Part 12

With all the state worshipping Apollo, the god of the emperor's own family, on the Palatine, celebrating the divinity of his ancestor the god Julius in the Roman Forum, and acknowledging Mars as the avenger of all those who did the emperor harm, in the emperor's own new Forum, it might have seemed to a less far-seeing man that religion had been sufficiently pressed into the service of the royal family. But so it did not seem to Augustus. These cults were all three of them essentially new, and new cults may, to be sure, easily become prominent; they usually do, but the test comes with time whether there is external pressure sufficiently continuous to give permanency to this prominence. As a matter of fact not one of these three cults continued later to hold the rank in importance which it had under Augustus. On the other hand if one went low enough and looked sufficiently deep down certain elements in the religious life of the community could be found which continued almost unchanged from century to century. These were the simple elements which were involved in family worship, the sacrifices at the hearth of Vesta, and those to the Genius of the master of the house. Here simple beliefs and elementary cult acts had continued virtually unchanged from the very earliest period down to the present. These cults did not need any formal restoration on the part of the emperor, for they had not experienced the decline which the other cults had suffered, but by just so much more they would afford a firm foundation for his empire and his own rule if he could in some way succeed in connecting them with himself. In the case of Vesta this was comparatively easy. The Pontifex Maximus was the guardian of the Vestal virgins, and thus on March 6, B.C. 12, when Augustus became Pontifex Maximus, it was quite natural that there should be a festival to Vesta and that the day should continue as a public holiday. The Pontifex Maximus however was supposed to live in the Regia down in the Forum, where Julius Caesar as Pontifex Maximus had actually lived. This Augustus did not desire to do, hence he gracefully gave up the Regia to the Vestal virgins and made his official residence in his own house on the Palatine, fulfilling the religious requirements by consecrating a part of that house. On a portion of the section thus consecrated a temple of Vesta was built and dedicated April 28, B.C. 12. This was strictly speaking his own "Vesta," the hearth of his own house, but the prominence of the temple of Vesta there had an effect similar to the prominence of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, and the whole state began thus to worship at the hearth of the emperor, and in time the emperor was worshipped at each individual hearth.

But the crowning touch of Augustus's religious policy was yet to come; this was the establishment of the worship of the Genius of the emperor. After Actium and in the earlier years of his reign it is certain that Augustus would not have thought of putting himself, even in the spiritualised form of his Genius, before the people as an object of worship. But the tendency to emperor-worship which Oriental influence had brought with it was not without its effects on the emperor himself, and perhaps these effects were all the stronger because of his valiant struggle against it. Then too the state was already worshipping the gods of his family, even Vesta Augusta, the goddess of his own hearth. He had become in substance, even if not yet in name, the father of his country. It had been an immemorial custom that the members of the household should worship the Genius of the master of the house. In every household in Rome that custom still existed. It was a very logical step, and one therefore which a Roman could easily take, to carry out the analogy of the family and to allow the whole state to worship the Genius of the emperor, who was the head of the family of the state. The idea therefore was not at all incongruous, nor was the way in which it was carried out, though the latter was so ingenious as to deserve special consideration.

In the old days when Rome was a farming community, the guardianship of the gods over the fields was one of the most important elements in religious life. The gods were above all the protectors of the boundary lines, and thus it came to pass that where two roads crossed and thus the corners of four farms came together the deities protecting these farms were worshipped together as the Lares Compitales, the Lares of the _compita_ or cross-roads. Curiously enough this worship was later extended to the crossing of city streets, and as was natural it became more highly organised in the city than it had been in the country. Regular associations, _collegia_, were formed to look after the details of the worship, headed by the _magistri vicorum_, who were however not public officials but merely the elected heads of these colleges, men mainly from the lower ranks of society. The contagion of civil and political strife affected these colleges as well as their more aristocratic parallels, higher up in the social scale, and turned them into local political clubs. The part played by these clubs in the civil struggles which occupied the last century of the republic was such that the Senate in B.C. 64 was compelled to dissolve them, though they were restored again six years later and existed until Caesar destroyed them entirely. But now Augustus was creating a new organisation for the city, dividing it into fourteen regions, each region containing a certain number of subdivisions called _vici_. The old "colleges of the cross-roads" afforded him just the sort of opportunity which he never failed to seize, that of seeming to restore a neglected republican institution, and at the same time of making it into a support of the monarchy. The colleges had antiquity in their favour, and their repeated suppression was clear proof of their power. They must be recognised and taken over by the state, their officials must be made into officials of the state, but, most important, their worship must be permeated with the imperial idea. This was where Augustus's skill showed itself. At every shrine of the cross-roads where of old the two Lares had been worshipped alone, a third image now took its place between them. This was the Genius Augusti, who thus formed henceforth an integral part of the local worship of every part of the city. Under the presiding Genius Augusti the Lares themselves began to be known as the Lares Augusti and the cult grew in popularity so that it began to extend through all of Italy and even through the provinces of the empire, and wherever the Lares went, along with them went the worship of the Genius of the emperor.

