Y12 Ancient History Roman/Julio-Claudian Points Test 2 – Religious, Artistic and Building Policies under Augustus

Question 1

How can we tell religious was so important for Augustus in terms of his propaganda/self-portrayal? (any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 1

• Religion was key for Augustus in underlining his role as helmsman of the ship of state.
• Contemporary literature emphasised the restoration of Roman religion and the divine support for Augustus: in a unique statement from all of the primary material, Horace even depicts Augustus as a god incarnate (Ode 1.2).
• Religion features heavily in Augustus’ propaganda. Res Gestae tells us that he held seven simultaneous priesthoods (7.2-3) and four are commemorated on a denarius which predates Augustus’ election to the position of Pontifex Maximus.
• The Romans would have had little difficulty in attributing past problems to the abandonment by the gods, and thus the emergence of a ‘golden age’ was easily seen as a reconciliation brought about by the Emperor.

Question 2

What practical steps did Augustus use in terms of religious policy, to help him cement his position? (Any relevant points for 3 marks).

Answer 2

• Augustus placed himself as head of religion (pontifex maximus).
• He minted coins with images linking him to Jupiter; this idea that Augustus was the ruler of the Earth while Jupiter was the ruler of the gods.
• He revived Roman traditional religious values and practices, “but in such a way as to place himself at the centre of the system.”(WH P.81). The key was the ambiguity with which Augustus did so.
• Augustus simultaneously made three roles for himself: the pious priest, the man who claims/deserves to be a god, and the ‘god made man’.

Question 3

Why did the Roman populace react favourably to Augustus’s religious reforms? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 3

• Lots of Romans had analysed the breakdown of the Republic as a consequence of a breakdown of religious tradition, as well as moral/political order.
• Old temples were neglected, old rites forgotten: “no wonder the gods were angry with Rome for this gross lapse in their old piety” (WH, P.82). By reversing this, Augustus made himself synonymous with pious action, the restorer of good fortune and divine blessing to Rome.

Question 4

How did Augustus place himself and his family at the centre of Roman religious practice? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 4

• Image of Augustus on the ‘Ara Pacis’ one of the model priest. The toga draped over his head is a primary indicator of this, the pose for sacrifice, alongside the proper religious equipment.
• Death of Lepidus in 12BC left the position of Pontifex Maximus open, and it allowed Augustus to formalise his position as head of the state religion.
• Augustus monopolised priesthoods for himself in the revival of priesthoods: of the 700 senators who followed his standards at Actium, 83 eventually became consuls, and 170 priests (Res Gestae, 25).
• Augustus also controlled the offering of these socially important roles, giving him even more direct religious and social/political auctoritas.
• Forgotten groups like the Arval Brethren were restored: one of their roles was to offer thanksgiving on behalf of the Roman people for the welfare and prosperity of Augustus and his family (WH, P.83).
• Augustus associated celebrated deities with his name: Fortuna Augusta, Pax Augusta, and Mercurius Augusta

Question 5

What was significant about Augustus’ temple-rebuilding programme? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 5

• New temple building and restoration began, “of the type that would horrify the modern conservationist.” (WH, P.83).
• Rebuilt in marble, not original materials, and though he seemed to be humble by not having his name inscribed over the person who originally had these temples made, the style of the architecture made it very clear who had made it (e.g. Corinthian columns).
• The Fasti, the calendar were days were marked holy or unholy, was given special prominence by Augustus, inscribed in stone on the temple of fortune in Praeneste (where surely Ovid was inspired to turn the whole calendar, month by month, into books of elegiac verse).

Question 6

How and where did the Imperial Cult begin? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 6

• Almost as soon as Egypt had been added to the Roman Empire, the eastern provinces petitioned to worship their emperor as a living god. Those states traditionally worshipped their rulers.
• The people of Pergamum in Asia Minor successfully petitioned Octavian to build a temple to him and Rome in 29B.C.

Question 7

What was Augustus’s general attitude to the idea of the Imperial cult? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 7

• Suetonius tells us (Augustus 93) that Augustus was respectful to long-established religions, but considered the worship of a living individual dangerous, especially in Rome and the West.
• The Imperial Cult (the worship of the emperor or his family as divine) could therefore only be tolerated in the east.
• Tacitus (annals, 4.37) tells us that he did not stand in their way: the imperial cult could successfully bind all peoples of the vast empire under imperial rule (Strabo’s Geography, 4.3.2.).

