less far reaching because its influence was difficult to estimate and
analyse. It was not necessary for the psychological result that men
should actually believe in these myths; much was gained if they allowed
their thoughts to dwell on the ideas presented in them. It was the
sedimentary deposit thus formed which was to fertilise the soil of
patriotism which had grown so barren in the civil wars. But while
Augustus was broad-minded enough to realise the value of the influence
of literature, he did not fail to recognise that men could not live by
myths alone, that they must be surrounded by visible cult acts and
tangible temples of the gods in order that their faith might be aided by
sight and their life filled with action. Literature was to encourage
patriotism, and patriotism was the foundation for the spiritual
restoration of the state religion, but the state itself must by legal
enactment prepare the outward form which the religious activity was to
take. The question of the sincerity of Augustus in these religious
reforms is a very difficult one to answer. If the essence of religion
consisted in acts and not in belief, in works and not in faith, Augustus
was a devoutly religious man. Beyond that we cannot go, for our judgment
is hampered not only by ignorance of the facts but by our inability to
free ourselves from the modern standpoint in the interpretation of the
few facts that we do know. There can be no question of the emperor's
fitness for the task so far as priestly learning went, for he was from a
very early age a member of three priesthoods: a pontiff, an augur, and
a guardian of the Sibylline books. With characteristic modesty however
he refrained from becoming Chief Pontiff until in B.C. 12 the death of
Lepidus, the discarded member of the Second Triumvirate, left the
position vacant.
One who understands the political reforms of Augustus will have no
difficulty in understanding his reorganisation of religion, for they
were both undertaken with the same general underlying principles and
along similar lines. In both cases innovations and novelties were
strenuously avoided, except of course those of a merely administrative
character. In each case a successful effort was made to have it appear
as if the old institutions of the republic were being reinstated,
whereas as a matter of fact the form alone was old with its age
artificially emphasised occasionally by an archaistic touch, while the
content was quite new. The real result in each case was the
strengthening of the monarchy and the emphasising of the divine right of
the Julian house. In our study of Augustus's restoration of religion we
must not be content therefore with chronicling the old forms which were
re-established, but we must examine in each case the new content which
was put into them, even though the evidence of that content consists
oftentimes of a mere tendency. The fondness of Augustus for the archaic
is nowhere more clearly exhibited than in one of his earliest religious
acts: the formal declaration of war against Antony and Cleopatra, in
B.C. 32, by means of the Fetiales. The Fetiales were a very ancient
priestly college which acted, under the direction of the Senate, as the
representatives of international law. It was through them that all
treaties and all declarations of war had been made, but it seems
probable that this custom had fallen into desuetude after the Punic
wars, and that accordingly the college had lapsed into insignificance,
if it had not died out altogether. But now as the first step in the
rebuilding of the priesthoods Octavian restored the college to its old
rank and gained also the additional advantage that the people were
impressed with the moral righteousness of their cause against Antony and
Cleopatra, and also with the fact that it was a foreign, _i.e._ an
international war, and not a civil one, in which they were about to
engage. The effect of Octavian's restoration was a lasting one, for from
this time on this priesthood was held in high honour during the whole of
the empire, and the emperors themselves were members of it.
This was a very characteristic beginning to Augustus's activity. It was
primarily the human element to which he was appealing in his religious
changes, and hence the priesthoods needed especial attention. It was not
long after the battle of Actium that he restored another very ancient
priesthood, that of the Arval brothers. This was a very old priesthood
consisting of twelve men who took part in the purification of the land,
the _Ambarvalia_, so called because the ceremony consisted of a solemn
procession around the boundaries of the fields. But as the Roman
territory grew and such a ceremony in the old fashion became impossible
and was carried out merely symbolically by sacrifices at various
boundary points, the Arval brothers lost all their importance, so that
even in these symbolic sacrifices their place was taken by the pontiffs.
Augustus however recognised in this priesthood an effectual means of
emphasising the agricultural side of Roman life, and of connecting the
imperial family with the farming population. The centre of this new
worship was the sanctuary in the sacred grove at the fifth milestone of
the Via Campana, and it is there that the wonderful discoveries have
been made of the inscriptions giving the "minutes" of the meetings of
this curious corporation, beginning with Augustus. But the pastoral side
of their worship was an insignificant matter, even in the age of
Augustus, compared with their prayers and supplications in behalf of the
imperial house, so that the records of this supposedly agricultural
priesthood form one of our best sources for the study of
emperor-worship.
Three other priesthoods, the pontiffs, the augurs, and the guardians of
the Sibylline books (_XVviri_) did not need actual restoration, for
their ability to interfere in politics had kept them alive during the
closing centuries of the republic, when political usefulness was the
surest means of surviving in the struggle for existence. But the fact
that they had been politically powerful made the control of them all the
more necessary for an emperor who wished to have in his hands all the
possibilities of political influence. It was contrary to Augustus's
policy openly to crush any of the institutions which had really been or,
what was from his standpoint very much the same thing, had been thought
to be a bulwark of republicanism. As a matter of fact however these
priesthoods had been one of the chief means of bringing the republic
into the control of one man. Hence for Augustus the problem was easy to
solve; it was only necessary to appear to honour these priesthoods by
raising their dignity still higher and by making only men of senatorial
rank eligible, and then to take the chief position in them himself and
to fill them with his own supporters. Thus the republic was apparently
saved and the empire was really strengthened.
