AUGUSTĀLES--(1) (sc. _ludi_, also called _Augustalia_, sc.
_certamina_, _ludicra_), games celebrated in honour of Augustus, at
Rome and in other parts of the Roman empire. After the battle of
Actium, a quinquennial festival was instituted; and the birthday
of Augustus, as well as that on which the victory was announced at
Rome, were regarded as festival days. It was not, however, till
B.C. 11 that the festival on the birthday of Augustus was formally
established by a decree of the senate, and it is this festival which
is usually meant when the Augustales or Augustalia are mentioned.
It was celebrated iv. Id. Octobr. At the death of Augustus, this
festival assumed a more solemn character, was added to the Fasti,
and celebrated to his honour as a god. It was henceforth exhibited
annually in the circus, at first by the tribunes of the plebs, at the
commencement of the reign of Tiberius, but afterwards by the praetor
peregrinus.--(2) The name of two classes of priests, one at Rome and
the other in the municipia. The _Augustales_ at Rome, properly called
_sodales Augustales_, were an order of priests instituted by Tiberius
to attend to the worship of Augustus and the Julia gens. They were
chosen by lot from among the principal persons of Rome, and were
twenty-one in number, to which were added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius,
and Germanicus, as members of the imperial family. They were also
called _sacerdotes Augustales_, and sometimes simply _Augustales_.
The _Augustales_ in the municipia are supposed by most modern writers
to have been a class of priests selected by Augustus from the
libertini to attend to the religions rites connected with the worship
of the Lares, which that emperor was said to have put up in places
where two or more ways met; but there are good reasons for thinking
that they were instituted in imitation of the Augustales at Rome, and
for the same object, namely, to attend to the worship of Augustus.
They formed a collegium and were appointed by the _decuriones_, or
senate of the municipia. The six principal members of the college
were called _Seviri_, a title which seems to have been imitated from
the _Seviri_ in the equestrian order at Rome.
AUGUSTUS, a name bestowed upon Octavianus in B.C. 27, by the senate
and the Roman people. It was a word used in connection with religion,
and designated a person as sacred and worthy of worship; hence
the Greek writers translate it by Σεβαστός. It was adopted by all
succeeding emperors, as if descended, either by birth or adoption,
from the first emperor of the Roman world. The name of _Augusta_
was frequently bestowed upon females of the imperial family; but
_Augustus_ belonged exclusively to the reigning emperor till towards
the end of the second century of the Christian aera, when M. Aurelius
and L. Verus both received this surname. From this time we frequently
find two or even a greater number of _Augusti_. From the time of
Probus the title became _perpetuus Augustus_, and from Philippus or
Claudius Gothicus _semper Augustus_, the latter of which titles was
borne by the so-called Roman emperors in Germany. [CAESAR.]