SPES IN THE EARLY IMPERIAL CULT: "THE HOPE OF "

MARK EDWARD CLARK

The worship of personified virtues and abstractions was an essen- tial part of the Roman imperial cult. To the Romans virtues, such as , , and , were numinous forces in the world (numina) and specific attributes of leaders (virtutes, utilitates, res exspectandae). Several Roman virtues have been the subject of in- dividual studies.' A desideratum in the study of classical religion, however, has been an investigation of , the Roman virtue and personification of Hope. Standard handbooks and surveys of Roman religion offer concise, but limited, descriptions of the vir- tue, while the only close examination of it has been in connection with early Christian VieWS.2 The result is that we do not have a complete description of this virtue in its own Roman context; nor do we have a study of its origin as an imperial concept and, in par- ticular, of its connection with the emperor Augustus. The Roman world found new hope in the Augustan regime. This point has been made, sometimes offhandedly, in connection with authors writing during the time of the early principate.3 The purpose here is to discuss some general aspects of the virtue Spes in Roman culture, and, more specifically, to pursue questions of its development in early imperial ideology. We shall examine the Roman idea both as numen and quality of leadership in order to see how the personification Specs evolved as a religious symbol of that new hope in the Augustan regime and how the virtue came to be closely associated with Augustus and other public figures.

1. The Roman Cult and Spes Augusta .

Spes was one of the most shadowy and elusive of the Roman vir- tues. For this reason it is best to begin with a review of the evidence for the religious cult of the personification and the appearance of the virtue in early imperial coinage. This evidence is useful in 81 establishing general ideas connected with the virtue and the direc- tion of its evolution in the early stages of the principate. It also pro- vides the most compelling arguments that Spes was regarded as a religious symbol at . The Romans recognized Spes as a religious personification early in the republic. During this period two major temples were dedicated to her. The first temple, later known as Spes vetus, "Old Hope," appeared in 477 B.C., although it is now generally ac- cepted that this temple represented a private, rather than an of- ficially recognized cult.4 In 258 B.C. A. Atilius Calatinus founded a second temple in the . From the number of ex- tant references to this building it is possible to conclude that it was the more important shrine and that it was directly connected with the public worship of Spes. Several of the historical references to it deal with its destruction in 218 and 31 B . C . ; but the evidence also indicates that on both occasions it was reconstructed and that the cult enjoyed continuing, if at times interrupted, observance from the Romans.5 This temple of Calatinus, moreover, played a major role in the imperial cult because of its close identification with the emperor. Later imperial inscriptions sometimes described it "6 specifically as the "Hope of Augustus in the Forum Holitorium. Spes fulfilled various functions in Roman and Italian life. Quite naturally the characters of Plautus address the personification as a deity who provides hope and confidence in desperate situations.7 Her popularity is also attested by the appearance of the cult outside Rome and by associations with other personifications, some of which were prominent divinities in their own right.$ Several of the deities formally connected with her are helpful establishing the ex- act social and religious significance of Spes and can be conveniently grouped together: Victory and Salvation: Plautus' reference to Spes, , in Mercator 867 implies that Hope was conceptually related to the two deities. The juxtaposition suggests that Spes represents the first step toward salvation and final victory. Some scholars have main- tained that the temple in the Forum Holitorium was originally found- ed as a fulfillment of a vow for victory over the Carthaginians and for national salvation; while the evidence here is indirect, the feast day of Spes in the pre-Julian calendar, August 1, was shared with