to the heavens on every statue of the dictator in Rome. When, on the formation of the triumvirate, the worship of Divus Julius was inaugurated under the state religion, there was already in many quarters a belief in Caesar's

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divinity—a belief based not on the traditions of Roman official worship but on ideas that were current among a people under the influence of Oriental ideas, a citizen body that had been profoundly changed by the eastern population which it had absorbed. Here was a form of divinity which was truly effective because ijt accorded with popular belief, and Octavian, who depended on the fact that he was the son of a Divus for the authorization of his power, could have secured from Caesar's example alone an indication of the form of divine monarchy which he might establish at Rome. But it is unlikely that in his early days, when he took oath to secure the honors of his father, he had a clear conception of the final solution that could come. For him, as for Caesar before him, the first aim was to secure supreme power, and his divine honors were really a secondary matter, to be determined by the form which his power took. That form gradually became distinct in the years of his struggle with Antony. Octavian found himself in the position of defender of the very Roman traditions that Caesar had dis­ regarded, against the kind of oriental monarchy that Caesar had attempted to establish at Rome. He promised to restore the Republic and though, when his final victory came, he might have secured the full position of the incarnate god-king, he worked out a solution which seemed to him consistent with his promise. He became the first citizen of the Republic which in theory he had restored. As princeps he could expect after death the divine immortality which had been accorded to the mythical founder Romulus and to the great heroes of the Republic, the men who, like Scipio Africanus, had in the belief of the late Republic been translated to the stars. Moreover, after his translation he might hope for the formal enshrinement in state cult which, though it had not come to the republican heroes, had been accepted in the state religion for his father as for Romulus. And so he declined during his 6

6

For Romulus as Augustus' precedent for his deification see Bickermann, op. cit. p. 27. The author in finding his explanation of the Roman emperor's apotheosis not in the Hellenistic ruler cult but in the character of Roman religion has not considered the development of Augustus* conception of his own divinity.

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lifetime to be enshrined in a temple and appeared before men not as the declared divus but as the princeps whose new title Augustus, with all its suggestion of the augury of Romulus and the auctoritas of the princeps, at the same time suggested his potential divinity. The new idea that the princeps was on earth the foremost citizen who, after his death, would be translated to the heavens as a god, "the republican transformation of the doctrine of the divinity of kings," was an admirable solution of the ruler's divine position. It was consistent with the republican principles on which the government of Augustus was estab­ lished. 7

At first sight this form of divinity might seem to set Augustus apart from divine kings of the Hellenistic mon­ archies who ruled as incarnate gods on earth and then after death simply exchanged earth for heaven. But the princeps with a great empire in his control really embodied in his rule the conception of the theocratic monarchy which Alexander had founded. In the East he was worshipped according to the principles that had developed in the kingdoms which suc­ ceeded Alexander. In Egypt he was for his Egyptian subjects a divine king with the attributes of the Pharaohs of old. In the Asiatic provinces and in Greek lands he was frankly worshipped by cities and leagues of cities as a deity incarnate. If in theory he refrained from the title of god in his lifetime, he was less successful in avoiding the term than one group of his predecessors in the East, the Pergamene kings, had been. If we had fuller knowledge of the theory on which the Per­ gamene kings' divinity was founded, it is possible that we might find in it an important precedent for the divinity of the Roman emperor. Moreover, he had at home in his own honors and festivals, 7

The elder Pliny clearly recognizes the republican traditions when he speaks of the divinity that is to come to Vespasian (n, 18-19): haec ad aeternam gloriam via; hac proceres iere Romani; hac nunc caelesti passu cum liberis suis vadit maximus omnis aevi rector Vespasianus Augustus fessis rebus subveniens; hie est vetustissimus referendi bene merentibus gratiam mos ut tales numinibus adscribant.

T H E DEVELOPMENT OF AUGUSTUS' D I V I N I T Y

245

his statues in temples and public places, the elaborate cele­ brations of his birthday, the anniversaries of his victories and of the various powers that were conferred upon him, a dis­ tinction that placed him beside the eastern monarch. He had the gradually developing cult of deified abstractions associated with his rule, Fortuna, Victoria, Pax, Concordia, Felicitas, Salus, a group capable of unlimited expansion. Most important of all, he had the worship that was accorded to his Genius and his Lares as official gods of the state. The cult of his Genius was really a worship of himself, and, though it was veiled in much the same way that Augustus' political power was veiled, it was as effective in securing loyalty to his rule as was the declared worship which the Hellenistic rulers and he himself as their successor had in the East. For years the worship of Augustus' Genius seems to have amounted to nothing more than the pouring of a libation at dinner, but that was formally provided for by senatorial decree. In the libation he was acknowledged as father of the state family by the type of offering that could be given to the master of the house, and the ceremony came to be a regular feature of the dinner that ended the Roman day. When the death of Lepidus in 13 B.C. finally freed the high priesthood which Augustus' observance of Roman traditions had never allowed him to seize, the emperor was able to take his position as the religious head of the state family. Then he established the Genius as an official god of the state. He had it incorporated in the formula of the official oath, and the citizens swore by it in the same way that slaves took oath by the Genius of the master in the house. Moreover, he brought the new worship into the daily life of the people. He restored the abandoned crossroads shrines and set up in them images of his Genius and of the Lares, now identified with the ancestral gods of his house. The cult spread through the municipalities and the country districts of Italy and the West. Presently it secured in the cities its own temples and priests. In the capital, to 8

•Compare Tacitus' charge against Augustus, Ann. i , 10: Nihil deorum honoribus relictum cum se templis et effigie numinum perflamincset sacerdotcs coli vellet.

240

T H E DIVINITY OK THE R O M A N EMPEROR

be sure, the Genius had no special priests or temples, but it had altars at which the priestly colleges and the magistrates could make official offering to it. A t the end of Augustus* reign a great altar of the Genius was erected as a public monu­ ment, probably on the Capitol. The cult of the Genius took a firmer hold on the people because it was bound up with the sacred traditions of Italy and Rome. Yet this worship too had its counterpart in the eastern ruler cult. The libation poured for the Genius at banquets had its prototypes in Roman cult, but it also had its precedents in the offerings at Persian banquets to the spirit of the absent king and in the toasts that were drunk to Alexander and other Hellenistic kings. The oaths taken by the emperor's Genius as a symbol of loyalty to the empire had their prototypes not only in the oaths by the master of the house in the Roman family but in the oaths which under the Ptolemaic kingdom were sometimes taken by the ruler's daimon. If we are right in interpreting the heroic cult of the living man in Greece as a worship of his daimon, the Greek counterpart of the Genius, the worship of Augustus' Genius might in the early years be interpreted as a kind of heroic honor for the living emperor. But the Roman emperor's Genius was not long restricted to the type of honor that ritual permitted for the guardian spirit of the ordinary man. When the blood of victims began to be shed in Genius worship, the cult departed from the precedents which prescribed bloodless offerings for the Genius and took on the forms that belonged to the worship of the incarnate god-king. Its usual sacri­ ficial victim, the bull, had long before been the symbol of the divine king in Egypt and had come down into Hellenistic cult as a favorite victim in the worship of the monarch. Thus the Genius of the Roman emperor had inherited the cult of the Hellenistic monarch who appeared before his subject as an incarnate god. Horace had felt the true nature of the worship when he said: Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores. "On thee incarnate among us we bestow timely honors".

APPENDIX THE

I

W O R S H I P OF THE PERSIAN K I N G

In an article published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1927 ( X L V I I , 5 3 - 6 2 ) I argued, in opposition to the current opinion, that the Persians under the Achaemenidae worshipped their kings and that their worship had its influence on the divine monarchy of Alexander. Both conclusions were vigorously disputed b y M r . W . W . Tarn in a paper published in the same journal in the following year ( 2 0 6 219).

T h e importance of the question for the Hellenistic and there­

fore for the R o m a n cult has led me to restate here the evidence for the worship of the Persian king and to consider in the next appendix the influence of the Persian worship on Alexander.

Although I can

make no claim to firsthand acquaintance with Persian sources, and although in the interpretation of the historical material I realize that I am entering a field in which M r . Tarn is a master, I am ven­ turing to contest some of his arguments because I think that, with all his understanding of the historical background, he has insisted on a definiteness of interpretation which is impossible in estimating religious ideas.

Since the appearance of m y paper, m y own point

of view has been altered in various details as a result of his trenchant 1

arguments and of m y own subsequent work on the subject, but I still hold that the Persians had a form of ruler worship which must be taken into account in a consideration of the Hellenistic ruler cult. In

attempting to estimate the attitude of the Persian subject

toward the Achaemenian kings we are immediately handicapped by the lack of a direct tradition.

T h e only contemporary Persian

sources for the reigns of these kings are their monuments with the inscriptions placed upon them b y the kings to commemorate their own achievements.

2

For further information about the Achae­ 3

menidae we have only what we can extract from the Avesta, the collection of Persian sacred books, and from non-Persian writers. The

Avesta, though it undoubtedly preserves much that is im-

1

For a correction of an error in my quotation of Isocrates, Panegyricus 151, see J.H.S. XLVIII (1928), 6. See Weissbach, Die Keilinschriften der Acfmemeniden. For a recent history of the Achaemenidae see Cambridge Ancient History iv. Le Zend-Avesta, translation of Darmesteter in Annates du Musee Guimet (1892-1894). See the same author, Sacred Books of the East iv. 2

3

247

248

APPENDIX I

portant for the religion of the Achaemenidae, must be used with the greatest caution, for it was not put together until Sassanian times and it does not mention any of the Achaemenidae b y name; more­ over it belongs to the tradition of another group of the Iranians. A m o n g external authorities for the Achaemenidae, b y far the most important are the Greek.

T h e scant evidence provided b y

Egyptian and Semitic records is insignificant beside the detailed ob­ servations of men like Herodotus and Xenophon.

I t is from them

and from other Greeks that we secure the largest amount of informa­ tion about the attitude of the Persian subject toward the king.

If

we compare the statements of Greek observers with the language of the kings themselves in the inscriptions, we find a curious contradic­ tion.

While the Greek who described the relation of subject to

monarch saw in it worship, there is not a word in the great inscrip­ tions to indicate that the kings made any claim to divinity.

4

When

they give their ancestry they have no names of gods among their forbears; when they boast of their great achievements they do not call themselves gods or godlike. mighty god Auramazda.

T h e y attribute their glory to their

" B y the grace of Auramazda I am king,"

declares Darius on the inscription of Behistun.

Until the time of

Artaxerxes I I , Auramazda is the only god whom the kings name, and, though later kings pay their devotion also to Mithra and A n a hitis, they never venture to add themselves to the galaxy of gods. The decipherment of these great cuneiform inscriptions led to a revision of the view of modern scholars about the Persians.

Before

that it had been believed that the Greeks were right in interpreting the attitude of subjects toward sovereign as worship, and the Per­ sian cult of the ruler had been regarded as an important element in the development of the Hellenistic ruler cult.

Since then it has

been the general view that the Greeks, seeing the proskynesis, the salutation by which the subject, in abject obeisance before the king, prostrated himself and kissed the earth, interpreted as worship the abasement which seemed to them unworthy before a mortal, and that they were mistaken in their interpretation.

B u t the firsthand

statements of Greek observers, who had opportunities for judging which we cannot hope to match, must not be summarily rejected on the basis of the scant evidence provided b y the words of the kings in their inscriptions. 4

5

W e should have little idea of the cult of

For divine ancestry attributed to the Persians in Egyptian and Greek

sources (Cyrus as and Oecov yeyovm

in X e n . Cyr. iv, 1, 24) see A. S. F. Gow's

excellent comments in J.H.S. XLVIII (1928), 134. Gow, op. cit. pp. 135 ff. argues that the Greeks, though they felt that the proskynesis before the king was "rendering unto man what was due only to 5

249

T H E WORSHIP OF THE PERSIAN K I N G

Augustus if we had nothing except his own words in the great monumental inscription that records his res gestae.

T h e difficulty

m a y be that modern scholars, in denying worship of the king among the Persians, have made a distinction between worship and rever­ ence which the Greeks and very likely the Persians

6

did not make.

A s a matter of fact, though most of the comments of Greek observers on Persian king worship come in the accounts of the proskynesis,

there are records from Greek sources of certain Per­

sian ceremonies and customs which need to be considered in any attempt to decide whether the Persians worshipped their kings. In the first place there was, we know from an account which goes back to Alexander's historian Aristobulus, a cult offered to Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenian dynasty, at his great t o m b in Pasargadae.

7

M a g i were on duty at the tomb and every day

offerings of meal and wine were made and a sheep was sacrificed; once a year a horse was offered. reigning king.

T h e victims were supplied b y the

It has been suggested that a similar cult per­

sisted at the other royal tombs at Pasargadae and Persepolis. W i t h Cyrus' cult in mind I followed R a p p

9

sacrifice to the Persian kings at Pasargadae

8

in interpreting as a 1 0

(Cambyses as well

as Cyrus was buried there) the following passage from Appian's account (Mith. ya\a

Kal

RFJ 5'

ewiTedip

olov

TL

FIEXI

Kal

EV

66) of

Mithradates' sacrifice

to

Zeus Stratios:

Kal olvov Kal ekaiov Kal 0u/udjuara wavra GITOV

RE

Kal 6\pov

Uaaapyadais

EARL

ES

apiarov

TOLS

UEPA&V

TOLS

ein^opovaL,

irapovviv

PAAIXEVAL

eiriTidkvTes,

dvalas ykvos.

Tarn is undoubtedly right in objecting to m y unquestioning ac­ ceptance of this passage as evidence for such a view.

Appian is

drawing a parallel with a sacrifice of King Mithradates, and he would naturally instance sacrifices made b y other kings. god," did not by the act make the man a god.

More-

But the exceptions which he

quotes, especially Isoc. Panegyr. 151 (he regards the Alexander material as too late to be significant), seem to me sufficient evidence against his point. Of course the proskynesis did not always imply "worship" in our sense of the word.

It was a form of greeting extended among the Persians by inferiors to

those far above them (Hdt. i, 134). For an analysis of the material on the proskynesis see Schnabel, Klio xix, 118 ff. 6

See Hdt. I.e. Cf. Nock's comments, H.S.C.P. XLI (1930), 50 f. Arr. Anab. vi, 29; cf. Strabo x v , 730; Pliny, N.H. vi, 116. See Saare, Iranische Felsenreliefs (1910), p. 175. The importance of the tomb structures among the Persians is apparent from their remains. Darius, according to Ctesias, had his own tomb built in his lifetime, and Saare con­ jectures that the other kings did likewise. Zeit. d. Deutsch. Morgenl&nd. Gesellschaft x i x (1865), 69. On Pasargadae see Herzfeld, Klio v m (1908), 1 ff. 7

8

9

1 0

APPENDIX

250

I

over, if the kings were the object of the sacrifice, the word reXetrat would normally be used instead of earl. But the real difficulty in taking the simplest meaning of the Greek and assuming that the kings performed the sacrifice is that in the time of Appian there was no reason for going to Pasargadae except to visit the tombs of Cyrus and Cambyses and the remains of their monuments. It seems im­ possible to follow Tarn in assuming that Appian in his present tense is here projecting himself into the time of his source. It is more probable that, if kings performed the sacrifice, they were the Persian kings of whom Strabo speaks as still ruling in his day, though they were tributary to the Parthians. T h e y are known to us through a series of coins which show that they still preserved the traditions of the M a g i ; to them perhaps belonged the M a g i of whom Pliny speaks as having possession of the t o m b of C y r u s . If such was the case, their presence at Pasargadae probably had some connection with the cult of the dead kings and Appian m a y be de­ scribing an offering b y kings to kings. B u t the passage must re­ main obscure and it is unsafe to base any conclusions upon it. 11

12

1 3

14

Whatever the interpretation of Appian's statement, we have in the evidence for a cult at the tomb of Cyrus (not unlike the Greek cult of the hero), a proof that there was a form of worship at the tomb of the founder of the Achaemenidae, and in the light of it we can no longer persist in the denial that there was a cult of the Achaemenidae. There is another account of offerings to a dead Persian king which must be used with far more caution than the definite descrip­ tion which Aristobulus gives us of the offerings at the t o m b of Cyrus. Aeschylus, in the Persae, represents the queen Atossa sum­ moning her husband Darius from his tomb with offerings of milk and honey and water and wine. T h e form of the summons and the offering are in keeping with the Greek cult of the dead; the only 11

For the construction compare, however, Thuc. vn, 73, 2: crux* 7<*P

avTols Kal

^HpcucXei ravrnv

TrporjpOLTia ArjprjTpt 12

Strabo xv, 728:

Wepaai, 13

rfi ye Svvapei

rr\v rjpepav Kal (f>vra\pl
dvcrla olaa;

Plut. Mor.

158

HOLT€L8COI>I WOV ficopos earai,

el (iaaikevovTai.

TrXeXarov diroXelirovTat

pexpi

vvv

tbiov

Kal T$ HapBva'uav

E:

'Opfipitp

8k

Ad

TTOV 8k OvaLafiacrikka

irpotrexovat

e\ovres

ol

/ScurtXet.

See the evidence cited by Huart, La Grande Encyclopedic, s.v. Persepolis, and in Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization, p . I l l , n. 1. For a discussion of the numismatic evidence see Mordtmann, Zeit. f. Numism. iv (1877), 152-186 and Numism. Zeit. x (1878), 181-217 (the second paper in answer to Blau, ibid. 63-87). N.H. vi, 116: Inde ab oriente Magi obtinent Pasargada castellum in quo Cyri sepulcrum est. 14

251

T H E WORSHIP OF THE PERSIAN K I N G

noteworthy detail is that the dead Darius is twice called Sat/jaw, a word that Aeschylus does not elsewhere use for a dead m a n .

15

. M o r e significant for the attitude of the Persians toward their kings are the honors given to the spirit of the living king when the king himself was absent. Theopompus,

16

Nicostratus of Argos, according to

in an attempt to win the favor of the Persian king,

Artaxerxes I I I Ochus, followed the custom of the Persians about the king's gate, and whenever he dined set up a special table with food and drink upon it for the daimon of the Persian king. account as quoted b y Athenaeus reads as follows: IK6L(TT7]V

/zeXXoi

RJJJLEPAV, SWORE

T(J>

BVOFXAFAV

DAIFIOVL

r<3 jSaaiXecos,

EWLTWDELAJV, CLKOVUV P.EV TOVTO DIARPIPOVTAS, HAWOV

IRAPA

OLDFXEVOS TOV

BENRVELV,

DE

rPAIREDAV

KFXIRXRJAAS

AIROV

IROTELV KAL TOOV YLEPADV 5ta

TTJS

DEPAWEIAS

The

EWEIRA

IRAPERIDEL

KCL6'

KAL T&V

TOVS IREPL TOLS

TAVRWS

w

x P^ AWCOV DVPAS

xP*?M<*Ti€l<70(Xi

jSaciXeajs.

Tarn explains the table set up to the king's spirit simply as an attempt to secure the good graces of the absent king and sees no implication of worship in it, though he credits the king's spirit with the supernatural power of being present when the king himself is not there in the

17

flesh.

B u t worship was a very common way of

securing good graces, and the setting of a table with food and drink for a hero is such a common cult act in various religions that it requires no illustration.

T h e only unusual detail is that here the

offering is for the spirit of a living and not a dead man.