Question 8

How did Augustus enable the Imperial cult without causing offence? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 8

• The Romans believed that everyone has a divine aspect called the numen (the divinity of a person) and worship was permitted of the numen of Augustus as well as his genius (in the roman sense, the spirit of a person or place: not just a smart bloke!).
• Thus, Augustus could accrue the benefits of worship WITHOUT being accused of claiming to be more than human. The man was mortal, but his spirit was divine.

Question 9

What evidence is there that the Imperial Cult spread to parts of the West, as well as the east? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 9

• The imperial cult was quickly adopted at the extremes of the empire.
• Western evidence comes from an inscription on an altar to the numen of Augustus dated AD 12-13 from Narbo in Gaul, which shows the devotion of provincial citizens to the emperor (Lactor 17).
• The fact that it was originally established for Augustus’ intercession into a legal matter in Narbo reinforces the personal (if not paternal) interest that a princeps took in the administration of the empire, linking his ‘worship’ to that idea.
• “From the fictional shepherds of Virgil’s pastoral poems…through Horace in hymn-like poems…to Ovid in his desperate attempts after AD8 to return to favour and to Rome, Roman Poets treated Octavian/Augustus as someone to whom people naturally made prayers and offerings.” (Wallace-Hadrill, P.79).

Question 10

Why did the historian Wallace-Hadrill argue that the Imperial Cult could have been dangerous for Augustus to promote? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 10

• However, Wallace-Hadrill argues that this ruler-cult worship was controversial even in the east “to some an unwelcome oriental perversion, only adopted in fear and self-protection, or grotesque flattery” (P.80).
• Hence, he argues, the complex, contradictory and radical revolution of Augustus in getting romans to treat a man as in any way divine.
• There is a problem of what it meant to call Augustus a god, “his position was self-contradictory enough to permit radically different assessments” (P.80).
• “What is clear is that Augustus understood the enormous political potential of manipulating religious sentiment, and that he was deft in exploiting it.” (P.80).

Question 11

What evidence is there of the worship of Augustus in Italy? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 11

• There is similar evidence that aspects of Augustus were being worshipped closer to home: Ovid’s Fasti (5.140-158) mention the divine spirit of Augustus being worshipped at crossroads.
• Similarly, an inscription from Rome around 7BC records priests of the cult of the Augustan Lares (protective spirits) chosen from freedmen. This form of worship allowed people to focus on Augustus’ divinity INDIRECTLY, and so was therefore less controversial.

Question 12

Why is Tacitus critical of Augustus’ religious reforms? (2 marks).

Answer 12

• However, although the imperial cult was a source of prestige for Augustus, it could also be used to question the extent to which Augustus actually restored traditional Roman Religion…
“There were no honours left for the gods, now that Augustus chose to be
Worshipped with temples and godlike images by flamines and priests” (Tacitus, Annals, 1.10.6).

Question 13

What evidence does Suetonius give us about Augustus’ religious reforms? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 13

• Suetonius credits Augustus with refusing temples, except in the provinces in the joint names of himself and Rome, and says he never allowed them within the capital itself” (52).
• He mentions a Temple of Rome and Augustus at Pola.
• “Suetonius’ biography is firmly that of a mortal.” BUT there are elements of myth-making, e.g. a cluster of signs that appear divine, a similar birth story involving snakes in comparison to Alexander the Great.

Question 14

What material evidence do we have concerning Augustus’ religious reforms? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 14

• Agate Ring-Stone, Octavian portrayed as Neptune riding over the waves (and probably the head of Sextus Pompey!). A ring stone was a private commission, but later coinage after Actium and the parallel between Augustus’ image and divine ones are interesting, because he is being shown to have divine features.
• Sundial of Campius Martius, near Augustus’ Mausoleum and the Ara Pacis: linked with equinox, astrologer a powerful force, the wish to believe in the divine order of things in heaven and earth: Augustus tapping into this. Only on Augustus’ birthday did the shadow cast by the tip of the pointer traverse the square in a straight line – it passed straight through the centre of the Ara pacis, making a simple point. His birth, conquests and the peace and prosperity of his reign were divinely planned, marking Augustus as chosen by the Gods.

