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Home , Genius (mythology), Sextilis

VIII. AND THE WEST

The fact that the statue, though strongly associating the emperor with , was nevertheless in the library-that is, in a securely secular context­ may weIl reflect the new tone of moderation which is increasingly apparent in the overall policy of Octavian. By the victory of Actium, 2nd 31 B.C., he had succeeded to Caesar's position as master of the Roman world. But with his sound grasp of political realities the new ruler saw that it would be necessary to find an accommodation with the forces that had been in op­ position to Caesar and longed for the old Republic. Though he might follow up some of Caesar's ideas, as Weinstock's study has shown, Octavian would have to set hirnself at a distance from Caesar, a political dictate that more than any religious consideration could explain why Caesar was not the first of the divi.' Yet it was just as essential for Octavian as it had been for Caesar that an appropriate religious basis should be found for the position he had won by conquest. The practice of the contemporary world required that the attach­ ment of the subject to the ruler should be grounded in a cult; ' it was for this reason that Caesar had consented to personal sacralization. But, though wor­ ship in one form or another was a political necessity,' a formal state cult such as had been accorded Hellenistic rulers would have looked monarchical and invited disaster. For one who claimed to defend Roman tradition and wanted, so he professed, to be merely princepsin a restored Republic it was out of the question to turn openly in that direction. Whatever religious honours he could allow would have to be consistent with the constitutional settlement of 28/27 B.C. and, if at all possible, in line with the observances of the Republic. The result was the adoption of a policy in Rome, differently devised for dif­ ferent sections of the society, which prohibited the direct worship of himself" while leaving room for wide-ranging honours that to all appearances put the

I Habicht , "Augusteische Zeit" (above, Intr. III; note 7) 53 f. The festivals of Caesar never- theless remained in the calendar : Herz, " Kaiserfeste" (above, Intr. III; note 31) 1150. 2 Alföldi, Lorbeerbäume (above, Intr . V; note 46) 44. o Liebeschuetz, Cont inuity (above, Intr . 11 ; note 3) 67 f., 76. • Dio records that Augustus would not even allow astatue of himself to be set up by Agrippa in a building he intended to name after the emperor (the later Pantheon). Instead the statue was placed in the pronaos alongside one of Agrippa-clear definition of the emperor's status as a man-while in the temple was placed astatue of Divus Iulius along with statues of and (53, 27, 2 f.). Augustus thus refused in Rome the honour he appears to have earlier ac­ cepted in the temples of Italian municipalities. See "Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus" above, p. 78. The same outlook lies behind Augustus' action in melting down eighty silver statues that had been set up to himself in Rome: RG 24, 2; Suet., Aug. 52. The objection here was to the precious metal which could have been conceived as a divine honour; see further "Liturgy and Ceremonial" below, Vol. II. 84 INTRODUCTION

Roman emperor on a par with Hellenistic monarchs. In the first place Octa­ vian found it expedient to accept a long list of isotheoi timai, some of which had already been bestowed upon Caesar:' state festivals celebrating his natalis, the major events of his career, his victories and his various adventus on returning to Rome from abroad;" special respect too for his Julian patronymic,' a form of honour that culminated in the name Augustus granted by the senate on 16th January, 27 B.C .8 To apply the name to the of Sextilis was a shrewd stroke since it was on 1st that Octavian had triumphed at Alexandria." Already in 30 B.C. the senate had decreed that of­ ferings of wine should be poured to his genius at all banquets public and private (CD 15, 19, 7), 10 a provision with which the Genius Augusti began its intrusion into private cult. 11But the major innovation came in 7 B.C . In reviv­ ing the cult of the Compitales, which had fallen into neglect under the

, Weinstock, DJ passim .

6 Weinstock, DJ209 f.; Herz, "Kaiserfeste" 1147-1150. For the birthday of Augustus as a new natalis of temples see P . Gros , Aurea Templa (BEFAR), Paris, 1976, 32 f.

1 For Dio's mention of the Julian tribe (29 B.C.) and the Julian Saepta on the Campus (26 B.C .) see Weinstock, DJ 158-162. The inclusion of Octavian's name in the Carmen Saliare is mentioned by Augustus in RG 10, land specifically noted by Dio as isotheos (51,20, I) . For a more moderate view see A. D. Nock , Gnomon 8 (1932),516; further M. Le Glay, "Le culte de

Rome et de ä Pergame" in Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens (Festschrift Kar! Dörner), Leiden , 1978,554, n. 41. • The word was of religious import and suggested divine characteristics without specifically calling hirn divine . For discussion see L. R. Taylor, "Livy and the Name Augustus", CR 32 (1918), 158-161; eadem, Divinity 158-160; P . A. Brunt and J . M. Moore, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Oxford, 1970,77 f. ; Fears , Princeps (above, Intr. II; note 25) 119, n. 57 with bibl. ; id., " The Cult of and Roman Imperial Ideology ", ANR W2, 17, I (1981) 3-141 at 57, n. 262; add F. Müller, "Augustus" , Meded. Koninkl. Acad. Wetenschap ., Afdel. Letterk. A 11 (1927) 245-347. Note that the word is translated into Greek by atßGlO"to" a title rat her than a name . For the date of the senate's decree see Degrassi, lnscrlt. 13, 2, p. 400. , Weinstock, DJ 155-158, noting that apart from Ist August, the festival of , the month was notable for its many connections with Caesar. For Victoria see " et Augustus" below , pp . 113-118. For the re-naming of the mouth Sextilis in 8 rather than 27 B.C . see A.B. Bosworth, "Augustus and August: Some Pitfalls of Historical Fiction", HSCP 86 (1982), 151-170 at 164-166. 10 The libation seems to have been obligatory to all classes and must in effect have fostered loyalt y at every level of society. For discussion see Alföldi, Lorbeerbäume (above, Intr, V; note 46) 8, no . 30 with bibl ., 24 f., 56; cf. Gnomon 47 (1975), 166 f. ; Liebeschuetz, Cont inuity (above, Intr. II; note 3) 68 f. Dio states tha t the libation was poured to Octavian hirnself, but this has generally been taken to mean an offering to the emperor's genius; see further "Genius and ", note 2, Vol. 11.For the vessels from which libations were poured see V. von Gonzenbach, " Genius Augusti-Theos Sebastos", Stockholm St. in Class. Arch. (Festschrift C . Kerenyi) 5 (1968),81-117. Despite the fact that the natalis was the day when a man's genius was honoured, there appear to have been no offerings to the emperor's genius at the public ce1ebration of his natalis: Weinstock, DJ 215. 11 For the cult traditionally paid to the genius of the paterfamilias see in general Weinstock, DJ 205; H. Kunkel, Der römische Genius, (MDAI[R) Ergänzungsheft 20), Heidelberg, 1974; D. G. Orr, "Roman Domestic Religion : The Evidence of the Household Shrines", ANRW 2, 16,2 (1978) 1557-1591, especially 1569-1575. For the cult of the Lares see Bömer-Herz, "Unter­ suchungen" (above, Intr. V, note 38) 199 (zu S. 32) with bibl.; cf. 200 (zu S. 38).