Now that we have seen what Augustus did, the question arises irresistibly as to the measure of his success. There can be no question but that he was successful in obtaining the immediate object which he was seeking after. A formal religious life was unquestionably brought into being, and such strength as that life had was exerted in behalf of the empire. This is only in part true of the city but it is absolutely true of the provinces, where after all in the long run the balance of power was bound to lie. In every case the religious reform, begun in the city, spread rapidly through the rest of Italy and out into the provinces. There the negative elements, which hindered its growth in Rome itself, were absent. For the provinces the empire was all gain, and even a bad emperor was far better than none at all.

The politics of Augustus had recreated the religion which the politics of the last century of the republic had destroyed, had recreated it in as far as political considerations could. But the spirit of scepticism which had made possible the political abuse of religion could not be driven out by any further application of politics. A form might be created, both the paraphernalia of temples and the hierarchy of priests whose business it was to perform certain cult acts, but there the power of enactment ceased. In the main the religious life of the people went on for good or for ill entirely independent of these things. All that was alive and real in the simple domestic cult went on down into the empire, and those who were faithful were faithful still. The cults of the Orient, against which Augustus had done all that he dared, still captured the minds of the vast majority of the people, and a Mithras or an Isis meant infinitely more than a Mars or a Vesta, even if Mars were the avenger of a Caesar, and Vesta the goddess of the living emperor's own hearth. Among the more intellectual classes the folly of the one set of gods, the darlings of the common people, was felt as keenly as the folly of the others, those who had been worshipped by the men of former days. Philosophy, which had had its share in the breakdown of faith, beginning in the days of the Punic wars, was now offering out of itself a substitute for the faith which it had taken away. It no longer contented itself with a destructive criticism which resulted in a negative view of life, but in Stoicism at least it strove to provide something sufficiently constructive to afford not only a rule of living but also an inspiration to live.

With the death of Augustus the last chapter in the history of old Roman religion was closed. His was the last attempt to fill the spiritual need of the people with the old forms and the old ideas; for what he offered was in the main old though certain new ideas were mixed with it. From now on the lifeless platitudes of philosophy and the orgiastic excesses of the Oriental cults divided the field between them, and it was with them rather than with the gods of Numa or even with the deities of the Sibylline books that Christianity fought its battles. That too is a fascinating study, but it is quite another story and with the death of Augustus our present tale is told. And when we look back over the whole of it the main outlines become perhaps even clearer because of the details into which we have been compelled to go.