I t has an

excellent parallel in the libations which from 3 0 B.C. were offered to the Genius of Augustus at all banquets both public and private. lb

18

Pers. 620, 642. In 654 he is called 0e6s; cf. also 157 f.: deov fxev evvr\reipa HepcrCov, 6eov de Kal prjTrjp evs, el ri /xri Saipuv waXaLos vvv pedearrjKe arparQ. See Gow, " Notes on the Persae of Aeschylus," J.H.S. XLVIII (1928), 133 ff. Aeschylus, Gow says, "knew, at least by hearsay, a great deal more about Persia and Persians than we are ever likely to know;" and along with many details in which Aeschylus gives us valuable material for the Persians, Gow discusses his supposed "mistake in assuming that the Persians worshipped their kings." Gow's solution is an interesting one. He does not believe that Aeschylus ascribes king worship to the Persians at all; the chorus in calling Xerxes and Darius Oeoi are talking in a figurative manner and Darius is a god simply because he is successful. But the difficulty again seems to be that Aeschylus' critics have had too explicit a definition of king worship. On Persian elements in the Persae one may also consult the dissertation of Keiper, Die Perset des Aeschylus als Quelle fur altpersische Altertumskunde, Erlangen, 1877. It is valuable particularly for the study of names. Theopompus ap. Ath. 252b. In the words which Tarn quotes from Nock, "the king will deign to be spiritually present." See p . 151. 1 6

1 7

1 8

252

APPENDIX I

Another act of reverence to the absent Persian king is recorded in a description of a dinner in the Artaxerxes

of Plutarch ( 1 5 ) , a

life based largely on Ctesias, who had spent a long time at the court of the Persian king.

Mithradates, in company with Persian

nobles and the king's eunuchs, has just boasted that he killed Cyrus. ol fxev ovv aXXoi op&vres els T7]v 11

TO .TCXOS 7)6*77 777y

T

°v

Mi0pi5arou Kal

eKV\pav. 6 5' iari&v

CLVTOVS,

TTJV <
KaKo8atjjiovlav

£2 rav"

€$77,

Mi0pi5ara, irlvoj/jiev ev r<3 irapbvTi Kal eadioofiev TOV /SaaiXecos 8aLp,ova

irpovKwovvTes,

\6yovs

de juetfous 77 Kad' rj/jias eaaufiev."

then, the king did not have to be present to receive the in person. absence.

19

Evidently, proskynesis

His daimon was spiritually present to receive it in his

Perhaps there was an image of the king's daimon before

which the ceremony was performed. T h e daimon of the Persian king is also mentioned in Plutarch's description of Themistocles' reception at the Persian court (Them. 29).

T h e chiliarch is represented as saying to him in w r a t h " 0 < £ i s

"EXX771/

6 7roi/aXos, 6 /3a(uXea>s ae dalfxuv devpo riyayev"

However

doubtful the historical value of the story, it is not unlikely that Plutarch found in his sources some expression of the belief in the daimon of the king.

Persian

H e might of course here be trans­

ferring the ideas of his own day, but that is probably not the case with the same idea in the Artaxerxes, Theopompus.

and certainly not with

20

1 9

Tarn, in his criticism of my use of this passage, is apparently making the point that the proskynesis was here not a regular but a special act, again an attempt to secure the good graces of the absent king with no implication of worship. One may ask how Tarn defines 'worship.' He may be right in thinking that the proskynesis came as a direct result of Mithradates' unfor­ tunate boast, but I do not agree with him in his explanation of the phrase ets rr\v yrjv KVTTT€LP as the performance of the proskynesis. The act of bend­ ing was not enough for the performance of the proskynesis as the incident related in ch. 22 of the Artaxerxes shows; moreover, the phrase eis rr\v yrjp Kvirreiv is used for bowing the head in distress (cf. Hdt. 111, 13; Dem. de Corona, 18, 332) and from the preceding words it is clear that the company was in distress as it thought of Mithradates' fate. Furthermore, if the proskynesis had already been performed, we should expect the aorist and not the present participle of irpoaKweco. The important contribution of the passage is, however, that there was a proskynesis to the absent king and I only venture to use it as an indication of a ceremony performed at a banquet, because the passage from Theopompus shows that offerings to the daimon of the king were customary at dinners at the Persian court. It is of course possible that the act of reverence was performed on other occasions. 2 0

Jacobsson, in his dissertation on Daimon och Agathos Daimon (Lund, 1925), suggests that the Persian idea of the fravashi had its influence on the Greek development of the daimon.

T H E WORSHIP OF THE PERSIAN

KING

253

W h a t we have in these fragmentary bits of evidence is the indica­ tion that the Persians had a cult of Cyrus, the founder of the dy­ nasty, at his t o m b , and that they endowed their living king with the power to be present in spirit at banquets when he was actually ab­ sent, and, sometimes at least, made obeisance and offered food and drink to his spirit.

Aeschylus uses the word daimon for the spirit of

the dead Darius, and later authorities, Theopompus and Plutarch, the latter probably taking the word from Ctesias, use it for the spirit of the living king. their king daimon.

Isocrates

21

says that the Persians called

H e is probably using the word in the technical

sense for a lower order of divine beings than the gods. N o w a belief in the spirit of man as something that existed before he was born, during his lifetime, and after his death is a marked characteristic of Persian religious conceptions as we see them in the later sections of the Avesta.

These spirits were called

2

fravashi?

While they exist for everybody, it is particularly the fravashi Zoroaster and the saints which receive honor.

of

In the Yasna, one

of the later sections of the Avesta, we hear of a sacrifice ' to all the fravashi of the saints, those who are dead, those who are now alive, and those who are still to be born.'

T h e idea of the

fravashi,

though we know it only for the Sassanian period, is generally be­ lieved b y Persian scholars to have been familiar in the time of the Achaemenidae, Avesta.

23

but there is no mention of the dynasty in the

There is, however, frequent mention of the fravashi

of

king Vishtaspa who shielded Zoroaster, a monarch identified b y some scholars with the father of. Darius. T h e Greek allusions to the daimon of the Persian king provide support for the view of Persian scholars that the idea of the fravashi existed in the time of the Achaemenidae.

In this single word,

which describes the spirit of the living and the dead, we have a con­ ception that explains how Aeschylus could speak of the dead Darius' spirit as daimon and how the living king's daimon could be propi­ tiated in the absence of the king. 2 1

T h e conception was something

Panegyr. 151: Bvqrbv p.kv avbpa irpoTes Kal baip.ova irpoa ay opevopres, Otu>v paWov rj T&V avdpuirtav dXiyupovvres. The best idea of the fravashi can be secured from reading the Avesta, particularly Yasna 26 and Yasht 13. On the subject see the following articles in Hastings' Enc. Rel. and Eth.: Fravashi by Moulton, Ancestor Worship (Iranian) by Lehmann. See also Soderblom, Rev. Hist. Rel. x x x i x (1899), 229 fT.; 373 ff. For evidence for a month sacred to the fravashi in a calendar of the Achaemenian period see Cumont, Textes et Monuments figures relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra I, p. 132; n, p. 6; Compt. Rend. Acad. Inscr. 1930, 208 fT.

TG>V

5k

2 2

2 3

254

APPENDIX

I

like the combination in Greek of ijpus and dainuv, or of Lares and Genius in Latin, and it incidentally throws light on some curious inconsistencies in the use of the Greek and the Latin terms—such as the occasional use of dal/jioov or Genius for the spirit of a dead man. The

idea was necessarily a vague one, and there is no use in trying to

decide just what it was.

I t probably differed, as religious concep­

tions do, in the mind of every worshipper.

24

Even when the king

was present, the spirit of the king m a y have been, technically at least, the object of the worship; in that connection it is noteworthy that

the

Parsis,

modern Zoroastrians, interpret

as the

king's

fravashi the figure with rings and sun disc found over the king on Persian royal monuments.

25

B u t the Persians must have found it

as hard to keep the king and his spirit separate as the R o m a n citizen later did when he offered his worship, technically at least, to the Genius of the emperor rather than to the emperor in person. Another custom of the court of the Achaemenidae has been as­ sociated with a conception of the king's divine quality which we find in the Avesta.

In Cyrus' first state procession, as it is described b y

Xenophon, a group of men bearing a great altar on which a fire burned marched directly in front of the king.

26

T h e flame on this

altar, like the fire that burned in the palace of the Achaemenidae, seems to represent the hvarend, the quality of g l o r y

2 7

larly of kingly glory as we know it from the A v e s t a .

and particu­ 28

T h e word

means "lustre" or "light" and it was thought of as a flame which illumined the true sovereign and made him strong and great. was in a sense a divine force incarnate in h i m .

29

It

30

24

Similarly the nature of the Greek daimon probably varied with the indi­ vidual. It is unsafe to conclude, as Tarn does from Menander 550-551 K, that it was in general belief at the time "still something external to man." Against such an interpretation see A. V. Williams Jackson, The Monist ix (1899), 169; Soderblom, Rev. Hist. Rel. x x x i x (1899), 409. 25

2 6

Cyr.

vm

3, 12:

Kal nvp

owLo-dev avrov

kir'

«rxctpas peya\r]s

avdpes

elirovro

kpoi>Tes. See also the description of Darius' procession to the Euphrates, Curt, in, 3, 9: Ignis quern ipsi sacrum et aeternum vocabant argenteis altaribus praeferebatur. This was first suggested by Cumont, "L'Eternite des Empereurs," Rev. d'hist. et litt. rel. i (1896), 441 ff.; Mysteries of Mithra, pp. 93 ff. See particularly Yasht 19. See Soderblom in Hastings' Enc. Rel. and Eth., s.v. Incarnation (Persian). The hvarend is rendered in Pehlevi texts by Gad, the name of the Semitic deity of Fortune. See Cumont in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v. Gad. Gad in turn is rendered in Greek by Tyche, and the conclusion has been drawn that the Hellenistic Tyche has something of the character of the Persian hvarend. But the Persian fire has an even closer correspondence with the fire of Hestia and Vesta. 27

28

29

30

THE

WORSHIP OF THE PERSIAN K I N G

255

It is clear then that the Persians offered a form of cult to the spirit of their kings both living and dead and to the idea of glory that w&c thought of as attending t h e m .

31

T h e worship is shrouded,

in obscurity, bat we can be sure that it differed, as did the political and

religious institutions of the Persians, from the customs of the

Greek city state.

T h e king, though he had festivals—his birthday,

the regular Greek festival of the daimon, and the birthday of his power—did not have the temples and the priests that belonged to the mortals to whom the Greek cities voted godhead.

Though

Greek observers sometimes called him a god, he actually was not enrolled among the gods of his people.

N o mortal could be placed

beside a mighty power like Auramazda, not even after the worship of

Mithra and Anahitis had weakened the great god's absolute

sway.

But the spirit of a mortal king and the glory that made him

great could be worshipped with the lower order of supernatural beings that Persian religion knew.

T h e king's spirit, about which

most of our evidence centers, was in something of the position of the Greek hero who had an official cult in the Greek city, though it lacked the power that the hero sometimes had of being transformed into a god.

T h e king, as he was worshipped through his spirit,

32

was probably more like the saint of the Catholic church, who, in another religion that is at least in theory monotheistic, is often as potent as the gods of an unlimited polytheism like the Egyptian or the Greek or the Roman. 31

For the fire-bearers at the courts of Hellenistic kings, see Otto, 'ETTLTVP^LOU (in honor of Swoboda), 1927, pp. 194-200. Drexel, Phil. Woch. XLVI (1926), 157 ff., traces the bearers of incense burners on Roman imperial monuments back to the eastern kingdoms. See, however, ch. vn, n. 32. A new metrical inscription from Susa reads in its fourth line (unfortunately 3 2

fragmentary) Qpaarov

re deov baipovi

ira . . . . The reference

seems

to

be

to

Phraates iv, who came to the Parthian throne in 37 B.C. See Cumont's valuable discussion Compt. Rend. Ac. Inscr. 1930, 208 ff. It would seem that the Persian idea of the fravashi persisted among the Arsacids.

APPENDIX

II

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS Two

stories of Alexander's attempt to introduce the

at Bactra are given by Arrian (Anab.

iv, 12).

proskynesis

According to the

first one—which is also found in similar form in Curtius Rufus (VIII, 5) and Justin ( x n , 7)—Alexander's courtiers, and with them some Persians, fell to talking at dinner of divine honor for the king during his lifetime.

Apparently b y prearrangement it was

urged that he be given them and the proskynesis them

during

his

lifetime.

But

Callisthenes

that went with

spoke

vigorously

against the suggestion and Alexander, realizing that Callisthenes' speech was in accord with the wishes of the Macedonians, aban­ doned the idea of the proskynesis

for the Macedonians; it was,

however, accorded the king b y the Persians present, one of whom was ridiculed for his ludicrous posture.

Arrian then

continues

with a second incident that was related about Alexander's efforts to secure a proskynesis

as an accompaniment to a toast.

I t is

probably not a substitute for the more usual story but an additional anecdote—probably of another dinner—told, like the first one, to illustrate the difficulties between Callisthenes and Alexander: 'kvay'eypairTai

KVK\O) Trjs Te

be

AXe^avbpov

avaoTavTa

Totbabe

\xev TOVTOIS

irpds

eKirtbvTa

V(T

es

KdWiadevrjv

eKirielv

rJKev

TT)V La\r)v, Kal

r)

ovvrivas

^vv'eKeiTO

TT\V (frcaXrjv

TpoaeXdbvTa

v

*

avrco rd

wpoaKwrjaai

TCLVTQIV

avaaTrjvat

Tpowoais,

edekeiv

Tov be Tvxelv jiev TOTe bia\eybp.evov

TpoaKwrjaavra.

V

ia\nv XP V

Ckqdr)vai irpos avTOV, Kal TOVTO e^e^rjs bia

Kal

Kal

Upoirlvetv

\byos.

TOV be irp&TOv

*!2s de

KaWiadevnv

Kal

irpoiTOis

wpoaKvvrjaew

Xuprjaai. ov

5r)

fxev

<£iX7Jo"cu

*H$cu0Ticow

OVKOVV irpoaextw TOV vovv, el Kal TO. TTJS TpoaKwrjaeus ewLTe\rj aura) KaWiadevei

ey'evero.

'AXXd ArjjjLrjTpLOV yap TOV HvdoovaKTOs, eva T&V

eTaipoov, cos irpoaxiei aura) 6 KaXXia0ej>77S <j)i\rjao)v (fravai, OTL OV f

wpoaKwrjaas wpbaeicrL. Kal eainbv The by

TOV be KaWiadevvv,

1

TOV AXe^avbpov ov wapaaxelv <j>i\T)aai <j>CkqnaTi, <j>avai, ekaTTOV exo)v aireiixi.

second story is the only account of the proskynesis

Plutarch,

1

given

and fortunately he names his source—Chares of

1

Alex. 54. But Plutarch refers to the other story in the early part of the same chapter when he gives Callisthenes the credit for being the only one who originally expressed in public the objections to the proskynesis which the 256

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS

257

Mytilene, who as the chamberlain of the king deserves to be listened to on a question of court procedure.

Chares seems also

to be Arrian's source, for Plutarch and Arrian have strong verbal similarities in their accounts. proskynesis

Plutarch does not say that the

had been agreed upon in advance.

Otherwise the

most significant difference is found in his opening words: Xdprjs de 6 MLTVXWVCUOS

ni.a\r)v

irporelval TLVL T&V <j>l\o)v Tiovra

TOV 81 dei-ajievov wpos eaTiav ava<JTT\vai Kal

TrpoaKVvrjaaL irp&TOV,

av/jnroaiq Kal KaTaK\iBr\vai.

eiTa (frikfjaat TOV 'AXe^avdpov

ev ra3

T h e mention of the earla which the

companion faced before performing the proskynesis is an important addition to Arrian's account. Chares' story received little attention from scholars in discussions 2

of

Alexander's attempt to introduce the proskynesis

Schnabel

3

until Paul

analyzed Plutarch's version of it and interpreted it as

"die feierliche Inszenierung des hellenistischen Konigskultes."

He

pointed out that there were two forms of the proskynesis, the saluta­ tion for which the Persian subject prostrated himself and kissed the earth, and the simpler Greek greeting for a god b y which the wor­ shipper brought his hand to his mouth and sent a kiss toward the image of the divinity.

In Chares' story he saw the Greek and not

the Persian greeting and he interpreted Plutarch's words to mean that the salutation was made before the hearth, a spot which he associated in some fashion with the daimon of Alexander.

Here

was a cult act for the daimon of the king which Alexander himself exacted; in asking for it the king was himself instituting the formal ruler cult. who,

Schnabel's interpretation was criticized b y

Berve

4

after a careful analysis of the accounts in Plutarch and

Arrian, came to the conclusion that Arrian was a more reliable representative of Chares' report and that the incident of the earia had

been introduced b y Plutarch into the story perhaps under the

oldest and best of the Macedonians felt in private, rr\v irpoffKvvriaiv iaxvpcas airoio-dpevos Kal 0tXo airoTpexf/as rr\v Trpo
3

4

APPENDIX

258

II

influence of the offerings to R o m a n emperors at banquets.

But

other scholars, though differing with Schnabel's conclusions, have held that the reference to the altar cannot be so summarily disposed of,

5

and Otto has suggested that the altar had on it the fire that 6

represented the king's glory, a symbolism which Alexander had borrowed from the Persian kings whose court ceremonies he was adopting. I attempted in the article cited in Appendix I to show that what we have in this second account of the proskynesis

was not, as

Schnabel maintained, the formal institution of the ruler cult—the cult was not properly instituted until the Greek cities decreed Alexander godhead—but the assumption of certain preliminary honors which prepared the way for those decrees; the ceremony I related to both Persian and Greek precedents, to the honors given at banquets to the Persian king's daimon and to the Greek toast to agathos daimon.

M y arguments have been vigorously contested by

Tarn in the article which I have already discussed.

Since in his

view there was no cult significance in the offerings to the Persian king's daimon recorded b y Theopompus and Plutarch, he rejected my

suggestion of the influence of such customs in the scene.

also rejected m y parallel to the Greek toast for agathos

He

daimon,

first because he could not find that the Macedonians knew it, and second because, even if they did, the toast was never personal.

I

have shown in m y discussion in Appendix I that the offerings and the proskynesis to the absent Persian king did have cult significance and

I propose now to consider afresh the evidence for the Greek

toast to agathos daimon. tion to Tarn's discussion

Here again I am constantly under obliga­ 7

and I have revised m y interpretation of

the evidence in m a n y details without giving up the main point of my argument.

8

I still see in the proskynesis

as Chares describes it

a toast offered under the influence of the Persian honors for the 6

3

See Kaerst, Geschichte des Hellenismus r , pp. 572 ff. "Zum Hofzerimoniell des Hellenismus," 'ETTITVIX^IOV (in honor of Swoboda, 1927), pp. 194-200. 1 should like also to express my obligation to Professor Grace H. Macurdy. Although we are not in agreement on all points of interpretation (See J.H.S. XLVII (1930), 294 ff.), I am indebted to her for very valuable criticisms and suggestions. Tarn is in general protesting against two ideas in my paper—first, that the cult of the ruler grew out of the cult of the daimon, second, that Alexander instituted the ruler cult. The discussion in chapter i has, I hope, made my position clear on both these points. I regard the daimon simply as one of the elements which contributed to the growth of the ruler cult. I see in Alexander the founder of the Hellenistic ruler worship. 6

7

8

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS ruler's daimon

259

to the guardian spirit of Alexander; the toast, I

believe, followed the form of the Greek toast to agathos

daimon.

T h e idea that man was attended b y a personal genius who guided all his acts had, as we have seen in chapter i, become prominent in the Greek thought of Alexander's d a y ;

9

the name usually given

to the genius was daifxuv or more properly dyaSos baiixuv.

Under

that name Alexander seems to have shared in the worship of the genius loci of Alexander.

