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Home , Aequitas, Annona (mythology), Fides (deity)

IX. VAE PUTO DEUS FlO·

Suetonius records that, as lay on his death-bed, his dying words were" Vae puto deus fio" (Vespas. 23, 4). If we take it that Vespasian could hardly have believed he was literally destined for divinity, I it is an open ques• tion what exactly he intended by this remark. As a general rule, scholars have assumed that he was jeering at deification: one reads, for example, that "historically, we do not associate his with the (emperor) cult. He himself laughed at apotheosis." 2 But is such an interpretation acceptable in view of what we now know of religious policy in the first decade of the Flavian regime? After the year of revolution Vespasian had restored peace and order to the empire: coins of A.D. 70-73 (?) appropriately show Dea resurgent, kneeling before the emperor. l Politically and psychologically it would have been inept for a parvenu of low birth to play openly the second , but there was everything to be said for a studied return to Augustan practice, par• ticularly in the crucial area of the ruler cult.· Where had courted divine honours,5 therefore, the new emperor founded and restored temples and stressed the cult of closely associated with the ruler. In par• ticular the coinage of Vespasian stresses abstractions that both recall and overtake the programme of Augustus: , , , , , , , , Providentia, , , , , , 6-above all , to whom he built a richly-

• Classical Quarterly 15 (1965), 155-157 (revised). I Aspirations to divinity would have been quite out of keeping with Vespasian's character and mentality. Certainly Suetonius thought he was joking; cf. Vespas. 12, 23, 4. , A. L. Abaecherli, "The Dating of the Lex Narbonensis," TAPA 63 (1932), 256-268 at 262. , H. Cohen, Description historique des Monnaiesjrappees sous I'Empire romain', Paris, 1880 (1955), I, p. 400, nos. 424-427; H. Mattingly, B.M.C. R.Emp, 2, xlvi, nos. 565, 620, cf. pp. 194, 202; Weinstock, DJ 46, n. 6 with refs. • S. Giet, L 'Apocalypse et I'Histoire, Paris, 1957, 113-134. See now J. Isager, "Vespasiano e Augusto," in K. Ascani et al. (edd.) Studia Romana in honorem P. Krarup septuagenarii, Odense, 1976,64-71; J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Continuity and Change in Roman Religion, Ox• ford, 1979, 166, n. 5. , Cerfaux-Tondriau 350-353. For an analysis of official ideology as reflected in the literature of the Neronian period see M. L. Paladini, "L'aspetto dell' imperatore-dio presso i Romani," Contributi dell' Istituto di Filologia Classica, sezione di Storia Antica (Pubblicazioni dell' Univer• sita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) 1 (1963), 37-50. 6 See Mattingly (above, note 3) xxxi-lxix; D. Mannsperger, "ROM ET AUG. Die Sebstdarstellung des Kaisertums in der rOmischen Reichspriigung," ANRW2, 1(1974) 919-996 at 963-970; G. G. Belloni, "Significati storico-politici delle figurazioni e delle scritte delle monete da Augusto a Traiano," ibid. 1060-1066; J. R. Fears, "The Cult of and Roman Imperial Ideology", ANRW2, 17,2 (1981) 827-948 at 899-901. 296 BOOK I

adorned temple in the Forum of Vespasian following victory over the Jews; 7

Victoria, now surely the comes and personal Victory of Vespasian himself; 8 and , who had elevated him to the purple by a dazzling stroke of good fortune. All this was high policy born of insight, for by force of circumstances the first of the Flavians could never claim to be descended, like Caesar, from a , or that his title was founded upon filial relationship to the deified Augustus. 9 Considerations of that nature look the best explanation of one step which was quite inconsistent with Augustan practice, the attribution to the emperor on the dupondius of the radiate crown. '0 This form of decoration had been restricted to deified members of the imperial house until adopted by Nero" and its appearance on coins, particularly at the beginning of his reign,'2 may well reflect Vespasian's concern for the legitimation of his own position.'3 In the same way it seems clear from Suetonius (Vespas. 7) and Tacitus (Hist. 4, 81) that reports of Vespasian's miracles at Alexandria were known and commented on in Roman circles, where they made capital pro• paganda on behalf of the new regime-in effect conferring the auctoritas and maiestas which the new emperor conspicuously lacked as a man of obscure, municipal family." Whatever the impression his miraculous cures may have made, Vespasian himself seems to have been convinced of the favour of the Egyptian and his own exceptional destiny. As for official state cult, it was important for an upstart dynasty to stress the notion of continuity by maintaining the existing pattern of state-religious practice. Of particular interest in this respect is Vespasian's rebuilding of the temple of Divus on the Mons Caelius; 's as the temple had been

7 K. Scott, The Imperial Cult under the Flavians, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1936, 25-2S . The temple was dedicated in 75 A.D. • Scott, o.c. 2S-31, accepts Gages interpretation that Augusti is the Victory of Oct a• vian (now Divus Augustus), which the new dynasty simply adopted, thus laying claim to the vic• torious power that governed the empire. For discussion of this view and bibliography see "Augustan Blessings and Virtues," below, Vol. II. , Scott, o.c. 1 f.

I. Mattingly (above, note 3) xviii; Ph. Lederer, "Beitrage zur romischen Miinzkunde IV: Uber eine Judaea-Miinze," Zeitschr. fur Numis. 40 (1930), 42-59 at 51.

II See J. R. Fears, Princeps a diis electus: The Divine Election of the Emperor as a Political Concept at Rome (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 26), Rome, 1977, 236 cf. 235, 326-32S; cf. id., "The Solar Monarchy of Nero ... " Historia 25 (1976), 494-6. 12 Giet (above, note 4) 119 f. " On a issued in A.D. 73 Vespasian claims to be adsertor libertatis publicae. This seems to imply a claim that Vespa sian had a legal right to restore freedom to Rome and may be viewed as likewise stressing the legitimacy of the power he now exercised; cf. A. Watson, "Vespa• sian: Adsertor Libertatis Publicae," CQ 23 (1973), 127 f. " See the analysis of A. Henrichs, "Vespasian's Visit to Alexandria," ZPE 3 (196S), 51-SO; further K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves, Cambridge, 1975, 231 f.; Liebeschuetz (above, note 4) ISO f. " Similarly restored the temple of Divus Augustus on the Palatine; M. Hammond, The Antonine Monarchy (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 19), Rome, 1959, 206 .