competition between the viciin Rome; this far more broadly based competition replaced
the temple-building competition of the Roman nobility (see chapter 5) and is
another example of the nobility’s loss of exclusive control. By the mechanism of cult
an important social order, freedmen, was given a conspicuous and active role in the
Augustan order, which thereby was strengthened. It is mutual processes like these
that provided the stability of the pax Augusta, and religion was a major arena.The Divinity of Augustus and the Imperial Cult
When the senate bestowed the title “Augustus” on Octavian in January, 27 bc, it
marked the temporary culmination of developments that had been underway from
the start of his career. Being a mere 18 years old at the time of Caesar’s death and
having no political or military résumé, Octavian literally had to hitch his star to Julius
Caesar’s: a comet appeared in the summer of 44 bcand Octavian saw to its inter-
pretation as the soul of Caesar ascending to divinity. The star was subsequently affixed
to all representations of Caesar, including coins. Caesar now was a divus, which made
his adoptive son divi filius, son of the divine, and the letters DF became part of his
name wherever it appeared, in inscriptions and on the coinage in particular. Later
that year, Octavian openly announced that he “aspired to the honors of his father”
(Cic. Ad Att.16.15.13), though certainly not by having his life cut short. But the
construction of his divine aura was deliberate and steady, and marked by a variety
of milestones. To list only the most important: grant of the sacrosanctity of tribunes;
libations decreed by the senate to his Geniusbefore private banquets; membership
in all major priestly colleges; Italy and the west swearing a sacred oath of allegiance
in his battle against Antony; dedication of the temple of Divus Julius in the Roman
Forum; insertion of his name into the oldest Roman prayer hymn (cf. Res Gestae
10.1); omens, starting at his birth, and stories of Apollo being his real father (Suet.
Augustus94). The appellation “Augustus” ratified and enhanced his placement into
a sacred context because, as Dio (53.16.8) notes, it designated him as someone “more
than human, for all the most honored and sacred things are called augusta.” The
trend then accelerated; the poets, for instance, likened Augustus to a god or called
him a god outright (Ovid did so, especially from exile: Trist.2.54, 3.1.34, 4.4.20;
Pont.1.2.97). In the arts, he continued to be linked with Caesar’s apotheosis, as,
for example, on the so-called Belvedere Altar that is today in the Vatican, and while
the interior part of the newly built Pantheon included a statue of the Divine Julius
Caesar, Augustus was placed in the entrance hall. Outside of Rome he began to be
worshiped directly as a god. The distinction between divusand deuswas no more
than a semantic nicety as both appellatives were used in inscriptions.
Before we briefly survey the phenomenon, a few basic points need to be made.
Emperor worship had nothing to do with belief in a personal deity who could guide
one to eternal salvation. To be sure, a grateful populace in Italy and around the
Mediterranean could easily regard Augustus as a savior from decades of turmoil, and
for them he waspraesens deus, a god who was present rather than dwelling in a far-
away heavenly abode. He was a deity related to order, law, and right, very much
80 Karl Galinsky