Agathos daimon was a vague term used,

before it came to have personal associations, for various gods and particularly for Dionysus, a divinity who always retained much of the daimon in his make-up.

I t was a form of Dionysus, the god

who was the wine, who was worshipped under the name agathos daimon b y a toast and a libation of unmixed wine that was poured at the Greek banquet.

10

After the dinner proper was over and the tables

were taken away, the guests, before settling down to an evening of drinking, each performed a proskynesis—that

is, kissed their hands

as a symbol of worship—and drank properly a sip, less temperately,

12

11

but sometimes

from a cup of undiluted wine; the religious char­

acter of the ceremony is shown b y the proskynesis that the toast is called a libation.

and b y the fact

There is no evidence in Greek

sources that agathos daimon was ever in this particular ceremony identified with the personal daimon of an individual, but in view of the common identification between man and Dionysus in this life and the next, it is possible that he was. T h e possibility is strengthened b y some R o m a n evidence. T h e Latin equivalent of agathos daimon is Genius.

N o w it was voted b y

9

Wilhelm Weber, Der Prophet und sein Gott (1925), p. 127, had already be­ fore the appearance of my papers suggested the association between Alexander and agathos daimon both at Alexandria and in the libation. See the evidence cited, J.H.S. 1927, 59, n. 28. Cf. A. B. Cook, Zeus in, p. 1129, and the recent work of Jacobssen cited in chapter i, n. 21. For the identification of this form of the god with Dionysus, see Philonides ap. Ath. 675b, and Philochorus ap. Ath. 38c; Diod. iv, 3, 4. Tarn considers it of no significance whether the wine was pure or was diluted. But see the evi­ dence cited by Stengel, Opferbrauche der Gnechen , pp. 403 ff. 1 0

2

1 1

Theophrastus, ap. Ath. 693: (dewfrpaaros

(4>rfaLv) olvov irpowoaiVf

iaxvv

rbv hrl

oklyov

avrov

T #

belirvco

re Trpoakpovo~iv

t

Kal TTJV rod deov boopeav,

fi TO TTLvbpevov

Kal Tplrov

5' kv T<£ irepl

8t.56p.evov, ov 8r\ \kyovaiv

pkdrjs

eXvai

rfj yevaei

rr\v

avapipvijaKOVTes

pbvov

Kal pera

rrjv irXqpcoaLv

biboacnv,

Xapfiavovaiv

aKparov

balpovos

&awep

-Kpo(TKVvi)aavre%

"TOV

ayadov

curb

rrjs

6TTCOS kXaxwTOv Tpawe^rjs, iv

Kal v

av

tx* i
&aicep

1 2

LKerelav

riva

iroiovpevoi

TOV deov,

prjbkv

auxn^-oveXv

prjb'

260

APPENDIX

II

the R o m a n senate in 30 B . C . that the Genius of Octavian should be honored at all banquets, both public and private, by a libation. Dio's record (LI, 19, 7) of the decree does not tell at what moment of the dinner the libation came, but Horace and Ovid give us some information on the subject.

Speaking of the R o m a n husbandman

at the end of the day (Carm. iv, 5) Horace says: hinc ad vina redit laetus et alteris te mensis adhibet deum. T e multa prece, te prosequitur mero defuso pateris, et Laribus tuum miscet numen, uti Graecia Castoris et magni memor Herculis. Here, then, is a libation of unmixed wine to the Genius who is personal—the guardian spirit of the emperor—and Horace sees in it Greek precedents, the kind of honor that was offered to Greek heroes who were made into gods—Hercules and the Dioscuri, the very prototypes of Alexander's divinity.

T h e libation comes at the

end of the meal, the same place in which the Greeks drank a toast and poured a libation to Genius' counterpart agathos daimon.

We

find it again at the end of the meal in Ovid's description of the family 1

dinner celebrated on the feast of the Caristia. *

W e see it appar­

ently in the form of a toast in a poem of Martial (ix, 9 3 ) .

If we

bear in mind the strong influence which Greek banquet customs had upon the R o m a n (the R o m a n form of toasting individuals was, for instance, taken from the G r e e k ) suming that the agathos daimon personal.

1 4

we are probably justified in as­

of the Greek toast has become

W h e n did the change occur?

I believe it was at Bactra.

There a precedent seems to have been set for a custom that went down to the Hellenistic kings and from them to the R o m a n em­ perors. 1 3

15

W e see it in one ceremony that is clearly religious, the

Ovid, Fasti n, 635 ff. quoted ch. vu, n. 4. At Trimalchio's dinner (Petr. 60) the honor to the emperor's Genius comes toward the end of the cena proper, before the secunda mensa. It is as bizarre as the other features of the dinner. H o r . Carm. m , 18, 13; 19, 10; Tib. n, 1, 32. In matters that concern the Roman imperial cult, an institution that was in the main based on Hellenistic models, I should like to defend "trying to read back from the Roman empire to Alexander" which Tarn criticizes in my papers. I approached the problem from the Roman side and was entirely in agreement with the current view that the cult of the emperor's Genius was purely Roman. M y opinion was shaken first by finding the oath by Ptolemy Philadelphus' daimon and then by Schnabel's interpretation of the scene at 14

15

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS

261

libation that was named for Seleucus Soter by the Athenians of Lemnos; we see it also in the cups named for Seleucus, Antigonus, and Prusias, which carried on the tradition of the big cup named for Alexander.

16

In order to understand the scene at Bactra let us consider the Greek custom of toasting individuals, of which I failed to take account in m y paper.

I t has been clearly explained b y T a r n .

17

A cup of unmixed wine was passed around among the guests and each one drank from it, saying in the genitive the name of the man toasted; if Alexander was the man, they presumably said: 'AXei-avdpov. It was like the toast of agathos daimon in the use of the unmixed wine and in the repetition of the name in the genitive, but there was apparently one important difference. companied b y a proskynesis.

T h e drinking was not ac­

N o w at Bactra the guests in toasting

Alexander followed the regular form of the Greek toast but they added to it another detail—the proskynesis

which belonged to a

god, an observance which made the toast a libation; it is the addi­ tion of that one detail, to which Callisthenes objected, that caused Plutarch and Arrian to save the story of this particular banquet from oblivion.

T h e Greeks present would naturally have thought

of the Greek toast to agathos daimon,

almost the only god whose

libation was made of unmixed wine, and would have made another identification between that divinity and the guardian spirit of man. T h e Macedonians, even if, as Tarn suggests, the toast was not native to them, had probably had dinner with Greeks often enough Bactra, which, through a suggestion of Wissowa's, he had related to the Roman libations. Then the story of Nicostratus' honor to the daimon of the Persian king, which I chanced to find in Athenaeus, led me to believe that the Roman conception of the Genius had a wider background than is commonly supposed. In this discussion I am attempting to find the missing link between the Persian and the Roman conception; it is much the same kind of attempt that Otto has made in his effort to find the "missing link" (he uses the English words) between the Persian and the Roman custom of carrying a flaming altar before the sovereign. Like him, I find the link in the scene at Bactra. Ath. 254f-255a, 497f. See Kenneth Scott, A.J.A. XLIX (1928), 153 ff. Scott is right in objecting to my identification of the Lemnian toast with the toast to Zeus Soter. For another toast to a king cf. Alexis, frag. 244, Kock, Com. Alt. Frag, n, p. 386. In none of these instances is there any evidence for a proskynesis accompanying the toast, but the libation at Lemnos is obviously religious, and the parallels with the scene at Bactra and the Roman libation give us some reason for surmising that the others had a similar significance. There is a mass of material on the subject in Ath. x . See also Theoc. 14, 18 ff., and the scholiast ad loc.; Anth. Pal. v, 110, 136, 137. 1 6

1 7

APPENDIX

262

II

to become familiar with the toast to agathos daimon as well as with the Greek custom of toasting individuals. The of

18

ceremony was in fact an identification between the daimon

Alexander and the god that represented the wine—the good

daimon.

The identification was of course symbolic and in a sym­

bolic sense the ceremony was a communion service.

The Eucharist

itself is often explained as in origin nothing more than a symbolic meal; it was through later discussion that there developed the idea of transubstantiation which Tarn has read into m y suggestion of a communion service.

19

I did not mean to suggest that the followers

of Alexander thought that they were drinking his blood; m y point of view was simply that the wine was recognized as a symbol of Alexander, just as any thing eaten or drunk at a sacrificial meal was a symbol of the divinity worshipped. A word may be added on the use of the genitive for the name of god or man toasted.

T h e nature of this genitive of the toast or

libation has provoked some discussion.

I t is usually explained

as a form of the possessive genitive with some word like
20

a partitive genitive. o-irkvbeiv, kirixtivQai

KVCLOOS

or

I t is equally possible that it was felt as T h e words with which it is used

irlveiv,

are all construed with the partitive genitive;

eTippo
T h a t such an interpretation of

ayadov 8aifxovos is possible is clear from the language of the comic poets who can speak of a cup fiearriv ayadov dalfiovos or one fxearriv ayad&v,

where the good things are represented b y ladles put in

under the names of King Antigonus, Demetrius, and Phila Aphro18

Attested for Alexander by the much quoted remark of Callisthenes, "ovhkv deo/xcu, 'AX€£dj>5pov wucv TOV 'AO-KXTJTTIOD SeTatfcu," and particularly by the account in Ath. 434. The Greeks, and not the Macedonians, are given the responsibility for "opening heaven" to Alexander. Cf. Curt, v, 7, 5. Tarn has brought together evidence to show that Alexander's libations were usually different from this one, but we have the excellent authority of his chamberlain for this scene. Hence he is disturbed by the idea of drinking what he calls the blood of the city of Rhodes (cf. Polemon ap. Ath. 497f) and of the entente cordiale (dfiovoia, cf. Alexis, frag. 244, Kock n, p. 386). These passages simply show the personi­ fication and deification of cities and abstractions which are marked character­ istics of Hellenistic religion. The toast was again symbolic. See Kuhner-Gerth, Ausfilhrliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache n , p. 376, Anm. 5. The strongest support for that interpretation is Horace's transference of the genitive into Latin in the phrase, "sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici sospitis centum" (Carm. in, 8, 13). Cf. also Carm. in, 19, 10 with Porphyrio's scholia on the passage; cf. the Kiessling-Heinze notes ad. loc. 19

2 0

3

263

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS dite.

21

If the bowl was full of these people, was it not possible

to drink of them?

In that sense I interpret Kallisthenes

,

re­

mark which is several times quoted from accounts of Alexander's banquets: aire&aaTO

22

KUXIKO,

4>r)aas

1

Xeyofievvv 'AXe^dvdpov p.eyakqv eXdovaav eir OVK

f

kdk\eiv A\ei;av8pov

TIOW

CLVTOV,

'AaicXrjTiov deladai.

T h e identification between the person toasted and the wine would have been clearer if the ceremony were accompanied, as it was in the scene at Bactra, b y a proskynesis, in any t o a s t

2 3

but it was doubtless suggested

just as it is implied in English b y the

parallel cited b y Tarn, "to drink the king."

excellent

W e cannot draw a

sharp line between drinking Alexander and drinking Alexander's health.

T h e variation in the conception is shown b y the fact that

even for gods iriveLv is used with the dative as well as with the geni­ tive; for persons Tpoirlveiv

with the dative is used more frequently

than iriveiv with the genitive. T h e cup in which Alexander's health was drunk—perhaps regu­ larly after the dinner at Bactra with an accompanying —is referred to b y P l u t a r c h

24

proskynesis

as KUXI£ \eyoixkvn 'AXe£avbpov pLeyaXrj.

2 1

Diphilus, frag. 62, Kock n, p. 564; Alexis, frag. I l l , Kock n, p. 336. P l u t . Mor. 454E; 623F; Ath. 434d. Tarn's statement that this remark, quoted from Chares and Aristobulus, "belongs to the later literature of gas­ tronomy," is effectively refuted by Macurdy, op. cit. (n. 7 ) . She shows that Tarn has applied all the references to one scene at Bactra, whereas there were a number of different occasions; on one of the others Callisthenes refused the cup which he had taken at the dinner which Plutarch and Arrian describe from Chares. In the Hellenistic period there was a steady development in the idea of the divine power in the individual. In the account of the toast to an individual given in the scholiast on Theoc. 14, 18, the toast is described as preceded by the pouring of wine on the ground. The combination of the libation with the toast in this case is probably late. Tarn says that my interpretation of this cup is impossible because " w e know the history of that big gold cup." It was, he believes, the cup which Alexander used on all great occasions. But what is the evidence? He cites only two passages—a libation to the Hydaspes c/c xpwijs <j>td\r)s (Arr. Anab. vi, 3, 1) and a description of an offering of a golden cup and golden craters to Poseidon (ib. vi, 19, 5): 'EvTavda Tavpovs re ai-as r<£ TIO<J€L5COI>L. arjKev ks TT\V 22

2 3

2 4

6a\aaaav Xpvaovs

Kal awelaas kvkpaWev

ewl TJ} dvaia

es TOV TTOVTOV

TT\V re a

T

V(J

La\rjv

t

XP W

ovaav,

Kal

Kparrjpas

La

x P^ VP *

In neither case is there any reference to the size of the cup; the word used is not K & \ I £ but <j>id\rj. I can find not the slightest reason to identify these cups with the one used at Bactra. As Macurdy has noted, Alexander claimed to have inherited a supply of golden cups from his father (Anab. vn, 9, 6 ) ; he was not limited to one cup but he naturally used a big one for a toast.

264

APPENDIX

II

T h e use of the genitive 'A\ei;av8pov depending on \kyeiv

is closely

paralleled in various other descriptions of libation cups for men or gods.

Phylarchus in describing the libation cup which the

Athenians of Lemnos called b y the name of Seleucus Soter says: TOV hrixeb\itvov Kvadov kv rats vvvovaicus

ZeXevKov Zcorrjpos KaXoucu.

I t was used for libations or toasts to Seleucus Soter just as \eyonevrj'A\e^dv8pov

ixeyakrj was employed for toasting Alexander.

25

Let us now make a tentative attempt to fill in the details of the scene at Bactra about which Chares' brief account, as we have it in two somewhat conflicting versions, has left us in doubt on many details.

Alexander took a cup and drank from it, and then passed

it to one of his companions with whom a previous agreement had been made.

T h e man rose,

26

just as Trimalchio's guests rose to

honor the Genius of the emperor, and faced the altar—perhaps because he was following the Greek custom and offering the first libation to Hestia,

27

perhaps because the fire on the altar was here

thought of in the Persian sense as a symbol of the king's glory.

28

Then he drank, doubtless—though here the sources are silent— saying

1

A\e^dv8pov.

H e would not have named the daimon any

more than the R o m a n banqueters named the Genius.

29

T h e n he

made obeisance, perhaps before the altar or before the cup of wine, more probably before Alexander himself.

T h e obeisance was, I

think, nothing more than the ordinary Greek gesture of bringing the hand to the lips, though this is a point on which one cannot attain certainty.

30

Then he kissed the king as he lay on the banquet

2 5

Ath. 255. Phylarchus also states that the Athenians of Lemnos built a temple to Seleucus, thus clearly associating the distinction with his divinity. This is Plutarch's version. Arrian is inconsistent on the detail of rising. According to him the first worshipper drained the cup and then rose, but Callisthenes rose and then drained the cup. See Farnell, J.H.S. XLIX (1929), 79 f. See Otto, op. cit. and Cumont's association of the fire carried before the Roman emperor with the sacred fire of Vesta, Rev. d'hist. et litt. rel. i, 441 ff. The custom, as Otto has shown, went down to the Hellenistic kings. It should perhaps be more closely related to the fire of Hestia than to the Hellenistic Tyche. In Ovid, Fasti n, 637, the prayer is "patriae pater, op time Caesar": in Petr. Sat. 60, "Augusto patri patriae feliciter." Horace, in speaking of the honors to the Genius, twice uses the second personal pronoun (te and tibi). See pp. 182, 191. It was not easy to keep a man and his Genius separate, and the words of Callisthenes which various scholars have quoted to show that the daimon of Alexander was not concerned in this scene, " OVTOS yap
2 7

2 8

2 9

povos ob wpoaeKvv7i
really prove nothing.

It would have been awkward for the banqueter to prostrate himself with

ALEXANDER AND THE PROSKYNESIS couch.

265

Callisthenes, when his turn came, drank without the ac­

companying proskynesis—that

is, toasted Alexander exactly as the

ordinary mortal was toasted without the obeisance that indicated the man's divinity. I have given the reconstruction of the scene which, in the light of the recent discussions of the subject, seems to me the most probable. I no longer feel sure, as I did before, that the obeisance was offered at the altar.

Such an interpretation is certainly possible from

Plutarch's account, but Arrian seems to take it for granted that the act was performed before Alexander.

Later, when every man's

Genius had become an object of cult, it was possible for guests at a dinner to kiss the image of their host (Petr. Sat. 60) when the host himself was present, but there is no evidence that the development had gone so far in the time of Alexander. Whether in the toasts to Alexander which were drunk at his banquets subsequent to this dinner at Bactra the proskynesis

con­

31

Our

tinued to be offered to him, we have no means of knowing.

ancient sources are more interested in the quarrels between Alex­ ander and Callisthenes and in Alexander's own intemperance, than in the details of Alexander's divinity, which they took for granted. T h e y do tell us—Chares is one of the sponsors for the information— something more about Callisthenes' opposition; on one occasion he even refused to drink from Alexander's cup, declaring that he did not wish in "drinking the king" to need the help of Asclepius. T h e toasting was as intemperate as Aristophanes makes the drink­ ing of the cup of agathos daimon, and Callisthenes could make his distaste for the wine an excuse for refusing to drink. B u t it is altogether possible that after Bactra the did continue to be offered to the king at banquets.

proskynesis

Unlike the at­

tempt to introduce among Greeks and Macedonians the prostra­ tion, which I believe Alexander also made, and which was doomed to failure, the obeisance that accompanied the toast was closely enough related to Greek precedents to be a success. T h e proskynesis,

as observed at the dinner at Bactra, was simply

another combination of Greek and Persian elements in Alexander's the cup in his hand unless we accept Arrian's version that he had drained it— a detail that seems to be inspired by the accounts of the intemperance at Alexander's banquets. T o prove that all forms of the proskynesis were abandoned after one trial Kaerst and Berve have cited the statement of Plutarch, Alex. 54, that Callis­ thenes caused Alexander to give it up, but that statement does not fit the details of the story from Chares which Plutarch proceeds to relate. See n. 1 above. 19 3 1

266

APPENDIX

kingdom.

T h e daimon

II

of the Persian king, we have seen, was

honored at banquets with food and drink and a proskynesis.

We

know the honors accorded at dinners at which he was not present, but they probably took place when he was there.

His presence

could have made little difference, for actually he dined separated by a curtain from his courtiers.

32

Alexander continued to dine with

his companions and at Bactra he simply added a proskynesis to the ordinary toast which men were no doubt in the habit of drinking to him.

I t then took on the regular form of the toast to agathos

daimon; he did not adopt the offering of food which was given to the daimon of the Persian king. Otto's illuminating

suggestion,

33

A t the same time, if we accept he adopted the

Persian

king's

custom of having in his presence the altar with the flame upon it which typified the eternity of his power.

This was a further adap­

tation of Persian and Greek ideas. T h e proskynesis

at banquets seems to be a preparation for the

later decree of deification that came to Alexander from the Greek cities;

34

similarly, the institution of toasts to the Genius of Octavian

was a preparation for the later establishment of the Genius in state cult.

