J THE WORSHIP OF AUGUSTUS C^SAR DERIVED FROM A STUDY OF COINS, MONUMENTS, CALENDARS, ^RAS AND ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROLOGICAL CYCLES, THE WHOLE ESTABLISHING A NEW CHRONOLOGY AND SURVEY OF HISTORY AND RELIGION BY ALEXANDER DEL MAR \ NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA CO. 62 Reade Street 1900 (All rights reserrecf) \ \ \ COPYRIGHT BY ALEX. DEL MAR 1899. THE WORSHIP OF AUGUSTUS CAESAR. CHAPTERS. PAGE. Prologue, Preface, ........ Vll. Bibliography, ....... xi. I. —The Cycle of the Eclipses, I — II. The Ancient Year of Ten Months, . 6 III. —The Ludi S^eculares and Olympiads, 17 IV. —Astrology of the Divine Year, 39 V. —The Jovian Cycle and Worship, 43 VI. —Various Years of the Incarnation, 51 VII.—^RAS, 62 — VIII. Cycles, ...... 237 IX. —Chronological Problems and Solutions, 281 X. —Manetho's False Chronology, 287 — XI. Forgeries in Stone, .... 295 — XII. The Roman Messiah, .... 302 Index, ........ 335 Corrigenda, ....... 347 PROLOGUE. THE ABYSS OF MISERY AND DEPRAVITY FROM WHICH CHRISTIANITY REDEEMED THE ROMAN EMPIRE CAN NEVER BE FULLY UNDERSTOOD WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE OF THE IMPIOUS WoA^P OF EM- PERORS TO WHICH EUROPE ONCE BOWED ITS CREDULOUS AND TERRIFIED HEAD. WHEN THIS OMITTED CHAPTER IS RESTORED TO THE HISTORY OF ROME, CHRISTIANITY WILL SPRING A LIFE FOR INTO NEW AND MORE VIGOROUS ; THEN ONLY WILL IT BE PERCEIVED HOW DEEP AND INERADICABLY ITS ROOTS ARE PLANTED, HOW LOFTY ARE ITS BRANCHES AND HOW DEATH- LESS ARE ITS AIMS. PREFACE. collection of data contained in this work was originally in- " THEtended as a guide to the author's studies of Monetary Sys- tems." It was therefore undertaken with the sole object of estab- lishing with precision the dates of ancient history. It soon appeared that many of the dates were astrological. They were grafted upon the Ecliptical Cycle and the imaginary incarnations of the Sun. Such is the case with both the Indian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Greek and Hebrew dates of remote antiquity. Even the epochs used by the astronomers, which were in India equal to B. C. 3102, in Baby- lon B. C. 747 and in Greece B. C. 884, form no exception to this rule. They are all astrological. This discovery entirely changed the author's plans. Hitherto the work had been designed merely as an accessory to other studies: it now assumed an interest and importance of its own. The employ- ment of the Ecliptical Cycle for computing the lapse of time fur- nished a key to the history and progress of ancient astronomy, which it was hoped might unlock at least one door to the remote past. It proved to be capable of unlocking many. Meanwhile the author's attention was drawn to researches of a more practical nature. He brought the statistical method to bear upon a comparison of dates from ancient sources, of which he now made a more extensive collec- tion. The result was the disclosure that the Roman chronology had been altered, first, to the extent of 78 years (sunk) by Augustus, and afterwards to the extent of 15 years (restored) by the Latin Sacred College. It was also perceived that Augustus had changed the Olym- piads from five-year to four-year intervals, and had thus altered many Greek and other dates to the extent of 108 years. He next found that the number of civil months in the year, and therefore also the number of days in the months and weeks, were al- tered. The year had been anciently divided into ten months, each of 36 days, and the months into weeks of nine days. Such was the case, not only in Rome, but also in the other states of the ancient world. In Rome, the alteration was made by the Decemvirs; in the via PREFACE. Other states it had been made previously. Everywhere it had marked a revolution in government and religion. It was at this point that the author resolved to devote himself to the serious task of tracing the alterations of the calendar and collect- ing such materials as might enable others to reconstruct the shat- tered edifice of ancient history. What he saw about him was nothing but ruins, but beneath those ruins there were evidently building mate- rials, many of which have since been brought to light The subject that next engaged his attention was the Jovian cycle and worship, which could not be confidently traced backward in the Occident further than the nth or 12th century before our aera, nor in the Orient further backward than the 15th century. It followed that the duodecimal and sexagessimal cycles and institutes which hadbeen drawn from the orbital period of this planet, were not nearly so old as had been pretended. A like examination of the progress of discovery concerning the moon's node and the precession of the equinoxes yielded analogous results : both were known very anciently, but not nearly so anciently as had been assumed. Strengthened