We see at the start the simple religion of an agricultural people still strongly tinged with animism and inheriting from an animistic past a certain formalism which is so great that it almost becomes a content. Toward the close of the kingdom we see this religion developing through Italic influences so that it takes into itself a certain number of elements which were absent from the older religion because they had no concomitants in daily life, but whose presence is now rendered necessary. These elements are especially the ideas of politics, trade, commerce, and the liberal arts. Then for a moment under Servius an equilibrium seems to have been reached, and a religion to have been brought into being which was simple enough for the old lovers of simplicity and varied enough to satisfy the new demands of the community. But this was not for long, for the spiritual conquest of Rome by Greece began then, three centuries before the physical conquest of Greece by Rome. The hosts of Greek deities invaded and captured Rome under the leadership of the Sibylline books, and though at first they had been kept outside the _pomerium_, even this iron barrier was melted in the heat of the Second Punic War, and the new Greek gods swarmed into the city proper. At the same time as a last heritage from the baleful books an Oriental goddess, the Magna Mater, was taken into the cult and into the hearts of the people, and the elements of decay were thus all present. These elements were threefold: the natural spiritual reaction resulting from the excesses of the period of the Second Punic War; the fascination of the Orient, exhibited to Rome in the cult of the Magna Mater; and the new gift which Greece now made to Rome, the knowledge of her literature, especially of her philosophy. In the last two centuries of the republic then these forces alone would have been sufficient to cause the downfall of religion, but they were aided by politics, which fastened itself upon the formalism of the state religion and sucked the little life-blood that was left. Rome's scholars and wise men could deplore the result and point out the causes, but they could not cure the state of affairs. What politics had done, politics alone could undo, hence only the reforms of an autocrat could restore something of the outward structure of the old state religion. But beyond this politics and the autocrat were alike powerless. Against philosophy and Oriental ecstasy they were of no avail. Hence the spirit had left the religion which Augustus had restored even before the marble temples which he had built in its honour had fallen into decay.

The age of formalism had passed, the religious demands of the individual could no longer be satisfied by a mere ritual. For good or for evil something more personal, more subjective, was needed. Men sought for it in various ways and with varying success, but except in the simple forms of family worship old Roman religion was dead.

INDEX

References to the more recent literature on the subject of Roman religion have been given in connection with the appropriate topics in this index.

The following abbreviations have been employed:--_R.F._ = Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, London, 1899; _R.R._ = Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Roemer_, Muenchen, 1902; P.W. = Pauly-Wissowa, _Encyclopaedie der Altertumswissenschaft_, Stuttgart, 1894--; _Lex._ = Roscher, _Lexikon der Griechischen und Roemischen Mythologie_, Leipzig, 1884--.

Actium, 81, 165

_Aeneid_, as a political treatise, 153

Aesculapius, 84. Cp. _R.R._ 253 ff.; _R.F._ 278; Thraemer, P.W. _s.v._; Asklepios

Agricultural character of early Roman religion, 18. Cp. _R.F._ 335; _R.R._ 20 ff.; Mommsen, _C.I.L._ 1, ed. 2, p. 298.

Agrippa, erects Temple of Neptune, 81; Richter, _Topographic der Stadt Rom._ 242; Platner, _Ancient Rome_, 357

Alba Longa and the Latin League, 52. Cp. Beloch, _Italische Bund_, 177; Huelsen, in P.W. _s.v._

Altar of Caesar, 173. Cp. Huelsen, _Forum Romanum_, ed. 2, p. 139; Platner, _Ancient Rome_, 180

Animism, 5. Cp. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 377 ff., ii. 1-327; Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 170 ff.

Anna Perenna, 115. Cp. _R.F._ 50-54; _R.R._ 194; Wissowa, in P.W. _s.v._; Usener, _Rheinisches Museum_, xxx. 206; Meltzer, _Lex._ _s.v._

Anthropological method, criticism of, 4, 5

Antony and the cult of Isis, 137. Cp. _R.R._ 293

Apollo, 57, 66. Cp. _R.F._ 180; _R.R._ 239; Wernicke, P.W. _s.v._; Apollo and Augustus, 164. Cp. Gardthausen, _Augustus_, 873, 961; _R.R._ 67; Apollo Medicus, 83. Cp. _R.F._ 180; _R.R._ 240

Aricia, 53. Cp. Beloch, _Italische Bund_, 187; Huelsen, P.W. _s.v._

Artemis, 53 ff. Cp. Wernicke, P.W. _s.v._

Arval Brotherhood, restored by Augustus, 156. Cp. _R.R._ 485; Wissowa, P.W. _s.v._; Henzen, _Acta Fratrum Arvalium_, Berlin, 1874; _C.I.L._ vi. 2023-2119, 32338-32398

Asklepios, 84. Cp. Aesculapius

Atargatis, 138. Cp. _R.R._ 300 ff.; Cumont, in P.W. _s.v._

Athena, contrasted with Minerva, 46

Attalus of Pergamon, 97

Augustus: his character and motives, 147-152

Bacchanalian scandal, 118, 119. Cp. Livy, 39, 8 ff.; _C.I.L._ 196, x. 104; _R.R._ 58, 248

Bellona, 134. Cp. Aust, in P.W. _s.v._; _R.R._ 289 ff.