B u t Alexander, when he was deified, was not restricted

by the political considerations which made a veiled monarch like Augustus attempt to shroud his worship. not call him daifxuv but deos.

T h e Greek cities did

Y e t if it was as Zeus's son Dionysus

that they deified him, there was still something of the 8aLp,cw, 6 5ai/zwi>, 6

Aids

7raTs

3 5

in the god they made him.

Similarly there

was much of the incarnate god in the Genius of Augustus. 3 2

Herakleides ap. Ath. 145. A somewhat similar custom went down to the Parthian kings whose habit of having a table apart from their courtiers Posidonius interprets as giving them the position of a hero. Cf. Ath. 153a-b: Trap a Hapdois kv TOLS beiwvois 6 /faciXeus TTJV TC KKLVVV, €0' ?js povos KareKtLTO, perewporepav T&V dWoiv Kal Kex^P^pkvriv etx* Kal rr\v rpawe^av povco Kaddwep rjpcp irXriprj (3ap/3apiK
3 4

3 5

APPENDIX

III

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS The accompanying list of inscriptions is a collection, arranged geographically, of the records that indicate divine honors bestowed in their lifetime on Caesar, Antony, Augustus, and his house. Records of divine honors bestowed after their death have in general been excluded.

T h e inscriptions of Rome, which have received full

treatment in the preceding pages, have not been included in the list. Especially for the East, where adequate modern collections of the material are not available, the collection can make no claim to completeness. Divine Honors of Caesar Greece: Thespiae: The city honors Caesar as Soter and Euergetes (46 B . C ) . I.G. v n , 1835. Athens: T h e city honors Caesar as Soter and Euergetes.

C.I.A.

in, 428. A

fragmentary inscription Euergetes.

Carthaea:

The

of Julius

Caesar as Soter

Dittenberger, Inschriften

von Olympia 3 6 5 .

city

honors

6 8rjfjLOs 6 Kapdaieuv yeyovora

de

4 8 - 4 7 B.C.

aairrjpa

Caesar as

Soter

and

and

Euergetes:

TaCov 'lovKiov Tatov vlov Kalaapa

. . .

[Kal] evepyerrjv Kal rrjs rmerepas iroKeus.

I.G. X I I , 5, 556.

The city honors Caesar as Theos and Soter: 6 drjuos 6 Kapdatecov TOV

Beov

Kal

avTOKparopa

Kal

aojrrjpa rrjs olKOVfxevns Taiov

'lovkiov Kalaapa Yatov Kalaapos vlov

I.G.

avedrjKev.

X I I , 5,

557. Asia: Lesbos: Caesar as Theos: Taty

'IOVXLO)

Kaurapi de$.

Ath.

Mitt.

XIII (1888), 6 1 . Mytilene: Caesar as Euergetes and Soter. Caesar as Theos, Euergetes, dedication.

I.G.R.

and Ktistes,

iv, 57.

probably a public

I.G. xii, 2, 165b.

T w o fragmentary inscriptions which seem to refer to Caesar's honors

after

Pharsalus.

I.G.

27-28. 267

xii,

2, 25, 2 6 ; I.G.R.

iv,

268

APPENDIX

III

Caesar is called Theos in the caption placed on a letter from him to the city: [ypapLfxaTa] Kalaapos Beov (not later than 47 B.C). LG. X I I , 2, 3 5 b ; I.G.R. iv, 33. Pergamum: T h e city honors Caesar as Soter and Euergetes. I.G.R. iv, 3 0 3 . T h e city honors Caesar as Soter (47 B . C ) .

I.G.R.

iv, 304.

T h e city honors Caesar as Euergetes: 6 8rj/j]os [Taiov 'Iov\t,ov Tatov vl]6v Kalaapa, apx^epea [Kal vwarov T6 J3' ( ? ) , TOV] KOLVOV TCOV *EWr}va)v [e]vepy'eTi)v. I.G.R. iv, 307. The city honors Caesar as Euergetes and Soter: 6 drj/jios Td'iov 'IOVXLOV Tatov vlov Kalaapa TOV avTOKparopa Kal dpx^ep'ea, viraTOV TO bevTepov, TOV eavrov iraTpcova Kal evepyervv, TCOV ^EXXrjvcov awavTov acoTrjpa Kal evepyeTrjv, evaefielas eveKa Kal dcKaioavvrjs (48 B . C ) . I.G.R. iv, 3 0 5 . T h e city honors Caesar as Soter and Euergetes. I.G.R. iv, 306. Chios: The city honors Caesar as Euergetes ( 4 8 - 4 6 B . C ) . I.G.R. iv, 929. Ephesus: T h e cities of Asia honor Caesar as Theos Epiphanes and Soter: al woXets at kv TT)L 'Aalat, Kal ol [drjjjLoi] Kal TO. Wvrj Yaiov 'IOVXLOV Tato[v vl]6v Kalaapa, TOV dpx^pka Kal avTOKparopa Kal TO devrepov vwarov, TOV diro "Apews Kal Aq^po8e[l]T7js Beov kirufravrj Kal KOLVOV TOV avBpcoTivov fiiov aooTrjpa. Ditt. Syll. 760. 1

3

Italy: Inscription of unknown provenience, now in the Vatican: D i v o Iulio iussu populi Romani statutum est lege Rufrena. 2

C.I.L. vi, 8 7 2 ; i , 7 9 7 ; Dessau 7 3 . A vicus of Picenum: Deivo Iulio i[wssw] p . R . [s<]atut[wm est] 2

lege [Rufrena]. C.I.L. ix, 5 1 3 6 ; C.I.L. i , 7 9 7 ; Dessau 73a. T h e lex Rufrena is unknown except for these two inscriptions. It was probably a law providing for the erection of statues to Caesar under his new divine title. T h e Rufrenus who proposed it was very likely the officer in Lepidus' army whom Cicero speaks of as agitating for M a r k A n t o n y in the year 43 (Fam. x, 2 1 , 4 ) . W e must suppose that at some time he was tribune and proposed a law providing for the erection of statues to Caesar. I t is usually assumed that he held the office in 42, and that the inscriptions do no*t date before that time. But it is also possible that he was tribune in 44 and that his lex dates before the death of Caesar. A m o n g the honors voted to Caesar early in the year 44 Dio (XLIV, 4, 4) mentions a provision that statues should be erected to him in the cities and in all the temples of Rome, kv r a t s iroKeai

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS

269

rots re vaols rots kv rfj *Pcb/x# Traaiv avboiavra TLVOL CLVTOV elvat kKekevaav. If, as seems likely, one of these inscriptions comes from R o m e while the other was found in municipal territory, they accord well with the terms of the decree given by Dio. The lex Rufrena is very likely the form under which that decree was presented to the people. It is of course possible that there had not been time for the erection of the statues before the death of Caesar and that the execution of the provisions of the law waited, as did other provisions for Caesar's honors, until the establishment of the triumvirate. Aesernia: Dedication, probably public, to the Genius Deivi lull: Genio deivi Iuli parentis patriae quern senatus populusque Romanus in deorum numerum rettulit. C.I.L. i x , 2 6 2 8 ; i , 7 9 9 ; Dessau 7 2 . The inscription was probably set up during the lifetime of Caesar, for dedications to the Genius of the dead are rare, and Caesar was voted godhead under the title Divus Julius while he was still alive. For the form of address compare Qpaarov re Seov balfxovi in the almost contemporary inscription of Susa. See Appendix i, n. 3 2 . Italy: 2

Nola: Private dedication of a decurion who received his office through Caesar. C.I.L. x, 1 2 7 1 ; C.I.L. i , 1 6 1 1 ; Dessau 6343: M . Salvio Q.f. Venusto decurioni [6e]neficio dei Caesaris. For Caesar as deus in an inscription that dates after his death see the elegiacs of Calpurnia's freedman. C.I.L. vi, 1 4 2 1 1 , ] . 2 : magnifici coniunx Caesaris ilia dei. See also vi, 3903, 1. 5. 2

Divine Honors of Antony Greece: Athens: Public decree. Antony is called Theos, the new Diony­ sus. The Panathenaic festival is called Antonaia. C.I.A. II, 4 8 2 . Bithynia: Prusias: A tribe is named for Antony. Perrot, Explor. Archeol. de la Galatie, p. 3 8 5 . Egypt: Alexandria: Private dedication. Antony is called Theos and Euergetes. I.G.R. i, 1054; O.G.I.S. 195.

270

APPENDIX

III

Divine Honors of Augustus and his House Thrace: Sestus: The city calls Julia Thea.

I.G.R.

i, 8 2 1 .

Thasos: T h e city honors Julia as Euergetis.

19-12 B.C.

I.G. X I I ,

381a. The

city

I.G.R.

calls

Li via

Thea

Euergetis,

and

Julia

Euergetis.

i, 8 3 5 .

Dedication to R o m a and Augustus, called Theos, and to the city of Thasos.

I.G.R.

i, 833.

Bosporus: Phanagoria:

Augustus

Dunamis:

called

Soter

AvroKparopa

and Euergetes

Kaiaapa

deov

vlov

[Tr]darjs yrjs Kal [irao-vs] BdXdo'O'rjs ap[x\ovra, Kal ev]epyeTw[v] paaiKiaaa

by

Queen

Xe^aarov

TOV eavrrjs

TOV

aooT[rjpa

Avv[ap,LS 0i\opa>]/zcu(os).

I.G.R.

i,

901. Panticapeum: A similar inscription of the queen.

I.G.R.

i, 8 7 5 .

Crete: Lyttus: Augustus as Theos.

I.G.R.

i, 1007.

Cyrene: Priest of Augustus dating from 1 7 - 1 6 B . C . : Kaiaapos

de&i vl& Se/Saorw.

Rev.

Arch,

Lepeus xxvi

avroKparopos

(1927), 384,

no. 143. Egypt: Socnopaeum: Augustus is called Theos in a private inscription. I.G.R.

i, 1116.

Philae: Augustus as Soter and Euergetes (12 B . C ) .

I.G.R.

i, 1294.

Greek elegiacs inscribed b y an individual to Augustus. between 15 and 7 B . C . KaiaapL

irovTOixebovTi

Kal

aireipuv

Zavl TO)I ex Zavos irarpds beairoTai

KpareovTi

'E\evdepla)[i\,

Ei/po)7ras re Kal 'ActSos, a o r p o H

'EXKdbos.—Kaibel,

Dated

T h e y begin:

dirdaas

Epigr. Gr. 9 7 8 ; I.G.R.

i, 1295.

Augustus is called Zeus Eleutherios in the following inscrip­ tions:

I.G.R.

i,

1117 (Island of Socnopaeum, 3 A . D . ) ,

(Thebes), 1163 (Tentyris), 1322 (unknown site).

1206

All the inscrip­

tions except the one from Thebes are dated between 1 and 3 A . D . Greece: Athens: The city makes a dedication to R o m a and Augustus. A priest of Roma and Augustus Soter belonging to a shrine on the Acropolis: [6 8]rjpos Bea *Pco/x# Kal 2[e/3a
C.I.A.

in, 63.

Kal

1

2ej3aaTOv Scorrjpos eir

dKpoirokeL.

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS Augustus as Ktistes. Priests

C.I.A.

and priestesses

271

in, 430.

who have

seats in the

theatre

Dionysus: lepecos Kal apx^epeoos SejSaoroG Kalaapos.

of

C.I.A.

i n , 252. lepecos deas ^PWJUTJS Kal "LejSaaTov Kal[aapos]. lepras

K

1

Earl[as

eir 'AKpoTohei]

C.I.A.

H I , 334.

Kal Aec/Slas Kal 'IouXIas.

C.I.A.

in, 316. The city honors Agrippa as Euergetes.

C.I.A.

HI, 575, 576.

Gaius honored as new Ares: 6 Srj/zos Yaiov Kalaapa vlov vkov "Aprj.

C.I.A.

Xefiaarov

HI, 444.

In another public dedication Gaius seems to be called "Apr?[os| vlov.

C.I.A.

H I , 444a.

A priest of the elder Drusus who must have been instituted either during Drusus* life time or shortly after his death. C.I.A.

i n , 68a, b, 623, 656 etc.

Isthmus: Isthmian games for Gaius (probably Agrippa's son) and Agrippea

mentioned in an inscription of Cos.

Ditt.

Syll* 1065. Epidaurus: A priest of Augustus and games in his honor: d TT6\LS 'Ewidavplcov

TCOV

lep'ea

Kaiaapelcov aavTa.

Tvatov

Xefiaarov

TOV

KopvrjXiov ScoSdjuou vlov

Kalaapos

iravayvpiv

NtKarav,

8ls . . . Krlaavra

Kal dycovas

Kal

re

[TCOV]

aycovoderrj-

TPCOTOV

. . . I.G. iv, 1431.

Olympia: Augustus as Soter of the Greeks and of the whole inhabited

world.

Dittenberger,

Inschriften

von

Olympia

366. Thespiae: T h e city calls Augustus Soter and Euergetes: Oea[in]ecov evepyeTyv I.G.

AvTOKpaTopa Kalaapa Movaacs

(30-27

B.C.).

6 drjfios

Beov vlov, TOV aooTrjpa Kal Found on

M t . Helicon.

v n , 1836.

Hypata: The city calls Augustus Theos and Euergetes.

Ditt.

SylU 778. Nicopolis: A dedication probably belonging to an altar: KpaTopi Kaiaapi Beov vlco HefiaaTcp MaXXcorat. Sparta: A n association called Agrippiastoi statue of Agrippa.

AVTO-

C.I.G. 1810.

of Sparta sets up a

The inscription is in Latin.

I.G. v, 1,

374. Melos: Augustus (?) as Theos: virb TOV HefiaaTov Beov I.G.

XII,

Kalaapos.

3, 1104.

Thera: Inscription on a cylindrical altar: 6 dayos TOV AvroKpaTopos Beov vlov Kalaapos

(31-27 B.C.).

I.G. X I I , 3, 469.

Wilamowitz suggests that the use of TOV m a y indicate divinity.

272

APPENDIX

III

Pontus: Amisus: The city and the Roman citizens call Augustus Soter and Ktistes.

I.G.R.

iv, 314.

Sinope (Roman colony): Priest of Augustus, sacer[dL] imp. Caesa­ ris Aug.

C.I.L.

6 9 8 0 ; Dessau 2824.

Galatia: The league of the cities of Galatia.

T h e dedication of a temple

to Augustus and R o m a b y the League of the Galatians, and the celebration

of games.

On the establishment

temple under Augustus see Ditt. O.G.I.S. TdkaT&v [r]6

[KOLVOV

le]paaap.evov

. . . 1.21) 6iro[v] TO XePao-Trjop

of

the

533, n. 1 and 2 :

dedu Zejftaorwt /cat 0eat *Pco/x# ecrriv.

Ditt. O.G.I.S. 5 3 3 .

Neapolis: A n inscription recording- the oath b y Augustus to be taken at an altar of Augustus at the Augustea of Paphlagonia: 'Opvva) Ala, Trjv, "Hkiov, avTOV

TOV

X&pat] wavTes ev rots

rds

Kara

rots j&o/xot[s roO Xepaarov.] vvv Nea7ro]Xti> Xeyopevvv ZePaaT7]0)i

deovs irdvTa[s Kal Ta]aas

2€/3ao-[r]6*> . . . Kara ra aura

cbpLoaav

Xe]fiaaTrjOLS 7rapd

u[7rapxias

*0/*otcos re aft/zcoj>etrai ol \TT\V Karot/coOj>[r€s

avfx]iravTes ev

&/JLoaav

rco[t jScojucot roO] Xefiaarov.

irapd

Kal

ot e[v rrji

Kal

I.G.R.

in,

137;

Dessau 8 7 8 1 . Pisidia: Termessus: T h e city calls Augustus Soter and Euergetes.

I.G.R.

i n , 426. Lycia: Tlos: The city calls Augustus Theos, Ktistes,

and Soter.

I.G.R.

i n , 546. M y r a : The city calls Augustus Theos and Agrippa Soter and Euergetes:

deov XefiavTov,

yfjs Kal da\ao-(o-)rjs Koap.ov, Kal

Mvpecov 6 brjpios.

auTrjpa

TOV

0€oO vt6[*>], Kataapa

avroKparopa

TOV evepyeT\yiv\ Kal 'Aypiwirav,

edvovs, Mvpeuv

TOV

6 5rjp:os. I.G.R.

Augustus as Theos, perhaps after his death.

avvwavTo[s] evepyervv

in, 719. I.G.R.

in, 722.

Cilicia: Aegaeae: Dedication to Augustus with Poseidon and Aphrodite: 6e& ZejSaorw Katcapt Kal Tloveib&vi 'Acn^aXctaj /cat 'A^poSctrjy EuTrXota.

I.G.R.

m , 921.

Cyprus: The league of cities of Cyprus.

A former archiereus of Augustus

Theos for the island of Cyprus (11 A.D.): rrjs Kvwpov TOV SejSaoroD deov Katcrapos.

apxt>epevaap:evov

I.G.R.

in, 9 9 4 .

Lapethus: Augustus as Theos, perhaps after his death. i n , 932.

I.G.R.

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS Palaepaphos: Julia

as

Thea,

Augustus as

Theos.

273

I.G.R.

HI,

940. Amathus: Augustus as Theos.

I.G.R.

Paphos: Augustus is called Theos.

in, 973.

C.I.G.

2629.

Syria: Aradus: A local I.G.R.

priest of

Augustus: lepea Kalaapos Se/fooroO.

m , 1019.

Asia: The League of Cities of Asia. The

temple of R o m a and Augustus in Pergamum is men­

tioned as in process of construction in a decree of Mytilene, dating probably not long after 27, I.G.R.

iv, 3 9 .

A dedication

made in the temple is mentioned in an inscription of Eumenia, C.I.G. 3902b.

T h e League priest is named in Augustan inscrip­

tions from Hypaepa and Sardis, I.G.R.

iv, 1611 and 1756.

Documents relating to the reorganization of the calendar in Asia.

Fragmentary copies have so far been found at Priene,

Apamea, Eumenia, and Dorylaeum.

T h e first document is a

letter of the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus (c. 9 B.C.) urging that the year in Asia begin with Augustus* birthday. There follows the decree which the League of Asia passed on the motion of the high priest, providing for the new calendar and

calling the first month Caesareus.

T h e proemium of this

second document reads: "E8o^ev rols ewl rrjs 'Aalas "EXXrjaLV, yvcofxri TOV dpx^epecos 1

'AiroXkuvlov TOV Mrjvoq^lXov A^aviTOV

eire\i8ri 77 wdvTa] 81a-

Ta^aaa TOV filov r)ii&v irpovoia awov8r)v elaev\evKap\evt) Kal <j>CkoTLixlav TO TeXrjoTaTov TCOL P'LCOI 8ieKoaixr\aev] HefiaaTOv, ov els evepyealav i)ixelv Kal

[&]a7rep

rots

J

p.eB

dvBpco[wQ)v]

7)[/zas

evevKafjievr) TOV

ew\r)puaev dpeTrjs,

acoTrjpa Tefx\f/aaa] TOV wavaovTa

fiev ToXe/JLOV, KoafxrjaovTa [8e wavTa, Ravels 8e] 6 Kalaap r a s €\7rt5as

TCOV TpoXafiovToov [

] WrjKev, ov fjtovov TOVS f

irpb avrov yeyovoT[as evepyeTas VTeppa]X6iJ.evos, dXX ov8' ev TOIS

eaop.evoLS

TCOV

81 avTov evavyeXl[cov r)

€ \ 7 r c 5 [ a VTTOXLWCOV

e\l/rj(pLaiJLevr}s ev Zfxvpvn.

vwepfioXfjs,] rjp^ev 81 TCOL KoafiooL

7€*>€0Xios]

TOV Beov, TT)S

Ditt. O.G.I.S.

