The Buildings and the Images of
the Imperial Cult
2. The birth of imperial cult under
Augustus
1. Biography
2. Apotheosis
3. The cult settlement – state, private,
provincial level
4. The images
Terminology:
Apotheosis
Divinization
Consecration – consecratio
1. BIOGRAPHY
Born: Gaius Octavius, Rome, September 23rd , 63 BC
Parents: Gaius Octavius and Atia (Julius Ceasar’s niece)
Early training in public life
44BC – adopted by Julius Caesar
43BC – propraetor and consul
2nd triumvirate
42BC – battle at Philippi
42BC, January – divi filius
During the 30’s – protection of Apollo
31BC – Actium
28BC – the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill
27BC, January 16th – title Augustus (by Plancus)
-sacred places too, and those in which anything is consecrated by augural rites are called
"august" (augusta), from the increase (auctus) in dignity
-Augustus
23 BC – imperium
18 – 12 BC – Lex Iulia de adulteriis, Lex Iulia de
maritandis ordinibus, Lex Papia Poppaea
12BC – pontifex maximus
2BC – pater patriae
Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Died: Nola, 19th August, 14 AD
Succession – daughter Julia, 2nd marriage to
Cliepeus virtutis – for Augustus from the Senate to
acknowledge his virtus, clementia, iustitia, pietas,
Curia Iulia, originally gold, marble copy preserved
in Arles
Succession – daughter Julia, 2nd marriage to
Agrippa – two sons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, died
Forced to adopt
Apart from the title, he received:
a) the right to adorn the entrance
of his house with laurel
b) the corona civica
c) clipeus virtutis (hung in the
Curia Iulia)
2. APOTHEOSIS
The death of Augustus in Nola, August
19th, 14 AD
His public funeral at the Campus Martius,
.
His public funeral at the Campus Martius,
exact date unknown
The testimony of his apotheosis
The senate awarded divine honours to
Augustus September 17th , 14 AD
Official consecration performed by
Tiberius, Augustus became a state god
Ruling strategy:
Reputation
His genius
Ideology
Consolidating power
Expanding borders
2. THE CULT SETTLEMENT
Caesar
Augustus
Artists: free to declare anything:
Tacitus, Annals I 10.6 – a bit exaggerated, but gives a picture of his politics:
“No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with
temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamines and priests.”
Vergil, Aeneid VI 789-794
“Here Caesar [=Augustus], of Iulus’ glorious seed, look at him ascending to the world of“Here Caesar [=Augustus], of Iulus’ glorious seed, look at him ascending to the world of
light! Watch, at last, that man, whose coming so often you listened foretold, Augustus
Caesar, son of a god [=Divus Julius]. He brings a golden age, he shall restore old Satrun’s
scepte to our Latin land”.
Horace, Odes III 5. 2-3
“praesens divu habebitur Augustus”
Letters II 1, 15-17
Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores
Historians:
Suetonius
“Although well aware that it was usual to vote temples even to proconsuls, yet in no province
would he accept one save jointly in his own name and that of Rome, and in the city itself he
refused this honour most emphatically.”
Suetonius, Dio and other historians – ignored private cults
Continuous measures – to secure the position of the emperor:
1. Roman magistrates1. Roman magistrates
2. The emperor - the triumph
3. The title imperator
4. 11 AD – banned honours for governors
Different levels of the cult:
State cult level
Municipal cults
Provincial cults
Private cults
STATE CULT
his genius
function pontifex maximus in 12 BC
his household cult public – worship of his Lares and his Genius
public.