Bona Dea-Damia, 111. Cp. _R.F._ 105-106; _R.R._ 177 ff.; Wissowa, in P.W. _s.v._; Kern, in P.W. _s.v._; Damia

Caesar, altar of, 173; religious reforms of, 146, 147

Calendars, as sources for early Roman religion, 10. Cp. Mommsen, _C.I.L._ 1, ed. 2; _R.F._ 336; _R.R._ 15 ff.; disorder of, owing to ignorance of priests, 132

Cannae, 96

Carmen Saeculare, 168. Cp. Wissowa, _Die Saecular-feier des Augustus_, Marburg, 1894; Mommsen, _Ephem. Epigraph._ viii. 225 ff.

Carmentalis Porta, 82. Cp. Richter, _Topographie der Stadt Rom._ 44; Platner, _Ancient Rome_, 48

Castor, 37 ff. Cp. Helbig, _Hermes_, xl. 1905, 101 ff.; _R.F._ 296-297; _R.R._ 216 ff.; Albert, _Le Culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie_

Ceres-Demeter, 72. Cp. _R.F._ 72-79, 105; _R.R._ 242 ff.; Wissowa, in P.W. _s.v._

Chaldaeans, 119. Cp. _R.R._ 58; Baumstark, in P.W. _s.v._

Circus Flaminius, 41

Clodius, 88

Cognomina, 24. Cp. Carter, _De deorum Romanorum cognominibus_, Leipzig, 1898

Collegia, 47. Cp. Waltzing, _Les Corporations chez les Romains_, Louvain, 1895-1900

Collegium mercatorum, 78

Colonia Neptunia, 80

Comitia Centuriata, 165

Comitia Curiata, 165

Commercial spirit in Rome, 107

Comparative philology, 2

Consus, 114. Cp. _R.F._ 206-209, 212-213, 267-268; _R.R._ 166 ff.; Aust, P.W. _s.v._

Cumae, source of Sibylline books, 66

Damia, 111, 112. Cp. Ceres

Dead, worship of, 14-15. Cp. _R.R._, 187; _R.F._. 300, 306 ff.

Demeter, 72. Cp. Ceres

Diana, 53 ff. Cp. _R.F._ 198 ff.; _R.R._ 198 ff.; Wissowa, in P.W. _s.v._

Di Indigetes, 9. Cp. _R.R._ 15 ff.; _R.F._ 192; Wissowa, _De dis Romanorum indigetibus_, Marburg, 1892

Di Manes, 14, 90. Cp. _R.R._ 192; _R.F._ 108; Peter, _Lex._ _s.v._

Di Novensides, 9. Cp. _R.R._ 15 ff.

Dionysos, 72. Cp. Liber

Dios-kouroi, 38, 39. Cp. Castor

Di Penates, 13, 113. Cp. _R.R._ 145 ff.; _R.F._ 337; De Marchi, _Culto Privato_, i. 55 ff.; Wissowa, in _Lex._ _s.v._

Divus Julius, 171. Cp. _R.R._ 284 ff.

Drepana, 88

Emperor-worship, 161, 162, 163. Cp. _R.R._ 284; Boissier, _La religion romaine_

Ennius, 121, 122. Cp. Mommsen, _Roman History_ (Engl. transl.), 3, 112-113; Teuffel, _Roem. Lit._ 100-104; Skutsch, in P.W. _s.v._

Epidauros, 84

Eros of Thespiae, 46. Cp. Preller-Robert, _Griech. Myth._ 501 ff.

Etruscans, problem of, 42 ff.

Euhemerism, 122. Cp. Mommsen, _Roman History_ (Engl. transl.), 4, 200

Euhemerus, 17. Cp. Rohde, _Griech. Roman._ 220 ff.

Falerii, 44. Cp. _C.I.L._ xi. p. 464 ff.; Deecke, _Die Falisker_, Strassburg, 1888, p. 89 ff.