458.

81 'Aalas

Cf. Ath.

1899, 2 7 5 ff. It

was probably Paullus Fabius Maximus* activity

in

the

matter of the calendar that won him the distinction of having his name associated Troas.

with Apollo Smintheus at Alexandria

Cf. Cagnat, I.G.R.

iv, 244.

proconsul to receive divine honors.

H e is apparently the last

Mitt.

274

APPENDIX

III

Augustus' achievements as saviour and bringer of peace and order are fulsomely praised in a fragmentary decree of the Asian League from Halicarnassus. eirel r\ aiicvios Kal dBdvaros rod iravros (frvaLS TO pkyiarov dyaddv wpos vwepPaWovaas evepyealas avOp&TOLS exapivaro Kaiaapa TOV Xefiaarov evevKafxevrj TCOL Kad rj/jias evdaifiovi jftuoi, irarepa fiev rrjs eavrov irarplbos Beds F6)p:rjs Ala de irarp&ov Kal acjrrjpa rod KOLVOV TCOV dvdpkiruv yevovs . . . (probably after 2 B . C ) . Ath. Mitt, x x i v (1899), p. 293. (Inscr. in Brit. Mus. 994.) 1

K

f

Eresus: Dedication to Theos Sebastos and the city set up b y an individual. I.G.R. iv, 8. Dedication to Julia as Venus Genetrix (between 39 and 27 B.C). I.G.R. iv, 9. Thermae: Augustus (?) combined with AvroKparopos I.G.R.

de[& utco Se/Saorco]

Apollo of Thermae:

Kal 'AwdWoivos

Qep/jLl[o)].

iv, 2 0 .

The city honors Julia, daughter of Augustus Theos, as Euer­ getis. I.G.R. iv, 64. The city honors Agrippa as Theos Soter, Euergetes, and I.G.R. iv, 2 1 .

Ktistes.

Mytilene: Fragmentary decree of honors to Augustus from the city. Copies of it were to be placed in the League temple of Augustus which was in process of erection in Pergamum, and in Actium, Brundisium, Tarraco, Massilia and other cities. Mention was made of a temple of Augustus in Mytilene. Provisions were made for the inclusion of Augustus* name with those of the city gods in the jurors' oath, and for monthly sacrifices on Augustus' birthday and special yearly sacrifices; for these white oxen were to be reared. In the second section there is also provision for a stele to be placed in the Capitol and in Augustus' house. Dated probably while the emperor was in Tarraco, 2 6 - 2 5 B . C . I.G.R. iv, 3 9 ; cf. 38. Augustus as Theos.

I.G.R.

iv, 38, 4 2 , 59, 60, 63, 64, 68, 114.

Augustus Eleutherios. I.G.R. iv, 62. Priest of R o m a and Sebastos Zeus Caesar Olympios: ['Apjxiepeo)s 8(.d $Lo) Seas *Pco/xas Kal rco ZefidaTQ) Aios Kaiaapos 'OXi;/
I.G.R.

iv, 67.

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS Agrippa (probably after his death) as Theos Soter. 67, 68, 7 0 .

275 I.G.R.

iv,

Also as Ktistes in 6 8 and 7 0 ; as Soter, 6 9 .

Julia as Euergetis.

I.G.R.

iv, 6 4 .

Julia as N e w Aphrodite (probably 1 5 - 1 4 B . C ) .

I.G.R.

iv, 1 1 4 .

Cyzicus: Agrippa displaced the mythical Cyzicus as founder of 3

the city, probably in 1 5 B.C.

Ditt. Syll.

7 9 9 ; see n. 7 .

Ilium: Augustus called Theos Euergetes and Soter b y the Ilienses, and the people in league with them: Koivoivovoat rrjs AvTOKparopa Tpd^eatv

Kataapa

'IXtets

dycovos Kal

TOV

deov vlov deov

Kex[pr)]p>evov Kal evepyealaLS

Kal

2 e [ / 3 a ] GTOV rats

at

7r6Xets

at

iravr)yvpe[o)s]

TTJS

avvjreppXrjTOLS

ets aTrfai'Jras

K

"IirTapxos

TTOVS.

Kal

[0u]
Hyrjac8rjiJLOV 'IXtevs o~vve8[pos

avdpco-

TOVT]OV

TOV

dv8ptdvTa dvedrjKev eK T&V 18L[LOV] 5 t d rr\v irpos TOV Xefiaardv Kal evepye{T7jv] 200,

Kal acoTrjpa eavrov evaefivav.

I.G.R.

iv, 2 0 1 ; cf.

203.

Agrippa is honored publicly as avyyevrjs, patron and Euergetes. I.G.R. The

iv, 2 0 4 .

city honors a priest of Augustus.

I.G.R.

iv, 2 2 0 .

Assos: T h e city and the Roman merchants honor Li via as N e w Hera.

I.G.R.

iv, 2 4 9 ; cf. 2 5 0 .

Pergamum: Augustus as Theos: vlov deov 2e@aaTo[v I.G.R.

[Auro/cpdr]op[a

yfj[s

Taarjs]

K]at(rapa

/c]at 0[a]\do-<777s

[d]eov

[€]7r[o7r]r[77^].

iv, 3 0 9 .

Augustus as Theos, Euergetes, and Ktistes: 6 Kalaapa

Qeov vlov Qedv Xefiaarov

Kal KTIGTWV.

I.G.R.

AvroKparopa

5^/xos

TOV eavrov jxeytarov

evepyernv

iv, 3 1 1 .

Augustus as Soter and Euergetes of the city.

I.G.R.

iv, 3 1 2 .

Augustus called Theos b y the people of Pergamum and the R o m a n citizens living there: [deov deov Xe$\aardv yrjs

Kal

daXa]aaws eirowTrjv, 6 8rjp.os

* P o o / x a t o t Kadie[p]o)aav.

Augustus as Theos.

I.G.R.

[fc]at

ot

Kat
K[a]rotKoD*>res

iv, 3 1 5 .

A statue erected b y a gymnasiarch who

had been curator of games in honor of Gaius and Lucius: [deov

K]at
[ZefiaaTo]v

a£>[r]o/cpdropa

MrjT]po86)pov, 6 yvfjLva[alapxos dyo)]vodeTY)s vvo~o]v,

TCOV 2 € j 3 a < r [ r o 0

eK T&V

(before 2 A . D . ) .

Tvepi
I.G.R.

A dedication reading Cagnat I.G.R. The iv,

identifies

0€ots

eK

wai\8<*)v

rrjs

[Eva]yyeXlo)v [rod

T]&V 18[L]O)V K a i 7 r p u r a [ j > t s TO[V]

[eoprrjs

Kadr)ye[ij]6[vos

xP^Mdrcoj/

Kal Ato-

Kad(,epojaev

iv, 3 1 7 . 2e/3aoTots

Kal

*Epjuct

deol XefiaaroL as Augustus

Kal

^Hpa/cXet.

and Livia.

iv, 3 1 8 .

city honors Tiberius as Euergetes (before 4 A . D . ) . 320.

I.G.R.

276

APPENDIX

III

The city honors a priest of Augustus (iepka Kalaapos) who had been curator of games for Gaius and Lucius. I.G.R. iv, 4 6 5 . Tatar Keui: Dedication b y a priest to Zeus and Augustus Caesar: Ad Kal 2e/3a0T<5> Kalaapi Eu£eu>os 'AaK\r]Tia8ov 6 Upevs. I.G.R. iv, 6 9 1 . A p a m e a : Celebration of Augustus* birthday.

C.I.G. 3957b.

Samos: The city of Samos makes dedications to R o m a and Augustus as Theos. I.G.R. iv, 9 7 5 , 977. Cos:

Augustus honored as second founder. Priest of Gaius Julius Caesar (le]pevs Tatov 'IovXlov Kalaapos) apparently Augustus* grandson. From a fragmentary copy of a decree of Cos found at Olympia. Dittenberger, Inschriften von Olympia 53.

Bilingual dedication to Augustus as Mercury. T h e Latin section reads: I m p . Caesari divi f. Aug. Mercurio scrutarei. A. Maiuri, Nuova Sylloge Epigrafica di Rodi e Cos, 1925, no. 4 6 6 . See Scott, Hermes L X I I I (1928), 31 f. and Bickel, Bonner Jahrbucher C X X X I I I (1928), 13 ff. Cf. the in­ scription from Rome, Dessau 3090 as discussed b y Scott, 19 ff. and Bickel, 13 ff. Halasarna: T h e city erects an altar to Gaius, son of Theos Sebastos; Gaius as Neos Theos: 6 dayos 6 ^KXaaapvirav Tatou 'lovKlon Beov Zefiaarov vl&i Kalaapi veooi Be&i TOV [/3OJ]H6V. I.G.R. iv, 1094. Myrina Caesarea: The city of honor of Augustan peace: AvTOKpaTopi Kalaapi Be&, ZejSaaTrjs KaBupwaev (after

Myrina to Augustus as Theos in 6 drjfios 6 Kaiaapeuv Mvpeivalcov via} Beov, Xefiaaro} virep Wprjvrjs 9 B.C.). I.G.R. iv, 1173.

C y m e : Local priest of R o m a and Augustus as Theos: lepevs ras *Pco/zas Kal AvTOKpaTopos Kalaapos B'ecc via) Bkoo HefiaaTO) (Augustan, later than 2 B . C ) . I.G.R. iv, 1302. Hierocaesarea: T h e dedication of an altar to R o m a , Augustus as Theos and the city of Hierocaesarea. I.G.R. iv, 1304. Smyrna: Augustus called Theos (probably soon after 2 7 ) . iv, 1444.

I.G.R.

Erythrae: T h e city of Erythrae to R o m a and Augustus: [6 8rj]fxos [Beat, *Payz?7i Kal ZeJ/focrcot Kalaapi . . . Ovpavlcci. I.G.R. iv, 1534. Sardis: A series of documents. In the first the senate and people of Sardis announce to Augustus that the day on which Gaius Caesar took the toga virilis and the day on which they re­ ceived the announcement of the event will be held sacred (Upa). A statue of the youth (ayah^a) will be dedicated in

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS

277

the temple of Augustus. Augustus is not Theos in any of these official documents. I.G.R. iv, 1756. Caesarean games mentioned in an inscription of Cos. Ditt. SylU 1065. Ephesus: Inscription in Greek and Latin recording the building of the wall of the Augusteum: imp. Caes. Aug. . . . ex reditu Dianae fanum et Augusteum muro muniendum curavit (5 B . C ) . C.I.L. m , 7 1 1 8 ; Dessau 97. Dedication in Latin and Greek to Diana, Augustus, Tiberius, and the city of Ephesus. C.I.L. m , 7 1 1 7 ; Dessau 111. Alabanda: Augustus as Apollo Eleutherios: 'A-irdWuvos Bepiov 2e[0\a
'EXeu-

N y s a : A local priest of R o m a and Augustus: l]epeo)s ^Pw/zrjs Kal AvroKparopos Kaiaapos Xe$aaro\y HpaK\]ei8ov. . . . C.I.G. 2943. K

Mylasa: T h e city makes a dedication to Augustus and Roma. C.I.G. 2696. Fragmentary record of a priest of R o m a and Augustus who is also associated with Gaius (probably called v'eos "Ap-ns) and Lucius: lepev[s Seas ^6)fxrjs Kal AvroKparopos] Kaiaapos XefiaaTOV Kal rrjs Ta[iov 'lovXiov, Kaiaapos . . .] rrjs vebrr\ros r)yefxovos v'eo[v "Apcos . . .] Kal rrjs AevKiov 'IouXiou Kaiaapo[s rrjs vebrvTOS r)yefjLOVos T&V re]KV&v NeUrys Kal *Ep/xoO Kal *HpaK\eovs.— Bull. Corr. Hell, x n (1888), 15. Halicarnassus: Caesarean games mentioned in an inscription of Cos. Ditt. Syll* 1065. f

Sicily: Haluntium: Public dedication to Li via as Dea: Li viae Augusti deae municipium. C.I.L. x, 7464; Dessau 119. Italy: Praeneste: Flamen [Caesaris (?) Augusti. If the restoration is correct, the inscription is probably Augustan. See however Dessau's note on it, C.I.L. xiv, 2 9 6 4 : Magister Augustalis and Augustalis (late Augustan date probable). C.I.L. x i v , 2 9 7 4 ; Dessau 6250. Dedication by people and senate of Praeneste to Pax Augusta. C.I.L. x i v , 2898. Terracina: Inscription on a temple^—Romae et Augusto Caesari divi [/.] A . Aemilius A.f. ex pecunia sua f.c. M o m m s e n suggests that the order Augustus Caesar emphasizes the emperor's divinity. C.I.L. x, 6305. Cf. C.I.L. x, 8 2 3 ; v, 18. Acerrae: Iambics on a shrine of Gaius and Lucius. n. 1. C.I.L. x , 3757; Dessau 137.

See ch. ix,

APPENDIX

278

Formiae: A libertus as Augustalis.

III C.I.L. x, 6 1 0 4 ; Dessau 1945.

Puteoli: Dedication to Augustus set up b y the Centuria probably a division

of the Augustales.

C.I.L.

Petronia, x, 8 1 7 8 ;

Dessau 6 3 2 1 . Temple with dedication: [L. C]alpurnius L.f. templum Augusto cum ornamentis d.s.f.

C.I.L. x, 1613.

Four magistri of a vicus make a dedication in a shrine of the Lares Augusti

(1 A . D . ) .

C.I.L. x, 1582.

Cumae: List of festivals of the imperial house, usually assumed to have come from the temple of Augustus ( 4 - 1 4 A . D . ) . The

portions of the calendar preserved record the days of

Augustus* birth, his first consulship, his taking of the toga virilis, his first assumption of the fasces, his first victory, his first salutation

as imperator,

the

bestowal of the

name

Augustus and of the high priesthood, the birthdays of Divus Julius, Tiberius, Germanicus, and the younger Drusus, the dedications of the altars of Fortuna Redux and Pax. days are signalized b y supplicationes to the gods. birthday has the words immolatio

Most

Augustus*

Caesari hostia.

C.I.L.

i,

2

l , p. 2 2 9 ; x , 8375; Dessau 108. Pompeii: Sacerdos

Augusti

(also called flamen Augusti).

The

first holder was M . Holconius Rufus who seems to have got ;

the office not earlier than 3 - 2 B . C 947,

948.)

(C.I.L.

Augustus* death (x, 840, 943, 9 4 4 ) . Celer became sacerdos divi Augusti Genius Augusti.

After Augustus* death

(x, 945, 9 4 6 ) .

Mamia P. f. sacerdos public. Geni[o

s]olo et pec[unia sua]. The

x, 830, 8 3 7 , 838,

H e was succeeded b y M . Holconius Celer before

Aug.

C.I.L. x, 816.

inscription m a y belong to the temple in the Forum that

is usually called the temple of Vespasian. templum Augusti.

See T.A.P.A.

(Probably the

L I , 128 ff.)

Fortuna Augusta: M . Tullius M . f. d. v. i. d. ter. quinq. augur. tr.

mil. a pop. aedem Fortunae August, solo et peq. sua

(The

absence of a cognomen indicates early date).

C.I.L.

x , 820; Dessau 5398. Ministri

Fortunae Augusti

begin to appear in 3 A . D .

C.I.L.

x , 8 2 4 ; Dessau 6382. Ministri

Augusti are found in a record of 2 B . C

C.I L. x , 8 9 0 ;

Dessau 6 3 9 1 . Against the association of these ministri

with the

ministri

Merc. M a i . see Bormann, Wiener Eranos (1909), pp. 3 1 5 ff.; cf.,

however,

P.A.P.A.

the

summary of

L X I (1930), xxiv.

Gertrude Grether's paper,

The first ministri

of the

Pagus

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS Augustanus

Felix Suburbanus

279

presumably devoted to the cult

of the emperor's Lares and Genius belongs to the year 7 B . C . C.I.L.

x , 924; Dessau 6381.

Nola: Magister Mercurialis et Augustalis. cated by the spelling Augustalei.

Early date is indi­

C.I.L.

x, 1272; Dessau

6351. Amiternum: Public dedication to Fortuna Redux for Augustus' return: T . Vinio Rufo, T . Titsieno oct. vir. Q. Orfio Fulcinio, C.

Iegio

aed.,

praefectura

Amiternina

Caesaris Augusti Fortunai . . .

C.I.L.

pro reditu

imp.

ix, 4 1 8 2 ; Dessau

3701. Potentia: A sevir Augustalis sets up a copy of the Victory which was in the curia at Rome.

Primus Marc

V I vir Au[g]

s.p.q.R. Augusto dedit clupeum virtutis [c]le[me]nti[ae ius]t\[tiae pietatis. causa].

C.I.L.

ix, 5 8 1 1 ; Dessau 8 2 .

Beneventum: A Caesareum is dedicated to Augustus and the colony of Beneventum: P. Veidius P. f. Pollio Caesareum Imp.

Caesari Augusto et coloniae Beneventanae.

This is

probably the wealthy Roman knight who died in 15 B . C . (Dio L I V , 2 3 ) .

C.I.L.

Sulmo: A sevir Augustalis

i x , 1556; Dessau 109. (a libertus).

C.I.L.

ix, 3098.

Ancona: Record of a [sacerdos ? Au]g. Victoriae Caesaris.

C.I.L.

ix, 5904. Veii: Six seviri Augustales ludis (2 B . C - 1 4 A . D . ) .

make a dedication to Augustus C.I.L.

Nepet: Four Magistri Augustales, tion

pro

xi, 3782. the first chosen, make a dedica­

to Augustus: I m p . Caesari divi f.

Augusto

pontif.

maxim, cos. X I tribunic. potestat. X I magistri Augustal. prim. Philippus Augusti 1. M . Aebutius Secundus, M . Gallius Anchia[J]us P. Fidustius Antigonus ( 1 3 - 1 2 B . C ) .

C.I.L.

xi,

3200; Dessau 89. Falerii: Four magistri Augustales Caesaris

divi

f.

Augusti

pave a road: Honoris I m p .

pont.

maxim,

patr.

patriae

et

municip. magistri Augustales C . Egnatius M . 1. Glyco C . Egnatius C . 1. Musicus C . Iulius Caesar. 1. Isochrysus Q. Floronius Q. 1. Princeps viam Augustam ab via Annia extra portam ad Cereris silice sternendam curarunt pecunia sua pro ludis (2 B . C - 1 4 A . D . ) . Magister

Augustalis:

C.I.L.

x i , 3083; Dessau 5373.

M a g . Augus. anni quarti.

C.I.L.

xi,

3135. A freedwoman makes a dedication to the Genius of Augustus and of Tiberius and to the Juno of Livia. Dessau 116.

C.I.L.

x i , 3076;

280

APPENDIX

III

Pagus Stellatinus: A dedication to Augustus, Gaius, and Lucius, set up b y two freeborn magistri of a pagus: Mag(isJn) iter. [p]agi St[e^]atini [a]edem et signa de sua pecunia faciunda curarunt ( 3 - 2 B . C ) .

C.I.L. x i , 3 0 4 0 ; Dessau 106.

Cosa: A Magister Augustalis Augustus.

(an ingenuus) makes a dedication to

C.I.L. x i , 2 6 3 1 .

Caere: M o n u m e n t of the Lares Augusti

and the Genius of the

Emperor found in the ruins of the theatre.

T h e association

with the cult is clear from the reliefs representing the Lares and a scene of sacrifice.