Question 15

Why did Augustus give patronage to poets and writers? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 15

• Patronage of the arts was an important aspect of Roman life, and it applied equally to literature.
• Poets/historians gave readings from their works in the homes of wealthy patrons, who often provided the writers with material security.
• Augustus obviously realised the propaganda value of writers, but there was no need for him to pressure these men into expressing their approval of the new regime from which they gained their inspiration, since most of them were sincere supporters of it.

Question 16

Why was Augustus’ social circle of help to him, in terms of securing artistic patronage? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 16

• Maecenas, the good friend of Augustus, was one such patron of literature, and
“Augustus gave all possible encouragement to intellectuals: he would politely and patiently attend readings not only of their poems and historical works, but of their speeches and dialogues.” (Virgil, Eclogues, 4 in McDermott and Caldwell, P.332).
• Augustus was fortunate that three men of genius were his literary friends. The Poets Virgil and Horace were introduced to him by Maecenas, and the historian Livy became a teacher in the imperial household.
• Virgil and Horace began their writing in the triumviral period, and were grateful for the restoration of peace. Their poetry expressed their love of the Italian countryside, praises the old Roman virtues and ancestral customs and reflects the ideals and hopes of a new age. Livy expressed the same sentiment in prose.

Question 17

Why was Virgil’s work helpful for Augustus? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 17

• The Aeneid was his masterpiece, how the Trojan Prince Aeneas, guided by his mother Venus, led a band of escapees from burning Troy to settle in Latinium.
• Aeneas’ son Iulus married a Latin princess and founded the Julian family, from which Augustus held descent.
• Virgil showed the ancient virtues which Augustus was anxious to revive flourished in the simple rural life of Italy.
• In 4th poem of Ecologues, written in 40BC, he prophesised that a new era would ‘herald the end of war.’
• In the Aeneid Virgil represented Aeneas as the ideal Roman who exhibits virtues such as a sense of duty, loyalty and piety.
• He predicted the future greatness of Rome and alluded to Augustus and the Julian family.
• 65-8BC.

Question 18

Why was Horace’s work helpful for Augustus? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 18

• In 44BC he joined Brutus, and lost his farm after the defeat at Philippi, so he went to Rome to become a clerk to the Quaestors. The Carmen Saeculare, written by someone who had fought against Augustus at Philippi and who was now eulogising the New Age, indicated that old differences were settled.
• Horace wrote the Carmen Saeculare, which was sung by a chorus of youths and girls at the secular games celebrated by Augustus in 17BC. This ceremony ushered in a new age of peace and prosperity.
• His most famous works were his lyric Odes, written in four books in two stages, 30-23BC and 17-13BC.
• Apart from such themes as the simple life, frugality, wine and love, he includes odes to Augustus, Tiberius and Drusus.
• In the first six odes of Book III and in Book IV, the Roman Odes, Horace supported Augustus’ religious and moral reforms and made reference to the restoration of order and discipline; he glorified the empire, and Augustus and his family.

Question 19

Why was Livy’s work helpful for Augustus? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 19

• He gained the friendship of Augustus and taught the future emperor Claudius, encouraging his interest in History.
• Livy’s great work was his ‘History of the Roman Republic’, which covered 700 years from the founding of Rome to the death of Drusus in AD9. It comprised 142 books.
• Livy contributed to Augustus’ policy of patriotic and religious revival by aiming to show the past greatness of Rome and the virtues of the great men-and the Roman people in general-exhibited during their history.

Question 20

Why was Ovid’s work helpful for Augustus? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 20

• His Fasti was a calendar of Roman festivals dedicated to Augustus.
• Although much of Ovid’s work reflected the immorality of high society and did not support the official policy of Augustus, he did attempt in his Fasti to promote patriotism, religion and respect for the past.
• In his Metamorphoses he ended by predicted a divine future for Augustus.