Family as original social unit, 11

Fanatici, 135. Cp. _R.R._ 291

Fauna, 111. Cp. Bona Dea

Faunus, 111. Cp. _R.F._ 256-265; _R.R._ 172 ff.

Female deities, absence of, in early Roman religion, 21

Fetiales, 156. Cp. _R.F._ 230, 231; _R.R._ 475 ff.

Fides, 25. Cp. _R.F._ 237; _R.R._ 103

Flaccus, Granius, 147

Formalism in Roman religion, 7. Cp. _R.F._ 348

Fors Fortuna, 51. Cp. _R.F._ 161-172; _R.R._ 206 ff.

Fortuna, 50 ff. Cp. _R.F._ 161-172, 223-225; _R.R._ 206 ff.

Forum Boarium, 33, 36

Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 16

Genius, 12. Cp. _R.R._ 154 ff.

Genius Augusti, 179. Cp. _R.R._ 72, 73, 179

Great Mother of the gods, 96. Cp. _R.F._ 69-70; _R.R._ 263

Greek influence in Rome, 99, 100, 104

Guilds in relation to Minerva, 47

Hannibal, 93, 94

Harrison: _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, 22

Haruspicina, 43. Cp. _R.R._ 469 ff.

Hasdrubal, 96

Hebe-Juventas, 110. Cp. Juventas

Hercules, 32. Cp. _R.R._ 219 ff.

Hereditas sine sacris, 17

Hermes Empolaios, 77. Cp. Preller-Robert, _Griech. Myth._ 414

Hesiod, 46

Horace, 168

Indo-Germanic religion, 3

Isis, 136. Cp. _R.R._ 292 ff.; Drexler, _Lex._ _s.v._

Janus, 13. Cp. _R.F._ 282 ff.; _R.R._ 91 ff.

Juno, 12. Cp. _R.F._ _passim._; _R.R._ 113 ff.

Juppiter as symbol of republic, 160

Juppiter Feretrius, 21, 58. Cp. _R.F._ 229, 230; _R.R._ 103

Juppiter Fidius, 25. Cp. _R.F._ 138; _R.R._ 120

Juppiter Latiaris, 55. Cp. _R.F._ 95 ff.; _R.R._ 34 ff.

Juppiter Optimus Maximus, 21, 58. Cp. _R.R._ 110 ff.

Jus divinum, 8

Jus humanum, 8

Juventas, 109. Cp. _R.R._ 125 ff.

Kore, 72. Cp. Libera

Lar Familiaris, 13. Cp. _R.R._ 149 ff.; Wissowa, in _Lex._ _s.v._; Rohde, _Psyche_, ed. 2, 254; De Marchi, i. 38 ff.

Latin League, 52 ff. Cp. Alba Longa

Lemuria, 16. Cp. _R.F._ 106-110; De Marchi, 36, 37, 39; _R.R._ 189

Lepidus, 137

Liber, 74, 75. Cp. _R.F._ 54, 55; _R.R._ 126 ff., 243 ff.

Libera, 75. Cp. _R.F._ 74; _R.R._ 243 ff.

Livius Andronicus, 48

Lucretius, 144

Ludi Saeculares, 93. Cp. _R.R._ 364 ff.; Mommsen, in _Ephem. Epigraph._ viii. 225 ff.

Lupercalia, 111, 114. Cp. _R.F._ 298, 299, 310-321; _R.R._ 172 ff.

Ma-Bellona, 134. Cp. Bellona

Maecenas, 152

Magna Mater. Cp. Great Mother of the gods

Marius the Epicurean, 20

Mars, 19. Cp. _R.F._ 34 ff.; _R.R._ 129 ff.

Mars-Ares, 110, 111

Mars Ultor, 174. Cp. _R.R._ 70, 133

Megalesia, 99

Mercury, 77. Cp. _R.F._ 121, 186; _R.R._ 248 ff.

Metaurus, 96

Minerva, 44 ff. Cp. Wissowa, in P.W. _s.v._; _R.R._ 203 ff.