See A J. A. x x v (1921), 3 8 7 - 3 9 5 .

T h e inscription to C . Manlius is probably Augustan.

C.I.L.

x i , 3616; Dessau 6577. Perusia: Record of a grove and a shrine of Augustus: Augusto lucus sacer.

C.I.L. x i , 1922; Dessau 5434.

Augueto sacr.

Perusia restituta.

C.I.L.

x i , 1923; Dessau

and a flamen Augustalis

are recorded in the

6614. Pisae: A n Augustalis

documents which provide for due honors to be paid to the memory of Gaius and Lucius (2 A . D . , 4 A . D . ) .

C.I.L.

xi,

1420, 1421; Dessau 1 3 9 - 1 4 0 . Iguvium: Games in honor of Augustus' victory: ludi victoriae Caesaris Augusti.

C.I.L. x i , 5820; Dessau 5 5 3 1 .

Bononia (probably from a pagus): Dedication to Apollo and the Genius of Augustus by a magister: Apollini Genioque Augusti Caesaris sacrum L . Apusulenus L . 1. Eros magister puteum puteal laurus d.p.s.

C.I.L. x i , 8 0 4 ; Dessau 3218.

Verona: Priest of Augustus, the first chosen: Flam. Aug. primo Veron. creato (probably Augustan).

C.I.L.

v, 3 3 4 1 .

Restoration of a local shrine of the Lares Compitales, probably as Lares Augusti

(1 B . C ) .

C.I.L. v, 3257.

Pola: A temple of Roma and Augustus in the Forum. inscription is on the epistyle

Augusto Caesari divi f. patri patriae thereafter).

The

of the temple: Romae et (2 B.C. or shortly

C.I.L. v, 18; Dessau 110.

Aquileia: A n altar of Augustus set up in 14 A . D . shortly before the death of the emperor: I m p . Caesari divi f. Augusto pontif. maxim, trib. potest. X X X V I I cos. X I I I p.p. sacrum. C.I.L.

v, 8 5 2 .

Augusta Taurinorum: A Sevir Augustalis,

an ingenuus

lack of cognomen indicates an early date.

whose

C.I.L. v, 7027.

Gallia Narbonensis: Provincial cult.

A bronze tablet containing regulations for the

duties and honors of the priest (flamen) of Gallia Narbonensis

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS was discovered at Narbo.

281

The imperator Caes[aris

Augusti]

referred to in it has usually been interpreted as the first A u ­ gustus, but Krascheninnikov (Philologus tified

him with Vespasian.

see Kornemann, Klio i, 125. In

For a

LIII, 1894, 161) iden­

slightly different

C.I.L.

view,

X I I , 6038; Dessau 6964.

deciding on a later date Krascheninnikov cites Athenian

inscriptions (CI.A.

H I , 623, 624) in which Quintus Trebellius

Rufus has the title dpx^pevs irpooros eTapx^las rrjs e/c N d p / W o s . He

assumes that Rufus was the first priest of the imperial

cult in the province of Gallia Narbonensis and dates the intro­ duction of the cult in accordance with the dating of the Athenian inscription.

H e places the Narbo bronze at the time

of

But the words TP&TOS

the introduction.

man

eTapxdas,

"first

of the province," are frequently used to describe the pre­

eminence of the league priests in the Greek East. O.G.I.S.

544, 545, 652, cf. I. G. in, 8 0 5 .

See Ditt.

The phrase indicates

simply that Rufus is honored at Athens in the terms familiar in Greek titles.

There is then no reason to follow the view that

the cult in Narbo was instituted in the time of Rufus.

If we

must discard such external evidence, it would seem that the view

of

Mommsen

and

Hirschfeld

that

imperator

Augustus is the first Augustus is very probable.

Caesar

B u t there is

one difficulty in dating the document under Augustus and that is the fact that a temple of the imperial cult is mentioned in the inscription.

Nowhere else in the West do we hear of a

temple of the imperial cult during the lifetime of the first emperor. altars.

The places of worship seem regularly to have been

It was not until after the death of Augustus that

Tiberius gave permission to Hither Spain to build a temple, and

in the words of Tacitus (Ann.

provided for the other provinces. for

i, 78) a precedent was T h e most probable date

the Narbo bronze would seem to be early in the reign of

Tiberius when a provincial temple of Augustus, following the precedent of Spain, was probably built in Gallia Narbonensis. Perhaps the fragment we possess is part of a longer document which gave all the rules for the temple as well as the priest. The designation of Augustus without the title divus is explicable in the early part of Tiberius* reign at a time when his new divine name was not yet fully established.

On the altar of

Forum Clodii dating from the year 18 Augustus is referred to without the title divus.

T h e provisions for the priesthood,

like those for the Roman flamen Augustalis

instituted after the

death of Augustus, seem to have resembled the provisions of 20

282

APPENDIX the Roman flamen Dialis;

III

indeed the provincial

institution

was in one respect more like the ancient Roman

flaminate,

for in the province the priestess was the wife of the flamen, a relationship which did not hold between the priest and priestess of Augustus (Germanicus and Livia) in Rome.

As was the

case at Lyons, there m a y well have been an altar and a priest for the cult of Augustus in Gallia Narbonensis before the death of Augustus. Narbo.

In the year 11 A . D . a municipal altar dedicated to the

Numen Augusti (probably equivalent to Genius Augusti) set up in the forum of Narbo. birthday

(here as elsewhere

was

Every year on Augustus'

a celebration of two

days'

duration) three Roman knights and three freedmen were to offer sacrifices; other days of offerings were the date when Augustus first was vested with imperium

and the date when

the emperor effected a reconciliation between the people and the decuriones

of Narbo.

T h e words of the formal

dedication of the altar are preserved on the stone; they include the provision that the altar is to be controlled by the same conditions that govern the altar of Diana on the Aventine in Rome.

C.I.L. x n , 4333; Dessau 112.

See Pi-

pidi, Rev. Et. Lat. 1931, 1 ff. A n altar inscribed Pact Aug.

T h e inscription is on a shield.

A n oak crown and laurel branches are also on the altar.

It

may well date soon after the altar of Peace was dedicated in 9 B.C. Baeterrae.

C.I.L. XII, 4 3 3 5 ; Dessau 3789. The first flamen Augusti of the city dating before the

death of Gaius in 4 A . D .

His titles are: praefecto equit.

tribuno militum [leg.] V I I et leg. X X I I praefect. castrorum flamini Aug. primo urbi Iul. Baeter. praefecto pro Ilviro C . Caesaris Augusti f. Nemausus.

C.I.L. x n , 4230.

Inscription dedicating the Maison Carree to Gaius

and Lucius, perhaps during their lifetime. Vienna.

C.I.L. x n , 3 1 5 6 .

The vicani of a vicus dedicate an altar to Augustus

(and Tiberius?) during the lifetime of Augustus.

C.I.L.

xii, 1844. Gallia Lugdunensis: Provincial altar at Lugdunum.

Priest of Augustan date.

C.I.L.

x n i , 1541; Dessau 7041. Spain: Baetica: Urgavo.

Dedication

to the Victoria of Imperator Caesar

Augustus ( 1 1 - 1 2 A . D . ) .

C.I.L. ii, 2106.

283

INSCRIPTIONS RECORDING D I V I N E HONORS Tarraconensis: Astures Transmontani.

Altar to Augustus ( 9 - 1 0 A . D . ) .

C.I.L.

II, 2703. Murcia: Genio Augusti divi f. L. Trebius. L. f. Menophilus. C.I.L.

I I , 3524.

Ilici: Augusto divi f. C . Maecius C . f. Celer dedit dedicavit. C.I.L. The

I I , 3555.

language seems to indicate that this is a dedication

to

Augustus in a divine capacity. Lusitania: Salacia. C.I.L. Africa.

Altar to Augustus set up b y an individual ( 5 - 4 B . C ) . I I , 5182.

From a conventus civium Romanorum

near Bir-bu-Rekba:

Augusto deo cives Romani qui Thinissut negotiantur, L. Fabricio. El-Lehs.

curatore

Dessau 9495.

Dedication to the Juno of Livia made by two indi­

viduals: Iunoni Liviae Augusti sacrum L. Passieno imperatore Africam obtinente

Rufo

Cn. Cornelius Cn. f. Cor.

Rufus et Maria C . f. Galla Cn. conservati vota 1. m. solvont (3 A . D . ) . Thamugadi.

C.I.L. A

VIII, 16456; Dessau 120.

priest

of

the

emperor

(probably

Augustus)

styled flamen perpetuus makes a dedication "pro salute imp. Caesaris Aug. sacrum." Carthago.

Temple of

C.I.L.

VIII, 10728.

the Gens Augusta:

Genti Augustae

P.

Perelius Hedulus sac. perp. templum solo privato primus pecunia sua fecit.

Comp.

Rend.

Cf. Rev. Arch, x x m (1926), 4 1 .

Ac.

Inscr.

1913, 680 ff.

INDEX Abia: 39. Acca Larentia: 46. Acerrae: 219, 224, 277. Achaean League: 34. Achaemenidae: 2, 6, 247 ff. Achilles, as Alexander's ancestor: 7, 8, 14. Actium: 101, 138, 139, 146, 151, 155, 181, 194. Aegaeae: 272. Aeneas: 36, 58, 106, 118, 155, 174, 176, 178, 183, 188, 189, 198, 229. Aeschylus: 250, 251, 253. Aesernia: 269. Africa: 211, 212, 213. Agathe Tyche: 9. Agathos daimon: 9, 10, 18, 20, 34, 151, 153, 258 ff., 266; v. daimon. Age, new: 91,112, 123,145, 176 f., 180. Agesilaus: 11, 12. Agora, tomb in the: 8, 34. Agrippa: 135, 166, 173 ff., 188, 196. Agrippa Postumus: 225. Agrippina the Elder: 225. Aion: 113, 123. Alabanda: 37«, 277. Alba, kings of: 201. Alexander: 1; restores Cyrus' tomb: 4; his traditions: 6; youth: 13; an­ cestry: 14; in Egypt: 14 f.; journey to the Ammonium: 15 ff.; founds Alexandria: 17 f.; and the prosky­ nesis: 19 f., 256 ff.; decreed a god by the Greek cities: 21 f.; Indian journey: 23; legend: 23 ff.; cult after death: 24 ff.; and Caesar: 74 ff.; v . also 107, 110; divine father of: 232 f.; portents concern­ ing: 233; toasts to: 246; and the Persian kings: 247 ff. Alexander Romance: 15, 18, 233; Armenian version of: 18. Alexander Helios: 123, 128. Alexandria: 17f.; 26, 31, 61, 76, 82, 105, 111, 121, 124, 126 f., 130, 138, 140, 151, 195, 237, 240, 269. Altar, altars, erected to Lysander: 11; to Seleucus I: 29; to Lysimachus: 29; to Caesar: 84, 97, 242; of Divus Julius in Perusia: 117; of Gens Augusta at Carthage: 169, 221; of Victoria and Fortuna Redux: 181,

199; of Lares and Genius in vici: 186; of the Belvedere: 187 ff.; 227; erected to Genius: 191, 193, 204; Ara Pacis: 197 ff.; to emperor: 205 ff.; to Roma and Augustus at. Lugdunum; 209; Ara Ubiorum: 210 f., 213; to Augustus at Tarraco: 211 f.; to Genius Augusti at Pom­ peii: 216 ff.; to Genius and Lares at Rome: 217, 246; to Numen Augusti at Narbo: 220; of Numen Augusti in Rome: 227; of Gens Iulia: 227. Amathus: 273. Amatius: 84. Amenemhet 1:4. Amisus: 272. Amiternum: 279. Ammon: 15-17, 26, 55, 62, 74, 119. Amphipolis: 8, 12. Anahitis: 3, 248, 255. Anchises: 175, 178. Ancona: 279. Antigonus Gonatas: 27. Antigonus Monophthalmus: 28. Antioch, on the Orontes: 32. Antiochus of Commagene: 41, 165. Antiochus III of Syria: 36, 37. Antipater: 27. Anton: 107. Antonaia: 122. Antonius, Gaius: 89. Antonius, Lucius: 116, 117. Antonius, Marcus: 71, 72, 75; in senate after Caesar's death: 78 f.; funeral oration for Caesar: 80; fears Octavius: 82; relations with Cleopatra: 82 f.; slays the false Marius: 84; opposes Caesar's hon­ ors, 87 ff.; proposes additional day in Caesar's honor at public thanks­ givings: 93; and second triumvirate: 95, 100 ff.; honored as Dionysus: 108 f., 121, 128, 135, 138, 140; meeting with Cleopatra: 109 ff.; return to Italy: 117 ff.; in Athens: 121 ff.; in Syria with Cleopatra: 124 ff.; honors Cleopatra in Alexandria; 127 ff.; breaks with Octavian: 136 ff.; defeat and death of; 140 ff. Apamea: 276. Apelles: 17. Aphrodite: 103 , 110. 4

286

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

Apollinares: 219. Apollo, oracle of at Branchidae: 16; Seleucus, son of: 30 ; Flamininus honored with: 35; and Octavian: 102, 118, 119, 131, 133, 134, 140, 162; at Actium: 132, 139, 154; games of: 146; temple of on Palatine: 153, 177, 184, 202; on altar of Carthage: 169; prophecy of in Aeneid: 176; in Ludi Saeculares: 178; on breastplate of Augustus of Prima Porta: 180; and Augustus: 232, 233. Apollo the Torturer: 119. Apollodorus: 85. Apollonia: 233. Apotheosis: 165 f., 175, 181, 187, 196, 203, 224, 234, 236, 237, 240; of Caesar: 92, 96, 149. Appian: 80, 102, 107, 249, 250. Aquileia: 280. Ara Gentis Juliae: 227. Ara Pacis: 197, 221. Aradus: 273. Aratus: 34. Arcesilaus: 63. Archiereus: 211. Ares: 232. Argos: 251. Aristobulus: 16, 249, 250. Aristogeiton: 8. Aristophanes: 265. Aristotle: 13, 16. Armenia: 126. Arretium: 221. Arrian: 24, 256 f., 261, 265. Artaxerxes I I : 248. Artaxerxes III Ochus: 251. Artaxerxes of Plutarch: 252. Artemis (see Diana): 139; Phakelitis: 131. Arval Brethren: 192, 193. Asia: 60, 108, 110, 146, 205, 207, 239, 244, 273. Asia Minor: 36, 40. Assos: 275. Assur: 2. Assyrian kings: 2, 192. Astures Transmontani: 283. Athens, and heroes: 8; and oracle of Ammon: 15; and deification of Alexander: 15; honors Demetrius and Antigonus: 28, 33; Roman con­ tact with: 50; Antony's sojourn in: 121 f., 124; honors Antony: 138; Vergil in: 174; temple of Olympian Zeus in: 214; inscriptions of: 267, 269, 270. •ia: 119, 233. 1

Atossa: 250. Attalids: 108, 192; v. Pergamum. Attalus I: 33, 34. Atticus: 79, 83. Auctoritas: 156, 159, 244. Augusta, as name for colonies: 171. Augusta Taurinorum: 280. Augustales: 219 ff. Augustalia: 172, 181, 230. Augusteum: 215, 223. Augustus: 1, 48, 64, 67, 70, 77; as C. Octavius: 63, 82; youth: 85; adopted by Caesar in his will (referred to as Octavian): 82, 85; returns to Italy and to Rome: 85 f.; attempts to se­ cure divine honors for Caesar; 87 ff.; celebrates games for Caesar: 90 ff., interprets comet as Caesar's soul: 91 f.; relations of with troops and senate: 94; and second triumvirate: 95, 100 ff.; secures Caesar's deifica­ tion: 96; styled divi filius: 99; in Italy after Philippi: 111 ff.; and the Perusine war; 115 ff.; reconciliation of with Antony: 117 ff.; association with Apollo: 120, 133 ff., 153 ff.; honors of in Italy: 130 ff.; breaks with Antony: 136 ff.; victorious over Antony: 139 ff.; becomes a divine king in Egypt: 142 ff.; honored in eastern provinces: 145 f.; permits provinces of Asia and Bithynia to build temples to himself and Roma: 146 f.; makes distinction between citizens and provincials: 148; and the Georgics: 149 f.; distinctions decreed to by Roman senate: 150 ff.; libation to Genius of: 151, 181 ff.; triumph of: 153; dedicates temple ot Apollo: 153 ff.; as princeps: 156; "restores" the Republic: 156; re­ ceives name Augustus: 158 ff.; in­ signia associated with position of: 160 ff.; associated with Jupiter: 161; a man on earth destined to become a god after death: 162 ff.; symbols of future apotheosis of: 165 f.; refuses to have Pantheon dedicated to him: 166; honored according to republi­ can traditions: 167; honored as god in East: 168 f.; as founder of colonies: 169; and Herod: 171; re­ gains Parthian standards: 172; hopes for succession: 172 ff.; house of in Aeneid: 174 ff.; and secular games: 177 ff.; statue of from Prima Porta: 179 f.; state festivals asso­ ciated with: 181, 194 f.; becomes

287

INDEX pontifex maximus: 183 f.; makes household gods state gods: 184 ff.; Genius of receives official ruler cult: 190 ff.; position of house of: 196 ff.; dedicates temple of Mars Ultor: 200 ff.; position of in East: 206 ff.; interested in extending provincial cult to West: 208 ff.; and Neapolitan games: 215; temples and priests of in West: 215 ff.; last years of: 224 ff.; death: 228 ff.; deification: 229 ff.; legend: 232 ff.; attitude of educated men toward deification of: 235 f.; attitude of Augustus himself: 236 f.; development of divinity of: 239 ff.; v. Genius Augusti. Augustus, as name of month: 194. Auramazda: 2, 3, 248, 255. Aurora: 180. Automatia: 9. Avesta: 3, 247, 253, 254. Babylon: 23, 24. Babylonian ruler: 2. Bacchus: 163, 233; v. Dionysus. Bactra: 19, 256, 260 f.; 263 ff. Baeterrae: 282. Baetica: 282. Behistun: 248. Beneventum: colony honored with Augustus: 169, 279. Bethlehem, star of: 91. Birthday, of Timoleon: 9, 10; of Alexander: 26; of Antiochus of Commagene: 41; of Caesar: 67, 74, 90, 98; of Octavian, monthly celebra­ tion of: 112 , ; annual celebration of in Asia: 147; as public festival: 151, 168; of Augustus honored at Myti­ lene: 168; celebrated by games: 181; as festival of Genius: 194 f., 220; as first day of year: 205; sacrifice to Augustus on, in Cumae: 216; cele­ brated by games after death of Augustus: 230. Bithynia: 40, 60, 146, 207, 269. Boeotian hero: 46. Bononia: 95, 280. Bosporus: 270. Bovillae: 228. Branchidae: 16. Brasidas: 8. Britain: 240. Brundisium: 86, 117, 174; Peace of: 119, 130. Bucephalus: 63. Bull, and the Egyptian king: 5; as offering to Genius of Augustus: 192, 19