But the priesthood to which Augustus devoted his most especial attention
was the priesthood of Vesta, the Vestal virgins. Here he was guided not
only by his desire to improve the condition of the priesthoods in
general but also by his especial interest in the cult of Vesta. The
reasons for this interest in Vesta will be explained in a moment when
we discuss the emperor's favourite cults; but a word about its effects
on the priestesses of Vesta may be said here. The Vestal virgins had
been relatively little contaminated by politics, but the priesthood had
suffered along with all the rest of the religion of the state because of
the general indifferentism and neglect of religious things which
characterised the closing centuries of the republic. The best families
in the state were not as ready as in the earlier days to devote their
daughters to the service, and thus the rank and consequently the
influence of the Vestals had to some extent declined. But now all this
was immediately changed, the outward honour and the insignia of the
Vestals were increased until they were allowed such privileges as not
even the emperors possessed. When they went through the street, they
were attended by a lictor as the higher officers of the state were, and
they were given special seats at the theatre. But the most
characteristic thing which Augustus did for them and that which helped
their cause the most was the emperor's declaration, made to be repeated
in public gossip, that if he had a grand-daughter of the proper age he
would unhesitatingly make her a Vestal virgin.
Toward the close of his life Augustus prepared a statement of what he
had accomplished during his reign, a sort of _compte rendu_ of his
stewardship. In a roundabout way almost all of this has been preserved
to us and it naturally forms the greatest source of our knowledge of
his activity. After reciting a large number of his religious reforms he
adds:--"The spoils of war I have consecrated to the gods in the
Capitoline temple, in the temple of the god Julius, in the temple of
Apollo, in the temple of Vesta, in the temple of Mars the Avenger."
These words give us a clue to the more especial religious interests of
Augustus, a clue which is all the more needed because of his apparently
catholic spirit, and his seemingly general interest in all the forms of
old Roman religion. No man who restored and in some cases entirely
rebuilt eighty-two temples to various deities could be accused of undue
partiality in emphasising certain phases of religion to the total
exclusion of others. But as a matter of fact underneath this general
interest there were present certain very specific interests, and this
passage in his own writing adds great strength to the other evidence as
to what these gods were. Naturally in every list of pre-eminent deities
Juppiter must be present, hence the mention of the Capitoline temple
first; as a matter of fact however Augustus's worship of Juppiter was
much more a matter of form than of real interest. His attitude was one
of graceful acceptance of the inevitable rather than of enthusiastic
homage. Juppiter was not adapted to his purpose, because it was almost
impossible to connect Juppiter with a specific form of government other
than the republic, much less with a particular royal family like the
Julian house. Juppiter had come to mean republicanism. The Capitoline
temple had ushered in the republic in B.C. 509 and there was a halo of
republicanism about it which was too genuine to be used as a mask for
concealing imperial features. With the four other deities matters stood
very differently. The god Julius, Apollo, Vesta, and Mars the Avenger
were either already identical with the imperial family or could easily
be connected with it.
The central feature of the religion of the empire was a thing altogether
unique and unknown in the republic: the worship of the emperors as gods.
From Augustus on this was the chief characteristic of the state
religion; its beginnings must be sought therefore under his reign and he
is largely accountable for it. According to our modern ideas it seems a
very strange thing to worship a living man as a god; it seems also
strange to worship a dead man as a god, but there we have at least the
analogy of the worship of the saints, and the inherent instinct of the
race toward ancestor-worship which unexpectedly crops out in all of us
at intervals. But we must rid ourselves of modern ideas and try to
appreciate the historical evolution of emperor-worship. This evolution
is perfectly clear and we can trace every step of it, though in doing so
we must remember that the various processes which we are compelled to
take up one after another in our explanation went on in nature side by
side, and exercised a sympathetic influence one upon the other, which we
have to eliminate from our explanation but make allowance for in our
finished concept.
We have seen that from the very beginning of religious life in Rome the
idea was present that everything, each individual and each family, had
its divine double, the individual in the shape of his Genius, the family
in the shape of protecting spirits, Vesta, the Penates, and later the
Lar. In addition to this, under the influence of the Greek myths which
various families adopted, certain gods originally independent became
especially associated with these families. Each family was naturally
interested in the worship of its own gods, but this particular worship
was quite as naturally confined to the particular family or its
dependents. Now the first preliminary step toward emperor-worship was
taken when the gods of the imperial family began to be worshipped by
other families, then by all other families, and officially by the state.