Mithradates, 127

Mithras, 138. Cp. _R.R._ 307 ff.; Cumont, _Textes et monuments_, etc. (2 vols.), Brussels, 1896

Mommsen, 18

Mundus, 15. Cp. _R.F._ 211; De Marchi, i. 184; _R.R._ 188

Mythology, absence of, in Rome, 8. Cp. _R.R._ 20 ff.

Name, importance of, 6. Cp. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, i. 403 ff.

Nemi, 54

Neptune, 80. Cp. _R.F._ 185-187; _R.R._ 250 ff.; Wissowa, in _Lex._ _s.v._

Numa, apocryphal books of, 120, 121. Cp. Schwegler, _Roem. Gesch._ i. 564 ff.; _R.R._ 62

Ocean commerce, beginnings of, 77

Octavian, 137

Octavius Mamilius, 40

Paestum--Poseidonia, 80

Parentalia, 16. Cp. _R.R._ 187 ff.; _R.F._ 306-310; De Marchi, i. 199

Parilia, 114. Cp. _R.F._ 79-85; _R.R._ 165 ff.

Pater, Walter, 20

Persephone, 75. Cp. Proserpina

Philosophers expelled from Rome, 122, 123. Cp. _Athen._ xii, 547a; Aul. Gell. 15, II, I; Sueton. _Grammat._ 25

Pinarii, 35

Plebeian aediles, 74. Cp. _R.R._ 245; Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, ii. 471

Plutarch, _Moralia_, 50

Pollux, 37. Cp. Castor

Pomerium, 33, 34, 35

Poseidon, 79. Cp. Neptune

Poseidonia-Paestum, 80

Potitii, 35

Priesthood of Sibylline books, 66. Cp. Quindecemviri

Priesthoods, political value of, 129. Cp. _R.R._ 64; unpopularity of, in last century of republic, 131. Cp. Marquardt, _Staatsverw._ iii. 64 ff.

Propertius, 152

Proserpina, 76. Cp. _R.F._ 212; _R.R._ 255 ff.; Carter, in _Lex._ _s.v._

Puteoli, 136

Pythagorianism, 120

Quindecemviri, 68. Cp. _R.R._ 461 ff.

Regillus, 40

Republic, character of the last century of, 125, 126

_Res Gestae of Augustus_, 147. Cp. Mommsen's edition, Berlin, 1883

Roma Aeterna, 151

S. Bartolommeo, 87

Scaevola, theology of, 140. Cp. _R.R._ 62; Mommsen, _Roman History_ (Engl. transl.), iv. 205

Scipio Aemilianus and his circle, 124

Secular games, 93, 167. Cp. Ludi Saeculares

Servius Tullius, 27, 50

Sextus Pompeius, 81

Sibyl, coming of, 62 ff. Cp. Diels, _Sibyllinische Blaetter_, Berlin, 1890

Sibylline oracles, 64 ff.

Spencer, Herbert, 17. Cp. _Principles of Sociology_

Stoicism, the official state philosophy of Rome, 123. Cp. Mommsen, _Roman History_ (Engl. transl.), iv. 201 ff.

Sulla increases the priesthood of the Sibylline books, 67; his influence on religion, 128

Syria dea, 138. Cp. _R.R._ 300

Tarentum-Colonia Neptunia, 80

Tarentum in Campus Martius, 89. Cp. Richter, 224 _ff._; Platner, 322

Tarquin and the old woman, 65

Tarracina, 98

Templum, 43. Cp. _R.R._ 403 ff.

Terra Mater, 90. Cp. _R.F._, 294-296; _R.R._ 162

Tiber, island in, 86

Tibullus, 152

Tibur (Tivoli), 35

Tifata, 54

Tusculum, 39, 40

Tyche, 50. Cp. Preller-Robert, _Griech. Myth._ 50

Varro, theology of, 142. Cp. _R.R._ 62

Vesta, 13. Cp. _R.R._ 141 ff.; De Marchi, _Culto Privato_, i. 64 ff.; _R.F._ 146 ff.

Vesta and Augustus, 176, 177. Cp. Gardthausen, _Augustus_, 868

Vestal Virgins, 158

Victoria, temple of, on Palatine, 101

Virgil, 152

Vulcan, 21. Cp. _R.F._ 209-211; _R.R._ 184 ff.

THE END.

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