203, 213, 217, 246; as symbol of king: 192; as form of Dionysus: 192. Caelus: 180, 187, 224. Caere: 280. Caesar, Gaius, grandson of Augustus: 172, 188, 197, 200, 218, 219, 221, 224, 225, 232. Caesar, Julius: 1, 41, 42, 45, 56, 57; ancestry: 58 f.; elected pontifex maximus: 59; familiarity with the eastern ruler: 60; in Egypt: 61 ff.; dedicates temple of Venus Genetrix: 63; receives divine honors: 64 ff.; temple and priest of: 68; title divus Julius: 68 ff.; and Jupiter: 70 f.; royal prerogatives of: 71 f.; Hellenis­ tic precedents: 73 ff.; and Alexan­ der: 74 ff.; and Cleopatra: 75 ff.; interest in his own divinity: 76; lack of a legend: 77; revulsion of feeling after death of: 78; funeral: 79 ff.; attitude of the people and of Antony toward deification of: 81 ff.; Octa­ vian's struggle to make his deifica­ tion effective: 87 ff.; comet inter­ preted as soul of; 90 ff.; deification made effective: 96; v. Divus Julius. Caesar, Lucius, grandson of Augustus: 174,188,197,218, 219, 221, 224, 225. Caesarea, as name for cities: 146, 213. Caesarea Palaestina: 171. Caesareum, at Beneventum: 169. Caesarion: 75, 83, 103 f., 106, 109, 125, 127 ff., 136 f., 140 f. Calendar: 151, 181, 205; Julian: 218. Caligula: 230, 237, 240. Callisthenes: 16, 20, 256, 261, 265. Cambyses: 4, 15, 16, 249, 250. Camillus: 45. Campania: 88. Campus Martius: 81. 95,166,177, 229. Capito, Fonteius: 124. Capitoline Hill: 43, 55, 71, 72, 172, 178, 181, 193, 201, 223, 225 ff., 246. Capitolium: 55, 64, 71, 136, 177, 202. Capricorn: 165, 166, 227. 233. Caristia: 182, 260. Carmen Saeculare: 174, 178, 180. Carthaea: 267. Carthage: 169, 221, 283. Cassander: 29. Cassius: 95, 105, 116. Castor: 191. Catilinarians: 47. Catiline: 56 °. Cato, father of his country: 48 . Catulus: 233. e

44

288

T H E DIVINITY OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR

Census: 155. Ceres: 232. Chalcidians: 35. Chares of Mytilene: 256 ff., 264 ff. Chios: 268. Christians: 191. Cicero, refuses honors in Asia: 38; and in Cilicia: 39; on divine honors for mortals: 46; hailed as pater patriae: 47; shrine for his daughter: 52; on Marius Gratidianus: 56; on Caesar's honors: 66, 69 f.; and the attacks on Caesar: 73, 74; motion for a general amnesty after the death of Caesar: 79; and Cleopatra: 83; and Octa­ vian: 86; rejoices in the destruction of the altar of Caesar: 88; on Antony: 93; relations with Octa­ vian: 94; attitude toward deification of a mortal: 96; proscription: 101; Philippics: 107; dream of: 233. Cilicia: 39, 60, 111, 125, 128, 272. Cinna, Helvius, the praetor: 80; the tribune: 80, 136. Cistophoric coins: 33, 122. Claudius: 230, 240, 241. Claudius, Appius: 39. Clearchus: 12. Clementia Caesaris: 68, 97. Cleopatra, and Caesar: 61 f., 75 f.; after Caesar's death: 82 f., 86; and the triumvirs: 103 ff.; as Aphrodite: 103; as Hathor: 104 ; and the tem­ ple of the Egyptian gods in Rome: 106; meeting with Antony in Cilicia: 109 ff.; return to Egypt: 111; birth of twins: 123; receives donations from Antony: 125; honored in triumph and festival in Alexandria: 126 f.; called New Isis: 126; power over Antony: 136 ff.; defeat and death; 138 ff. Cleopatra Selene: 123, 128. Clodius, Publius, coins of: 9 1 . Clupeus virtutis: 161 ff., 187, 196. Coelesyria: 125, 128. Colonies, Roman: 48, 57; of veterans: 134. Comet: 90 ff., 112, 114, 150, 158, 177, 234, 242. Comitia calata: 60. Comitia curiata: 95. Commagene: 41. Compita: 185, 186, 193. Concordia: 65 , 67, 199, 200; Augus­ ta: 221, 225, 245. Concordiales: 219. Constantinople: 71. 6

2 2

I6

Corcyra: 124. Corinthian League: 13, 21. Cornelia: 49. Cos: 276. Cosa: 280. Crassus: 172. Craterus: 28. Crescen tmoon: 177; with five stars: 91. Crete: 270. Creusa: 59. Critonius: 87. Crown offered to Caesar: 71, 72. Ctesias: 252 ff. Cumae: 215, 218, 278. Curia, Julia: 161, 200; of Pompey: 80. Curtius Rufus: 256. Cyme: 276. Cynosarges: 12. Cyprus: 125, 128, 272. Cyrene: 270. Cyrus: 3, 249 f., 253 f. Cyzicus: 275. Dacia: 200. Daimon: 9, 10, 11, 12, 18, 20, 32, 47, 50, 151, 246, 251 ff., 257 f., 262, 268. Dalmatia: 200, 225 f. Damnatio memoriae: 236. Daphnis: 112. Darius I: 3, 248, 250 f., 253. Darius 111:2, 18,19. Deification: of heroes: 8; of Lysander: 11; of Alexander: 21 ff.; of Alex­ ander's successors: 28 ff.; of Roman governors in the East: 35 ff.; and the triumph: 45, 149; of Caesar: 67 ff., 96 ff., 242; of Antony: 130; Octa­ vian's attitude toward: 157; prom­ ised to Aeneas by Jupiter: 176; of Augustus: 224 ff.; v. Self-deification, Spontaneous honors. Deified abstractions: 181, 199, 221, 225, 227, 240, 245. Deir el Bahri: 62. Dellius: 109 f. Delos: 10. Delphi: 15. Delphic oracle: 34. Delphinium: 35. Demades: 22. Demetrius Poliorcetes: 27, 28. Demosthenes: 22, 23. Di Manes: 49. Di Parenles: 49. Diana: 132, 153; on altar at Carthage: 169; in Ludi Saeculares: 178; on breastplate of Augustus of Prima Porta: 180.

INDEX Dictator, Augustus refuses title: 167. Dictator perpetuus: 72. Dio (Cassius D i o ) : 65, 68, 70, 96, 97, 102, 126, 157, 186, 214, 216, 218, 228, 231, 260. Diocletian: 239, 241. Diogenes the cynic: 22. Dion: 9. Dionysiac mysteries: 51. Dionysus, and Olympias: 14; and Alexander: 21 f., 26, 192, 266; and Pergamene kings: 33, 192; Mithradates as New Dionysus: 41; and the Genius: 50; and Antony: 102, 107, 108, 110, 119, 121, 122, 125, 129, 133, 135, 138, 140; craftsmen of: 138; and Ptolemies: 192; and agathos daimon: 259. Dionysus, Carnivorous and Savage: 109, 119. Dionysus, Giver of Joy and Beneficent: 109. Dionysus-Osiris: 128, 129. Dioscuri: 19, 232, 260. DivifiUus: 106, 130, 131, 149, 153. Divine ancestry, of Alexander and his house: 7, 13, 14, 16; of Flamininus: 36; oi Romulus: 42, 45; of Caesar: 58 f., 74; of Antony: 107. Divus: 69 f., 241, 243, 244. Divus Julius: 69 f., 74, 96, 99, 112; temple with Roma: 148; temple in Forum dedicated: 153; statue in the Pantheon: 167; v. 181, 194, 202, 207, 221 227 242. Dolabella:'88, 97, 105, 109. Domitius, Cn. Domitius Calvinus: 37; Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus : 210. Domus Publica: 184. Drusus, the elder: 197, 208, 209, 225, 232; the younger: 225, 228, 230. Duris of Samos: 11. Eagle, as symbol of apotheosis: 165, 181. Edfu: 62. Egypt, Egyptian, king of: 4-6, 124, 125, 128, 192; Alexander in: 14 f.; Ptolemies in: 26, 30; relations with Rome: 40; gods of at Rome: 51; Caesar in: 61 f., 75; priesthood of: 103; Antony in: 111; elements in god Aion: 113; added to Roman realm: 141; reorganised: 145; Jews in: 207; Augustus' worship in: 244; v. Pharaoh. Elbe: 208, 210, 211.

289

Elogia, in Forum of Augustus: 201, 221. Ennius: 42, 43, 55, 70, 159. Epaminondas: 12. Ephesus: 17, 37, 109, 137, 148, 268, 277. Epicureans: 52, 112. Epicurus: 52. Epidaurus: 271. Epiphanes: 31. Eresus: 274. Erythrae: 276. Erythrean Sibyl: 16. Etruria: 45. Etruscan kings: 44, 45. Euhemerus: 27, 42, 70, 237. Eumenes, Alexander's secretary: 25. Eumenes II of Pergamum: 33. Evocatio: 132. Fabius, Paullus Fabius Maximus: 205, 273. Falerii: 279. Felicitas, Augusta: 221, 245; with Numen Augusti: 227. Festivals, Lysandreia: 11; of Antigonus at Scepsis: 28; Demetria in Athens: 28; agon for Seleucus at Ilium: 29; Marcellia: 35; Verria: 35; Romaia: 37; of Roman generals: 37 ff.; annual games for great Romans at Rome: 46; of the dead at Rome: 49;, of Venus Felix: 57; of Venus Genetrix: 63; Parilia: 65; day added in Caesar's name to all festivals: 67; of Caesar: 74; Antonaia at Athens: 122; Octavian's victories added to public festivals at Rome: 334, 151; of Octavian in the cities: 168; Augustalia: 172, 230; associated with Augustus in the state calendar: 181, 195, 240; Caristia: 182, 260; Italica Romaia Sebasta Isolympia: 215; Compitalia: 185; for Pax Augusta, Pax, Salus, and Concordia: 199; cf. the Genius Augusti: 204; of the emperor in Italy: 214, 218; of Divus Augustus: 230; of Persian king: 255; v. Birthday, Games,Ludi. Fire, borne before the Persian king: 3, 195, 254; borne before Augustus: 195; and Alexander: 266. Flamen, Augustalis: 210, 215; Dialis: 68, 210, 230; Divi Augusti: 230; Divi Juli: 69, 96: Quirinalis: 46. Flamines: 60; in municipalities: 233. Flamininus, T. Quinctius Flamininus: 35, 36.

290

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N ' E M P E R O R

Formiae: 278. Fortune, of the city: 32, 37; of Commagene: 41; Redux: 172, 181, 199; Augusta: 221, 245; v. Fortuna, Tyche. Founders, in Greek cities: 7, 8, 10, 17. 18, 29, 40; at Rome: 42; in Roman towns: 48; Camillus and Marius as: 48 ; Caesar: 65, 88; Augustus in cities of the East: 146; cf. 152; at Rome: 158, 159, 164; in colonies: 169. Fravashi: 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 32, 50, 253, 254. Fulvia: 116, 117, 135. 47

Galatia: 168, 206, 272. Gallus, Cornelius: 145. Games at Caesar's funeral: 80; of Actian Apollo: 146; quinquennial games to celebrate Actium: 155, 218; in honor of Augustus at Mytilene: 168; at Neapolis: 214, 215, 228; Olympic: 215; on birthday of Augustus after death: 230; established by Livia: 231; v. Festi­ vals, Quinquennial games. Gaugamela: 18. Gaul: 60, 107, 208; Gallia Narbonen­ sis; 210, 280 f.; Gallia Lugdunensis: 282. Ge: 206. Gemma Augustea: 226, 227. Genius, and daimon: 10, 254, 259; Roman idea of: 47-50; of Caesar: 67, 151;.of colonies: 169; honored by bloodless offerings in Roman cult: 192; of Gaius and Lucius: 219; of Tiberius: 239, 240; of Claudius: 240; of emperors: 241. Genius: of Caesar, 67, 151; of colonies: 169; honored by bloodless offerings in Roman cult: 192; of Gaius and Lucius: 219; of Tiberius: 239, 240; of Claudius: 240; of emperors: 241. Genius Augusti, honored by libation: 151, 181 f., 251, 260, 264; included in official oath: 152, 190, 191, 218, 238; in state cult: 152, 190, 194, 207, 245; in household cult: 184; with Lares: 185 f., 214, 245; victims sacrificed to: 192; at temple of Mars Ultor: 202, 203, 204; in West: 213 f.; honored by eastern kings: 214; worship of extended in cities: 214, 218; temple of at Pompeii: 216 f.; worshipped in the templa Augusti in municipalities: 217; associated with Augustales: 220; at Narbo: 220; has altar, not temple, in Rome: 222 f.;

worshipped at altar of Numen Augusti with Felicitas: 227; festivals and sacrifices of: 230; Horace views as deus praesens: 235, cf. 191; in­ herits cult of Hellenistic kings: 246; compared with cult of Persian king's spirit: 251 f.; v. Numen Augusti. Genius loci: 18, 259. Gens Augusta: 169. Gens Julia: 227, 228. Germanicus: 225, 230. Germany, Germans: 208, 210, 225. Goddess, New, as title of Cleopatra: 126. Gracchi: 56. Greece, Greeks, kings in cities: 7; and the Persians: 2 f.; official city cult: 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 21, 30; Philip and the cities: 13; importance of the Am­ monium to: 15 ff.; banquet custom: 20; cities deify Alexander, 21 ff., 74; worship of Hellenistic kings in: 33; kings identified with Zeus: 44; philosophy at Rome: 50 f.; Asiatic Greeks honor Caesar: 61; worship of Augustus: 244; interpretation of Persian king worship: 248 ff. Gythium: 231, 239. Hadrian: 214. Hagnon: 8 , 9". Halasarna: 276. Halicarnassus: 277. Haluntium: 277. Harmodius: 8. Hathor: 1046. Hatshepsut: 62. Hecataeus of Abdera: 27. Heliopolis: 5, 61. Helios: 206. Hellenistic, ideas: 54; kings: 58, 64, 67, 74, 100, 129, 142, 146, 190, 195, 207, 244, 246, 247, 260; models: 96; times: 113; East: 114; kingdom of Egypt: 124; ruler cult: 204, 245, 246, 247. Hephaestion: 29. Heraclea: 12. Heracles: 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 19, 26, 27, 35. Heracleum, 138. Hercules: 53, 107, 163 ff., 175, 191, 235, 260. Hermonthis: 103. Hero cult: 251; Greek: 4, 7 f., 246, 250, 255, 260; and cult of gods: 8; for living men: 9,10,18,34; correspond­ ing honors at Rome: 45; honors to Gaius and Lucius at Pisae: 224 f. Herod: 171. 15

291

INDEX Herodotus: 248. Hestia: 95, 264. Hierocaesarea: 276. Hittite ruler: 2. Homer: 7, 8. Honos, and Virtus: 172. Horace, use of divus in: 70; Julian star in: 92; usually avoids political sub­ jects in early poems: 101; sixteenth epode of: 116; on the libation to the emperor's Genius: 152, 181 f., 260; attitude toward Augustus' divinity: 164 f., 175, 235; on the Parthian success: 172; Carmen Saeculare of: 174, 178, 180; and the oath by the Genius: 191. Horus: 5, 15, 61, 113. Household cult, in Greece: 10, 18; at Rome: 49 f.; of Augustus: 184, 223. Hvarend: 3, 195, 254, 264. Hyksos kings: 4. Hypata: 271.

Julii:58, 176, 194. Junius, Decimus Junius Brutus: 79, 94. Junius, M . Junius Brutus: 73, 78, 89, 95, 105, 107, 116, 119, 242; the liberator: 108, 242. Juno: 232, Maxima: 178, 189; Regina: 44, 177. Jupitei: 175 ff., 181,192, 234, 240, 241: Optimus Maximus: 45, 64, 71, 126, 154, 162, 193, 202; and the king: 44 f.; and the elder Scipio: 55; and Caesar: 68 ff.; and the triumph: 45, 73. Justin: 256.

Iguvium: 218, 280. Ilici: 283. Ilium: 28, 76, 275. Illyria: 134. Ilythiae: 177. Imperator: 72, 130 f.; Augustus as, in statue from Prima Porta; 179. Imperium: 142. Incarnate God: 23, 121, 155, 158, 193, 203, 232, 240, 243, 244, 246, 266. Indian journey of Alexander: 23. Ionian cities: 11, 12, 21, 28, 32. Iranian, elements in god Aion: 113; and the Avesta: 248. Isis: 51, 62, 105, 129; New Isis: 126, 128, 136, 138. Isocrates: 11, 13, 253. Issus: 14. Isthmian games: 35. Isthmus: 271. Italia, as form of the earth goddess, on the Ara Pacis: 197, 198, 199, 221. Italica Romaia Sebasta Isolympia: 215, 228. Italy: 130,134, 149; cult of emperor in: 214 f. lulus: 58, 176.

Labienus: 111. Lapethus: 272. Lar: 49. Lararium, on the Palatine: 190. Lares: 182, 184, 254; Mother of: 189; Augusti: 182, 184 ff., 214, 217, 220, 222, 245; Compitales: 49,184 ff., 190, 245. Latona: 132, 153. Leagues, of cities of Asia: 146, 147, 208, 273; of Bithynia: 146 f.; of Galatia: 272; in the West: 212. Legend, of king: 6; of gods: 7; of heroes: 8; of Romulus: 42; of Scipio the Elder: 55; lack of, for Caesar: 77; of Augustus: 232 ff. Lemnos: 30, 261. Leon of Pell a: 26. Lepidus, M . Aemilius: 82, 94, 95, 100, 120, 133, 177, 183, 245. Lesbos: 267. Lex curiata: 89. Libation, named for Seleucus Soter: 30, 261; poured for Marius: 48; for Genius of Augustus: 15, 181, 182, 217, 245, 246, 251; in Persia: 246, 251; to agathos daimon: 258. Liber: 175, 191, 235. Liber Pater: 50, 185. Libert as: 65. Libya: 128. Libyan desert: 15; oracle, 74. Livia: 135, 229 ff., 234. Livy: 41, 160, 164 f., 175. Lollius: 208. Lucan: 4S , 235.

Janus: 200. Jericho: 125. Jews: Sibylline oracles of, 114; treat­ ment of: 207, 237; religious law of: 237. Judaea, cities of: 171. Julia, aunt of Caesar: 59; daughter of Augustus: 123, 173, 187 f., 196.

Ka: 5, 10, 32, 50. Kaisarios. as name of month: 205. Karnak: 62. Kings, v. Alban, Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hellenistic, Hittite, Greek, Persian, Roman, Spartan.