Arguments against:
Literary sources
a) Ovidius:
b) Calendar from Praeneste
c) Birthday
“F(eriae) ex s(enatus) c(onsulto), q(uod) e(o) d(ie) Imp(erator) Caesar Aug(ustus) pont(ifex)
ma[x(imus)] natus est: Marti, Neptuno in Campo, Apo[l]lini ad theatrium Marcelli”
d) Sacrifices
PRIVATE CULT
7 BC – Augustus reorganized the administrative system of the city of Rome
- 14 regiones and 265 vici
Augustus intention
- strongly involved in the reform
Vicus
worshipped: Lares
run by: magistri of the vicus plus four ministri
public events: the festival of Compitalia
Magistri vici
Augustus reform – new function
Cults were financed by magistri - make the positionCults were financed by magistri - make the position
attractive
After the reform:
- two lares compitales turned to Lares Augusti and Genius Augusti enetered the worship
Sacrifice:
Lares
genius
Genius Augusti
- compital cults cannot be termed state cults
- Sacra publica
- Augustus stays conservative also in the compital cults
Inscribed relief-decorated altars
1. 7 BC – Augustan compital altar
2. 2-3 AD Augustan compital altar
3. The Sorrento base, late Augustan, after 12 BC
- Reference: the state religion, divine ancestors of the Julian family and Augustus’ personal
protector - Apollo
The seated figure holding cornucopia
Result: these two Genius populi Romani and Genius
Augusti started being mixed up, indistinguishable
without an inscription
- Continuity in iconography
- Other preparatory step – Genius received a bull
Lararia in Pompeii
Lares
The basic meaning of the imperial cult in the
private sphere
PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL LEVEL
Municipal cults
Provincial cults
Epigraphic documentation
1. Daily text on papyrus from Oxyrhynchus
Poxy 12, 1245
The text is an old document, brought to light as waste paper, bearing an oath
“in the name of Caesar [=Augustus], son of a god”.
2. Official epigraphic document
a decree issued in 9 BC by Paullus Fabius Maximus, proconsul of Province Asia
found at Priene
OGIS [Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae] 458
a) Augustus’ birth is a sign of divine providence
b) Augustus is the saviour of humanity
c) As the day of Augustus’ birth marked for the world the beginning of the benefits
The temples of the veneratio Augusti:
- 56 dedicated to the first emperor Augustus
- of them, 37 were built during his lifetime
- in Italy – 16, 7 surely built in his lifetime
- in the city of Rome
- civic priests all over Italy – flamen (sacerdos)
The emperor as an object of cult had a great importance for the political cohesion of
the Empire.
The Temple of Augustus and Livia (Temple d'Auguste et de Livie), Roman temple, Vienne, France
20 BC – 10 BC, restored in the 1st c. AD, rededicated to Livia by Claudius
The Temple of Augustus, Pula, Croatia
Built: between 2 BC and his death in 14 AD
- dedication:
ROMAE · ET · AUGUSTO · CAESARI · DIVI · F ·
PATRI · PATRIAE
Roma and Augustus Caesar, son of the deity,
father of the fatherland
4. THE IMAGES
Used art in the service of his political and social ideology
The emperor and his family
Four themes in augustan art and architecture
To tell such a complex course, Augustus chose two different communication strategies:
Visual language:
e.g.:
The Forum of Augustus
Ara Pacis
The Belvedere Altar
Textual language:
Res gestae
The Belvedere Altar
Gemma Augustea
Portraits
Always youthful
a) Arles type
b) The Actium type
c) The Primaporta type
d) The Forbes type
THE BELVEDERE ALTAR
Summarizes Augustus’ political ideology, social laws and
religious beliefs
- the assimilation of divine and human households
GEMMA
AUGUSTEA
Two-layer
sardonyx: white
the upper, brown
the lower.
Wien, KHM,
Antikensammlung,
Inv. No. IXa 79.Inv. No. IXa 79.
Subject: Augustus
receives Tiberius
and Germanicus
after the victory
upon Pannonia and
Dalmatia.
AD 9/10-12.
Gemma Augustea
backside
6 AD – Tiberius led war against uprised Pannonians, which ended with the participation of
Germanicus in 9 AD. Reditus is depicted – victorious return.
1 – missing togatus, 2 – Tiberius, 3 – Victory, 4 – biga, 5 – horse, 6 – Germanicus, 7- goddess
Roma, 8 – astrological device, 9 – Augustus as Jupiter, 10 – eagle, 11 – Oikoumene, 12 –
Saturnus, 13 – Tellus, 14 and 15 - children
A scene of victory – the erection of a trophy
16 – a shield with a scorpion, 17 – Romulus=Quirinus, 18 – horseman, 19 – sitting barbarian
woman, 20 – chained barbarian, 21 – Mars, 22 and 23 Castor and Polux, 24 - Diana, 25 –
Mercury, 26 – kneeling barbarian, 27 – barbarian woman
Augustus and the imperial cult
State cult
- avoided direct deification
- became god after death
Private cult
- no restrictions
- reorganized the administrative
system – vicus
- relief decorated altars
- Genius
- integration of all citizens of
the Roman empire – shared the
same identity
Municipal and Provincial cult
-insisted Roma was worshipped
with him
- political cohesion of the Empire
- Vienne, Pula
Communication strategies
Visual language – The Forum of Augustus, Ara Pacis,
the Belvedere Altar, Gemma Augustea
Textual language – Res Gestae