Question 21

Why was Ovid get into trouble with Augustus? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 21

• AD8 banished by Augustus to Tomi on the Black Sea. Ovid’s erotic verse caused Augustus displeasure, since he was trying to curb the lax lifestyle of the upper classes.
• Ovid may also have been involved with the scandal of Augustus’ granddaughter Julia.
• Ovid’s love elegies include Amores, Remedia Amoris and Ars Amatoria, and although frivolous, they are humorous. It was the Ars Amatoria (on the art of seduction) which showed Augustus’ moral reform to be futile.

Question 22

Why was the rebuilding of Temples so important for Augustus personally in terms of cementing his legitimacy? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 22

• In the Res Gestae a number of temples are mentioned, many with some political significance.
• The Temple of Quirinius linked Rome’s first founder with its restorer; that of magna mater (Cybele, the great mother) represented a direct connection between Rome and Troy and between Augustus and Aeneas; add to that the fact that the Great Mother had waited two centuries for her own temple, having been brought to Rome during the 2nd Punic War on the request of the Sibylline books.
• Jupiter of Libertas commemorated Augustus’ reconciliation the nobility, whilst Jupiter Tonans was a favourite of Augustus himself, following his own escape from a lightning-strike whilst in Spain. Apollo too, Augustus’ guardian at Actium, received a temple on the Palatine Hill, close to the house of the Princeps.

Question 23

Why was the rebuilding of Temples so important for Augustus in terms of glorifying his family? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 23

• Augustus’ interest in the family’s place at the heart of Roman Society is showed by his mention of the construction of the temples to Vesta and to both the Lares and the Penates.
• A significant part of his building effort was connected with his filial pietas. The Forum Julium with its commanding temple dedicated to Venus Genetrix, the deity of the gens Julia, was completed. In the Forum Romanum, the Basilica Julia was also completed, the largest of its building type in Rome. Both the forum and Basilica also provided valuable public utilities, since traders and bankers also used them.
• The Forum Romanum was also the site of the temple of the deified Julius, standing opposite the speaker’s platform (rostra), which was the heart of political activity during the Republic, and the Senate House, which Augustus also rebuilt.

Question 24

Why was the Theatre of Marcellus so important for Augustus personally in terms of cementing his legitimacy? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 24

• The Theatre of Marcellus was an important landmark in how the Princeps needed to be seen as the ultimate patron of ordinary people, especially with regards to their entertainment. The bold use of concrete allowed the tiers of seats to be supported on an interweaving system of radical and concentric concrete vaults, and so permitted the structure to be erected anywhere.

Question 25

How did Augustus’s choice of housing different from his senatorial contemporaries? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 25

• Augustus was studiously conservative and unostentatious in his choice of housing, in Rome and Italy.
• He kept simple thatched huts attributed to Romulus on the Palatine Hill.
• The Villa Iovis was a simple country retreat of the type enjoyed by many Roman nobles, though it acquired later notoriety under Tiberius.
• Augustus’ taste for simplicity was not copied by his contemporaries, and Horace noted the increasingly lavish private buildings that appeared in the Bay of Naples.

Question 26

Describe the Ara Pacis and the significance of its imagery? (Any relevant points for 2 marks).

Answer 26

• The Altar of Peace, built in the Campus Martius, has no model in Roman Architectural Tradition, being solely Greek. The structure is simple: raised in the centre of the site is the Altar, decorated with scenes from the procession that accompanied its dedication.
• Interior carries the common Hellenistic decorative device of ox-skulls alternating with heavy garlands, it is the exterior which tells us of Augustus’ views of his role.
• The Swan appears on it, sacred to Venus, and to Apollo, Augustus’ own personal protector.
• The upper band features two processional scenes, Augustus himself, members of his family and prominently Marcus Agrippa.
• The unity of the family with Augustus at its head is depicted as of paramount importance.
• The other long side – a continuation of the procession- carries representations of members of the Senate. “The two together portray the harmony of Augustus and the nobility which was the essential foundation of the restored republic.” (P.69).
• Flanking the entrances were smaller panels that identified the Princeps with the historical past: Mars with Romulus and Remus and Roma. Another depicts Aeneas landing on Italian soil, another the Italian fertility figure Tellus/Italia suckling children, reminding observers of Augustus’ revival of Italian agriculture, and perhaps of a rural simplicity as echoed in Augustan era poetry.