44

292

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

Lucretius: 52, 63. Lucullus: 37. Ludi, Apollinares: 89; Ceriales: 86; Magni: 121; Martiales: 202, 230; Saeculares: 114 f., 177 f., 189; Sevir ales: 202, v. Martiales; Victoriae Caesaris: 66, cf. 63, 85, 89. Lugdunum: 209, 211 ff., 282. Luna: 180. Lupercal: 198. Lupercalia: 71, 72. Luperci: 67. Lupiae: 86. Lusitania: 56, 283. Lycia: 224, 272. Lysander: 11, 15. Lysimachus: 29. Lyttus: 270. Macedonia, Macedonians: 1, 7, 13, 14, 18, 26, 27, 33, 35, 256. Maecenas: 134, 149. Magi: 249; at the tomb of Cyrus: 250. Magistri vicorum: 186, 221. Magna Mater: 51. Magnesia: 37 . Magnus Annus: 91, 113. Manes, of Gaius and Lucius: 225. Manilius: 235. Marathon: 8. Marcellus, conqueror of Syracuse: 35, 173«; nephew of Augustus: 173,196, 224. Marduk: 2. Marius: 48, 56, 57, 59. Marius, the false: 84, 86, 97; Gratidianus: 48, 56. Mars: 68, 162, 166, 181, 193, 198, 201, 203; as ancestor of the Julii: 58 f., 61, 64, 202; Ultor: 106, 181, 202; shrine on the Capitol: 172, 181, 201; temple in the Forum of Augustus, 200, 201, 214, 223, 224; receives dedications of triumphing generals, 202; sacrifices to Genius of Augustus at, 202,203; on relief at Carthage, 221. Marseilles: 224. Martial: 235, 260. Masinissa: 41. Mausoleum, of Alexander: 26; of Augustus: 173, 196, 229. Mediolanum: 220. Megalopolis: 34. Melos: 271. Memphis: 26. Mercuriales: 219. Mercury, with Augustus: 162, 232. Messala, M . Valerius: 200. Metellus Pius: 56. 7

Milesians: 16. Ministri Vicorum: 186. Mithra: 3, 6, 113, 248, 255. Mithradates: 39, 41, 57, 249. Moerae: 177. Month, named for Seleucus: 29; for Pompey: 39; for Caesar: 67, 89, 93; for Augustus: 194, 205. Mos maiorum: 56, 64, 183. Mucius, Q. Mucius Scaevola, the pontiff: 38. Munatius, L. Plancus: 158. Munda: 65, 88. Murcia: 283. Mutina: 94. Mylasa: 277. Myra: 272. Myrina Caesarea: 276. Mytilene: 39, 168, 267, 274. Narbo, bronze plaque of: 210; seviri: 220; inscriptions of: 282. Naulochus: 131, 133, 155. Neapolis: 88, 113, 149, 214 f., 228; in Galatia: 272. Nectanebus: 15. Nemausus: 219, 282. Neo-Babylonian king: 2. Neo-Pythagorean: 52. Neo-Stoic:. 52. Nepet: 279. Neptune, and Sextus Pompey: 102, 120, 121. Nero: 241. New Year's day, put on Augustus' birthday: 205; on day of Augustus' first visit: 218. Nicaea: 148. Nicolaus of Damascus: 85. Nicomedes: 60. Nicomedia: 146. Nicopolis: 146, 271. Nicostratus of Argos: 251. Nigidius Figulus: 52, 233. Nola: 228, 269, 279. Nubian rulers: 4. Numa: 68. Numen: 182, 191, 220, 227. Nysa: 277. Oath, by the Tyche or daimon of the Ptolemies: 32; Cato worthy to have his name in: 48 ; by Caesar's Genius: 67, 73, 190; by Genius of emperor; 190, 191, 238, 241, 245; by emperor himself: 192 ; associated with office of pontifex maximus: 192, 206; of allegiance: 206, 207, 218; by Genius of Tiberius: 239. 44

21

INDEX Octavia: 75, 117 f., 122 f., 128 f., 135, 137 f., 173 f. Octavius, C. father of Augustus: 233. Octavius, Octavian, v. Augustus. Oikumene: 227. Olympia: 271. Olympias: 14, 26, 55, 119. Oppius: 136. Orontes: 50. Osiris: 4, 26, 62, 129. Ovid: 92, 154, 161, 182, 185, 197, 200, 235, 260. Paean: for Lysander: 11; for Craterus: 28; for Flamininus: 36. Pagus Stellatinus: 280. Palaepaphos: 273. Palatine Hill: 132, 158, 178, 184,190, 193, 200, 223, 228, 231. Palestine: 233. Palladium: 184. Panathenaic Festival: 122. Panchaia: 237. Pannonia: 134 ff., 225 ff. Pantheon: 166, 202. Panticapaeum: 270. Paphlagonia: 192, 205 f. Paphos: 273. Parens: 47 f.; Augustus called, by a colony; 48 ; parens patriae, parens optimusmaximus, as titles of Caesar; 67, 93, 200. Parentatio: 46; cf. offering at tomb of Gaius and Lucius: 224 f. Parilia: 65. 45

Parthians: 72, 111, 118, 121, 125, 126, 129, 135; standards returned by: 172, 180, 201, 250. Pasargadae: 3, 249, 250. Pater: 47, 48; pater patriae: 47, 200, 218. Patrae: 138. Pax: 145, 181; Augusta: 199, 221, 245. Pediment, on Caesar's house: 66; on house of Augustus: 161. Penates: 60, 183, 184, 241. Pergamum: 32, 37, 40, 138, 146, 147, 215, 239, 244, 268, 273, 275. Persae: 250. Persepolis: 21, 249. Perseus: 15. Persia, Persian, kings: 1 ff., 18 f., 24, 41; worship of: 246, 247 ff.; offerings at banquets: 246; religious con­ ceptions of: 253. Perusia: 115 ff., 280. Petronius: 182. Phanagoria: 270.

293

Pharaoh: 24, 25, 30, 61, 62, 103; Octavian as: 143, 244. Pharsalus: 58, 61, 62, 106. Philadelphus, as title: 104. Philae: 62, 205, 270. Philetaerus: 33. Philip II of Macedon: 12 f. Philip V of Macedon: 35. Philippi: 101, 106 ff., 116, 118, 201. Philippics: 68, 107. Philo Judaeus: 237. Philodemus: 112. Philometor, as title: 104. Philopator, as title: 104. Philopoemen: 34. Phoenicia: 125, 128. Phylarchus: 264. Pisae: 215, 218, 221, 280. Pisidia: 272. Pisistratus: 213 f., 214. Plautus: 50. Pliny the Elder: 90, 250. Plutarch: 17, 23, 36, 47, 102, 108 f., 252 f., 256 ff., 261, 263, 265. Pola: 215, 280. Pollio: 113. Pollux: 163, 191. Polybius: 40, 46. Polygamy, of the ruler: 75; and Antony: 129, 137. Pomerium: 51, 81 , 201. Pompa circensis: 54. Pompeii: 152, 186, 221, 278; priest of Augustus in: 215, 217; temple and altar of Augustus in: 216 ff. Pompeiopolis: 39. Pompeius, Cn. Pompeius Magnus: 39 ff., 57, 60, 80, 142, 167. Pompeius, Sextus: 102, 117 ff., 131, 133. Pontifex maximus: 59 f., 62, 67, 73, 82, 133, 183 ff., 189, 191 ff., 196, 204, 206, 222, 245. Pontifices: 47, 68, 120, 172, 177, 204, 223. Pontus: 272. Porta Capena: 172. Portraits on coins: 30, 33; of Flam­ ininus: 36; of Sulla: 39; of Pompey: 40; of ancestors: 54; of Caesar: 66, 107; of triumvirs: 107; of Brutus: 108; of Antony: 109, 122; of Fulvia: 116; of Octavia: 122; of Antony, Octavia, and Octavian together: 122; of Antony and Cleopatra: 128; of Octavian: 130 f. See list of illustrations. Poseidon: 22. Posidonius of Halicarnassus: 10 . 6

22

294

T H E DIVINITY OF THE R O M A N EMPEROR

Posidonius, the philosopher: 52. Potentia: 279. Praeneste: 216, 221, 277. Praesens dens: 23, 164, 191, 193, 213, 215, 235, 246. Priene: 29, 138. Priest, of Augustus, in league in Asia: 147; at Mytilene: 168; in provinces: 207; at altar of Lugdunum: 209; regulations for: 210; in province of Africa: 212; at Ara Ubiorum: 213; in cities of Italy: 214 ff.; titles of in Italy: 219; of Divus Augustus: 230. of Demetrius and Antigonus: 28; of Cassander: 29; of kings in cities: 30; in Egypt, of Alexander: 31; of king in Pergamum: 33; of Flamininus: 35; of Manius Aquillius: 37; of Servilius: 38; of Caesar: 68, 96, 106, 118. Prima Porta, Augustus of: 179 f., 227. Princeps: 156, 174, 183, 241, 243 f.; iuventutis: 197; senatus: 156, 159. Proconsuls: 37, 142, 146, 148. Proculus Julius: 229. Propertius: 139, 155, 172, 213. Proskynesis: 18, 248, 249, 252; Alex­ ander and: 256 ff.; Greek and Persian forms of: 257, 261. Prusias: 40, 60; in Bithynia: 269. Ptolemies: 26, 31, 62, 108, 122, 124, 126, 192; empire of: 125, 128, 246. Ptolemy I: 16, 26, 29, 30. Ptolemy I I : 31, 32, 40. Ptolemy III (Euergetes): 62. Ptolemy X I (the Flute Player): 62. Ptolemy X I V : 75; v. Caesarion. Ptolemy, son of Cleopatra: 128. Puteoli: 278. Quadrigae: 39, 172, 200. Quinctilis: 67, 89 f. Quindecemviri Sacris Faciundis: 114, 120, 177, 178. Quinquennial games: 67, 74, 147, 155, 214. Quintilian: 48. Quirinal Hill: 42, 66. Quirinus: 42 f., 45, 68; statue of Caesar in temple of: 68, 163, 175. Ramses II: 62. Re: 5, 15, 61, 103. Regia: 60. Remus: 198. Republican, heroes: 53, 158, 243; "republican transformation of the doctrine of the divinity of kings": 53, 157, 244.

Res Gestae Divi Augusti: 151, 153, 156 f., 183, 236 f., 249. Rex sacrorum: 59, 60. Rhodes, Rhodians, receive permission to worship Ptolemy I: 29; Roman contact with: 50. Tiberius' retire­ ment to: 197. Roma, goddess; Flamininus honored with: 36; temples and festivals in Asia; 36 f., 40, 42; as sharer in monu­ ment offered to Cicero: 38; shares in temples to Octavian: 146; shares with Divus Julius: 148, 207; on Ara Pacis: 197, 198; in relation to Augustus: 206, 208; in the West: 213; on Gemma Augustea: 227. Romaia Sebasta, at Pcrgamu m: 147,215. Rome, Romans, contact with East: 35-41; in the West: 41; traditions of kings in: 42 ff., 58; triumph: 45; honors for distinguished men: 46 ff.; cult of dead: 49 f.; household wor­ ship: 50; change in population: 50 f.; state religion in: 51; eastern be­ liefs in: 51; philosophies in: 51 f.; ideas of immortality in: 52 f.; political decay in: 54 f.; homage for preeminent men in: 56 f.; distinction made between citizens and natives in worship of Octavian: 148. Rome, New, as name of Alexandria: 127. Romulus: 42 f., 46, 66,95,158 f., 164 f., 191, 198, 229 f., 233, 235, 243 f. Rosetta stone: 30. Rostra: 80, 93, 95. Roxane: 19. Sacerdos Augusti: 217, 223. Sacrifices, to Cyrus: 3, 249; to Alex­ ander: 25; for Caesar's safety: 67; people demand that magistrates sacrifice to Caesar at the altar: 84, 242; to Octavian in the first eclogue: 111; on birthday of Augustus at Mytilene: 168; to Genius of Augus­ tus: 151, 186, 192 f., 213, 223, 246; of sow: 188 f., 198; to the gods for Augustus: 181; on altar at Pompeii: 217; at tomb of Gaius and Lucius: 224; in name of Genius of Tiberius: 239 f.; to genius of emperor: 241. Saeculum: 114, 178. Salacia: 283. Salii, hymn of: 151, 236. Salus: 199, Augusta: 221, 245. Samaria Sebaste: 171. Samos: 138, 276. Samothrace: 29. Sarapis: 22, 51, 105, 126.

INDEX Sard is: 27(i. Sjiss:ini:in period: 253. Sal urn: 170. Saviours: 8 IT., 12, 25, 2S, 55, 00; (Flavian as: 14'); in Eclogue 4: 170. Scepsis: 28. Scipio, the Elder: 41, 53, 55, 77, 233, 243; the Younger: 53. Scribonia: 123. Scbastc, as name of city: 213; as name of day: 205. Sebastos, as title: 1G8. Seleucids: 2G, 31, 128. Seleucus I: 29, 30, 261, 264. Self-deification: 11, 13, 21, 29, 76 f. Senate, Roman: 35, 64, 67, 68, 70, 94, 105, 150. Scptuagint: 114. Serpent as father of Alexander: 14, 15, cf. 119. Servilius, P. Servilius Isauricus: 37,38. Servius, the commentator: 175. Sestus: 270. Scti I: 62. Scinri Augustalcs: 219 ff.; equitum: 202; equitum Romanorum: 220; iuniorcs: 220; seniores: 220. Scxtilis: 160, 194. Shakespeare: 80, 109 f. Sibylline Books: 44, 47«, 154; oracle: 72, 98, 113, 116, 177. Sicily: 35, 117, 181,277. Sicyon: 28, 34. Sinope: 272. Smyrna: 37, 27G. Socnopacum: 270. Socrates: 10. Sodales Augustalcs: 230. Sodales Titii: 47, 230. Sol: 45, 91, 177, 180, 187. Soter: 42. Spain, Spanish: 41, 56, 60, 167, 174, 211, 212, 231, 236, 239. Sparta: 21 f., 271; kings of: 11, 15. Spontaneous honors: 11, 29, 75, 111; ch. viTi passi7n:

234 f.

Star, Julian, v. Comet. Star on statues of Caesar: 92, 158, 242. Statues, refused by Cicero: 39; of Marius Gratidianus in the vici: 48; of Caesar: 67, 71, 73, 74; of Octa­ vian: 133; to Octavia and Livia: 135; to Antony and Cleopatra, as New Dionysus and New Isis: 138; ot Apollo with features of Octavian: 154; of Divus Julius in the Pan­ theon : 167; of Augustus and Agrippa in the Pantheon: 107; of Augustus of Prima Porta: 179, 227.

Sloics: 52, 53. Si nil MI : 250. Kwelonim.: 102. 232 f. Successors of Alexander: 25, 28 IT., 214. Sulla: 30, 57, 107. Sulmo: 279. Sun, disc of: 5, 254; king mingles with: 4, 25. Sun god: 2, 5, 25; and Augustus: 233. Susa: 19. Syracuse: 9, 35, 42. Syria: 20, 33, 36, 40, 105, 111, 124, 128, 273. Syrian kings: 41. Syro:112. Tacitus: 211, 217, 229, 236, 239, 241. Tarentum: 124, 153. Tarquins: 44, 45. Tarpeia: 46. Tarpeian rock: 88. Tarraco: 211, 213, 231, 236. Temples, for Roman generals: 3.7; of Appius Claudius: 39; of Venus Gcnctrix: 63; of Caesar and his Clementia: 68, 96; of Divus Julius: 96 f., 130; of Apollo on the Palatine: 132 f., 153, 177, 1K4; of Antony dedi­ cated to Octavian: 144; of Octavian and Roma built by leagues of Asia and Bithynia: 146; of Roma and Divus Julius: 148; Roman, restored by Octavian: 153; of Divus Julius in the Forum: 153 f.; of Caesar: 175; of Vesta on the Palatine: 184, 195; of Mars Ultor in Forum of Augustus: 200 ff., 214, 224, 230; of Gaius and Lucius in Acerrae: 219, 224; in Nemausus: 219; of Tiberius, Livia, and the Roman Senate in Asia: 239; of Tiberius in Further Spain: 239; of Claudius in Britain: 240. Temples of Augustus at Mytilenc: 168; in Caesarea and Samaria: 171; at Philac: 205; in Asia: 206 f., 239; at Tarraco; 211 f.; of Zeus: 213; in Italy: 214 f.; to Roma and Augustus at Pola: 215; at Pisac: 215; at Cuniac: 215; at Tcrracina: 216; at Pompeii: 216 ff.; centre of cult of Genius: 223; of Concordia: 225; of Divus Augustus: 230; in the West: 231. Teos: 21. Tcrmessus: 272. Terra Mater: 177 f., 180, 189, 197 f „ 221, 227. Tcrracina: 210, 277. Thainugadi: 283.

290

T H E DIVINITY OF TJIE ROMAN EMPEROR

Thasos: 11, 270. Thebes: G2. Thcnristocles: 252. Theocritus: 114. Theopompus: 251, 252, 253, 258. Thcra: 10, 271. Thermae: 274. Thespiac: 207, 271. Thirteenth god: 13. Thrace: 233, 270. Thunderbolt: 12, 17, 30, 70, 71. Thutmosc III: 4. Tiberius, on altar of the Belvedere ( ? ) : 187; marries Julia: 19G; goes to Rhodes: 197; adopted by Augustus: 225; triumph of: 22G f.; dedicates altar of Numen Augusti: 227; de­ livers Augustus' funeral oration: 228; secures consecration of Augus­ tus: 230 fT.; Tacitus' criticism of: 230; attitude toward divine honors: 239 f. Timolcon: 9 f., 18. Titus Tatius: 4G, 230. Tlos: 272. Toast, of Alexander: 20, 21, 2G1 fT.; of agathos daimon: 258, 260 ff.; of Hellenistic kings: 246; of Octavian: 151. 24G, 2G4. Tomb, of Cyrus: 4, 249 ff., 253; of Alexander: 26, of Philopocmcn: 34; of Romulus: 42, 46; of prominent Romans inside the pomerium: 46; of Caesar: 81 ; of Gaius and Lucius: 224; of Persian kings: 249, of Darius I: 250. Translation to Heaven: 43, 46, 112, 243. Tribes named for Demetrius and Antigonus: 28; for Attalus: 34; for Caesar: 67; for Octavian: 151. Tribunicia potestas: 134,167; conferred on Agrippa: 173; on Tiberius: 196. Trimalchio: 182, 217. Triumph: 45; and deification: 57; of Caesar: 63; of Antony in Alexan­ dria: 126; of Octavian: 153, Augus­ tus' refusal of: 172; incense carried in: 196; Agrippa's refusal of: 196 ; of generals: 201; of Tiberius: 226. Triumphal garb conferred on Pompey for circus games: 57; permanent use for Caesar: 72; for Octavian and Antony: 118. Troad:14. Trojan, Troy: 118, 164, 183; v. Ilium. Tucca: 174. Tyeho: 9, 32, 200. Tyre: II. 6

Ubii: 210. 213. Urgavo: 282. Varius: 174. Varro: 114. Varus, P. Quintilius: 210, 226. Vediovis: 118. VediiiH Pollio: 1G9. Veii: 45, 279. Vellcius Patcrculus: 101. Vcntidius: 121. Venus: 92, 98, 153, 1G2, 167, 178, 194, 202; Felix: 57; Gcnetrix: G3, 74, 80, 153, 181, 221, 227; mother of the Julii: 58 f., Gl, G3, 153, 201; Victrix: 02. Vergil, and lulus: 59; early poems of: 101; Eclogues of, first: 111; fifth: 112; ninth: 112; fourth: 112 ff., 123, 176; Georgics of: 134, 149 f.; Apollo in Aeneid of: 139, 155; attitude toward deification of Augustus: 149 f., 157, 164, 165, 174 ff., 235; death of: 174; Aeneid of: 174 ff. Verona: 216, 280. Vcrrcs: 35, 42. Vespasian: 211, 212, 241. Vesta: GO. Vestal virgins: 4G, 60. Veterans of Caesar: 78 ff., 83, 97. Vici, honor Marius Gratidianus: 48; worship of Lares and Genius in; 185, 186, 217, 218. Victoria: 66, 145, 181; altar in the Curia: 153, on altar of the Belve­ dere: 187, 161; games at Iguvium: 218; Augusta: 221, 245; on Gemma Augustea: 227. Vienna: 282. Vipsania: 196. Virtus, temple with Honos: 172. Vultures appear to Octavian: 95, 159, 234. Vishtaspa: 253. Wolf, Capitolinc: 43. Worship of the dead: 7; at Rome: 46 f., 49; in Greece: 250.

33

Xcnophon: 248, 254. Yasna: 253. Zeus: 12, 70; son of: 12, 21 f., 27, 2G6; Ptolemy I identified with: 30; Seleucus I as Zeus Nicator: 30; Elcuthcrios: 143; oath by: 206; templo of: 213; in Euhomcrus: 237; SlratioH: 219. ZoroiiMter: 253.