But from the very beginning the gods of each family had included also
the deified ancestors, the _Di Manes_, at first thought of _en masse_
and not as individuals, but toward the close of the republic they began
to be individualised, so that the next step in emperor-worship was when
the dead Julius, a particular ancestor therefore of Augustus, began to
be worshipped by the whole people and officially by the state. But also
from the beginning there had been still another element in family
worship, the cult paid to the Genius or divine double of the living
master of the house. There followed then correspondingly as another step
toward emperor-worship, the homage paid by the whole state to the Genius
of the living emperor. These three steps: the worship by the whole state
of the gods of the emperor's family, in its three forms, the gods of the
family in general, and in particular the deified ancestor, and the
Genius of the living representative, were all encouraged and officially
established by Augustus. Lastly there came from the Orient a habit of
thought in distinct contradiction to Roman ideas whereby not the Genius
of the living emperor but the very man himself was divine in life and in
death. Augustus fought against this concept but had to yield to it and
allow himself to be worshipped directly as a god in the Orient itself
and in certain coast towns of Italy which were under strong Oriental
influence, but he forbade it in Rome, and thus established a precedent
which was followed by all the better ones among the emperors who came
after him.
This digression was necessary in order that we might appreciate the
reasons for Augustus's preferences in emphasising certain cults.
Unquestionably he did not foresee or plan for an emperor-worship such as
eventually grew up out of his arrangements; he was however deeply
interested in emphasising the worship of the special deities of his own
family. The four gods therefore whose names he couples with that of
Juppiter in the summary of his religious activity--Apollo, Vesta, Mars
the Avenger, and the god Julius--are all intimately connected with his
family; and if we add to this the worship of his own Genius, the Genius
Augusti, we shall have the real kernel of his religious restoration. It
remains for us to see in what way these deities are connected with his
family, and how he managed to emphasise their cult and at the same time
to bring them into close relationship to himself.
From the time of his first introduction into Rome Apollo had stood in a
relation of contrast to Juppiter. Apollo's oracles, the Sibylline books,
had brought in a host of Greek gods whose presence tended inevitably to
lessen the unique position and the unparalleled prestige of Juppiter
Optimus Maximus, the great representative of nationalism in Roman
religion. At first this contrast was scarcely marked, and the very
oracles of Apollo which were destined to undermine Juppiter's
omnipotence were stored in Juppiter's temple and under his protection.
The difference was felt more strongly as the priesthood of the Sibylline
books began to grow in influence alongside of the pontiffs, the priests
of the Juppiter cults. This opposition was emphasised in B.C. 367, when
the priesthood of the oracles was opened to the plebeians, while the
pontiffs were still patricians. At first unquestionably the object of
the patricians was to keep for themselves the more sacred and the then
more important college and to open the lesser priesthood to the
plebeians. But in the struggle of the two orders those things which were
opened to the plebeians grew in importance and entirely overshadowed
those which were so scrupulously hedged about, and the elements which
strove to resist progress were crushed beneath it; and just as the old
assembly, the Comitia Curiata, which the patricians had kept for
themselves, was later of no account compared with the Comitia
Centuriata, which belonged to both orders, so the college of pontiffs
lost significance while the keepers of the oracles gained steadily in
power and influence. But it was not merely because Apollo was the great
leader of the Greek movement in Roman religion that Augustus chose to
honour him. A far more important consideration guided him, for Apollo
was especially attached to the Julian house in all its mythical and
historical fortunes. The first great public evidence of Apollo's favour
in Augustus's career was at the battle of Actium; but while this led to
the first proclamation of the emperor's devotion to Apollo, it was not
Actium which made him a worshipper of the god, but it was because he was
a worshipper of Apollo from the beginning that Actium and all subsequent
tokens of the god's favour were emphasised by him. However much or
little the people of the day may have known about Apollo's previous
relations to the Julian family, the legend of his assistance at Actium,
and the immortalisation of that legend in the great temple on the
Palatine were proofs enough. The moral effect of the Palatine temple
cannot be overestimated, especially when we realise one fact, which is
often neglected, that this temple gained infinitely in significance
because it was on private ground, attached to the emperor's own private
house, for we must not forget that the Palatine was only in process of
transition into the imperial residence, and though the house of
Augustus, when he left it, was the palace, during his lifetime it was
merely his private residence. The temple of Apollo was therefore in its
origin theoretically the private chapel of a Roman family rather than
the seat of a state cult. It was the Apollo of the Julian house who was
being worshipped there. And yet it was far more than a private worship,
for it began very soon to be a cult centre in distinct rivalry to
Juppiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline. The oracles of the Sibyl,
even though they were the words of Apollo, had never been preserved in
the old temple of Apollo on the Flaminian meadow, but instead they had
always been in the custody of Juppiter on the Capitoline. But now these
oracles, after being carefully revised by the emperor, were deposited in
the new Palatine temple, and by this act the centre of all the Greek
cults in Rome was transferred from Juppiter to Apollo, from the
Capitoline to the Palatine, and the rivalry between the two was publicly
declared. The temple was dedicated in B.C. 28 and Augustus allowed its
influence to permeate the Roman people for more than a decade before he
took the next step, a step which was virtually to parallel Apollo and
his sister Artemis-Diana with Juppiter and Juno.