by these astronomical aids to research, the entire series of chronological data were now recast, condensing them as much as seemed consistent with exhibiting their significance and mu- tual relations, and afterwards arranging the principal ones in clusters, with the view to discover their origin and bearing. The result was the conviction that the basis of all ancient dates is to be found in the religions of the Orient; and that these religions lie at the foundation of all the religions of the Occident. In a word, that religion was never a special creation, but on the contrary, has been the product of Evolution; an evolution which, beginning in India, still goes on and will go on forever. The worship of Augustus has been admitted by so many eminent crit- ics that there can be no longer any doubt about the fact. Its religious significance lies in the inferences that are to be drawn from it. With these, the author has no present concern. His object has been not to make theological deductions, but to recognize an Historical Truth, whose admission must, in his belief, precede all attempts to compile a satisfactory account of the Roman Empire, or of the Middle Ages. It will be shown upon ample evidences that after the submission of the Oriental provinces and consolidation of the empire, Augustus Caesar set himself up for that Son of God whose advent, according to Indian chronology, synchronised with the reappearance of the Oriental Messiah; the date being A. U. 691 (B. C. 6^) the alleged PREFACE. IX year of Augustus' birth; that this claim and assumption appears in the literature of his age, was engraved upon his monuments and stamped upon his coins; that it was universally admitted and ac- cepted throughout the Roman empire as valid and legitimate, both according to Indian and Roman chronology, astrology, prophesy and tradition; that his actual worship as such Son of God— DivusFilius— was enjoined and enforced by the laws of the empire, accepted by the and the and that both priesthood practised by people ; de jure and de facto it constituted the fundamental article of the Roman imperial and ecclesiastical Constitution. Unless these evidences and conclusions are overthrown it will fol- low that an entirely new view of the empire, its history, its laws and its institutes, including the important one of feudalism, will demand the consideration of historians and students. Hitherto the worship of Augustus has been kept in the background of Roman antiquities. It must now either be explained away, or accorded a more prominent position in the history and constitution of that great empire from whose womb has issued all the states of the modern world. V BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following list of books is to be read in connection with the lists pub- lished in the author''s previous works. The numbers at the end of each title are the press marks of the British Museum library. Abbay (Richard). Restoration of the Ancient System of Tank Irrigation in Ceylon. " " Printed in the London Nature of Oct. ii, 1877. Abu Mashar {See Albumazar). AcHERY (Luke D'). Spicilegium; sivo collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum qui inGal- liae biblothesis delituerant. Paris, 1723, 3 torn. fol. 10. e. 1-3, Adam of Bremen. Historia Ecclesiastica ejusdem auctaris libellus de situ Danias, 1706, fol. 158. h. 14. Adams (Alexander), Rev. Roman Antiquities, i8th ed., Edinburgh, 1854, Bvo. (This popular work was originally published in 1791, and has passed through numerous editions, both in England and America. It omiis or conceals much more than it discloses concerning the religious be- lief and ceremonies of the Romans, and must therefore be consulted with discretion.) Albiruni (Mohammad Ibn Ahmad). Chronology of Ancient Nations. Trans, by C. E. Sachau. London, 1879, 8vo. 752. 1. 24. Institutes and Customs of India in the eleventh century. Trans. by.C. E. Sachau. London, 18S8, 2 vols. 2318. h. 4. Albumazar (Jafar Ibn Muhammad, commonly known as Albumazar, Albumasar, or Albumashar). Flores Astrologie. Trans, from the Arabic by J. B. Sessa, Ven- ice, 1485, 4to. 718. f. 2. (2.) Alison (Archibald), Re-o. "Essays," political, historical and miscellaneous. London, 1850, 3 vols, 8vo. AUL^]^ (]dhn). Master of Dulwick College. Inquiry into the Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England. London, 1849, 8vo. 2238. e. i. (A short performance, whose reputation exceeds its merit. It holds that "homage" is a custom derived from " the ancient Germans; that modern sovereigns add to their titles, by the grace of God," because the Saxon hlaford was sacred to the churl; and that the king, instead of the Augustus, is the Fountain of Honour. The author has advanced no evidences to support these assertions.) Allmer (A). Les Gestes du Dieu Auguste d' apres 1' inscription du Temple d' An- cyre.