AUGUSTA´LES
AUGUSTA´LES the name of two classes of priests, one
at Rome and the other in the municipia, frequently mentioned in
inscriptions.
I. The
Augustales at Rome, properly called
sodales Augustales, which is the name they
always bear in inscriptions, were an order of priests (
Augustalium sacerdotium) instituted by Tiberius to attend to
the worship of Augustus and the Julia gens. On this occasion they were
chosen by lot from among the principal persons in Rome, and were twenty-one
in number; Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus, as members of the
imperial family, were added as supernumeraries (
Tac. Ann. 1.54). They were also called
sacerdotes Augustales (id.
Ann. 2.83); and
sometimes simply
Augustales (id.
Hist. 2.95). The number was subsequently increased,
but never exceeded twenty-eight. The form of election seems also to have
been modified, as inscriptions show that in later times extraordinary, and
probably also ordinary members were created by a senatus consultum following
an imperial rescript (
C. I. L. 6.1985-2000; Dessau, in
Ephem. Lpigraph. 3.208; cf. Mommsen,
Staatsr. 2.1055, n. 1). That there were priestesses of
Augustus as well as priests appears from an inscription in Gruter (320, 10):
this practice probably took its origin from the appointment of Livia, by a
decree of the senate, to be priestess to her deceased husband. Even before
the emperor's death we find that
flamines and
sacerdotes had been appointed to attend to
his worship; but we have the express statements of Suetonius and Dio Cassius
that this worship was confined to the provinces, and was not practised in
Rome, or in any part of Italy, during the lifetime of Augustus (
Tac. Ann. 1.10;
Suet.
Aug. 52;
D. C. 51.20). In this
respect Augustus showed himself more moderate than the dictator Julius, who
among other divine honours accepted M. Antonius as his
flames and
lupercus (
Cic. Phil. 2.43,
110;
13.19,
41;
Suet. Jul.
76). Similar priests were appointed in honour of other deified
emperors: thus we find in inscriptions sodales Augustales Claudiales,
Flaviales (after Vespasian), Flaviales Titiales or simply Titiales (Titus;
in this case the most admired emperor of the gens gave his name to the
gentile priesthood, rather than the gentile name itself, Dessau,
l.c.); Hadrianales, Antoniniani (Ant. Pius),
Aureliani, perhaps. also called Marciani (M. Aurelius). The last instance is
that of the sodales Alexandriani after Alexander Severus (Lampr.
Al.
Sev. 63). A man's place in these priestly colleges was called
his
decuria (Mommsen,
Ephem.
Epigr. 3.75, note 1, who however adds a caution against extending
this analogy to other cases where it cannot be proved). The imperial
sodales were under three
magistri changed annually (Orelli-Henzen, 6046, with Henzen's
note); and were taken indiscriminately from patricians and plebeians
(Dessau,
l.c. p. 218 n.). Each of these
sodalitates had likewise a
flamen or sacrificing priest; we find frequent mention in
inscriptions of flamines Augustales and flamines Divorum; but the precise
degree of connexion between the
flamines and
the
sodales has been disputed. The most
probable opinion is that of Dessau, in accordance with which Marquardt has
now corrected his former views. A member of the sodales Augustales was
sometimes a flamen also (Orelli,
Inscr. 2366, 2368); but the
flamines were not, as such, members of the
collegium or
sodalitas. The flamines Augustales were necessarily patricians,
and were most likely nominated, like the three great
flamines, by the emperor as Pontifex Maximus; the
sodales, as already stated, were under no such
restriction. For further details on the imperial
flamines, see
FLAMEN (H. Dessau,
de sodalibus et flaminibus
Augustalibus, Berlin, 1877, and in
Ephem.
Epigr. 3.205 ff.; Mommsen-Marquardt, vi. (iii.), pp. 449-455.)
II. The
Augustales in the municipia are
scarcely mentioned in ancient literature, but the constant growth of
epigraphic material throws increasing light upon their organisation. There
is no doubt that (1) they were, as a rule,
libertini, though
ingenui Augustales
are sometimes mentioned in inscriptions; that (2) they formed, in
conjunction with the
seviri, whose precise relation
to them remains to be discussed, an intermediate class (
ordo) between the municipal senators (
decuriones) and plebs (
municipes);
and that (3) they and the
seviri alike had for their
object the worship of Augustus, with which succeeding emperors came to be
associated. They cannot. have been, as was formerly supposed, instituted in
the municipia in imitation of the Augustales of Tiberius at Rome, just
described; they appear in the lifetime of Augustus, the others only after
his death: the social status of their members is in striking contrast with
that of the sodales (
Tac. Ann. 1.54; see
above); and while the more dignified priesthood honoured only consecrated
emperors, those we are now considering descended to the cultus of the
living, who perhaps in the end were never deified at all (e. g. Nero,
C. I. L. 3429). Another view, based on the scholiasts of
Horace (Porphyr. and Acron,
ad Hor.
Sat. 2.3, 281), was that they were a class of
priests selected by Augustus from the
libertini
to attend to the worship of the Lares, which that emperor set up in places
where two or more ways met [
COMPITALIA]. This was held by Orelli (
Inscr. ii.
p. 197) and Egger (
Append. ii. p. 384 ff.), but Henzen showed
(
Zeitschr. für Alterthumsw., 1848, p. 193) from
the fuller evidence of inscriptions that the
magistri
Augustales and
magistri Larum
Augustorum were distinct
[p. 1.259]from the
Augustales properly so called and the
seviri Augustales (see especially Orelli-Henzen, 6062,
6093, 7115). The same evidence allows us to trace the worship of Augustus in
his lifetime to private persons, provincial towns, and existing priestly
colleges, especially those of Mercury: hence the allusion in Horace (
Od. 1.2,
41-
4). The six principal members of the college
were called
seviri, but the distinction between
these and other Augustales is not always clear. The evidence of the
inscriptions leads us to the following conclusions. In the municipia of
Southern Italy, including parts of Samnium and Campania, the intermediate
class are called Augustales, but no
seviri are
mentioned, except at Rhegium and Puteoli. They have officers of their
own,--a
curator, quinquennales, and
quaestores. In the provinces of Gallia Narbonensis
and Lugdunensis, we find
seviri only, without
Augustales; the
seviri as annual officers, three
equites and three freedmen, in an important inscription at Narbonne (Orelli,
2489). In most cities of Central Italy both
seviri
and Augustales occur; and this is pronounced by Henzen and Marquardt the
most regular type of the institution. In this case the
seviri appear to have served for a year, providing sacrifices at
their own expense, and afterwards to have become life-members of the
ordo under the name of Augustales. In
particular places we read of
sexviri seniores and
juniores. Nor was the number six invariable, as
in some rare cases there are
triumviri Augustales and
octoviri Augustales. Under later emperors the institution
spread throughout the empire, and one object of it was probably to open a
career of honour elsewhere to the
libertini,
who were purposely kept down at Rome (Marquardt, pp. 204-5). There was a
property qualification required, which is not stated, but must have been
considerable: besides the sacrifices, they had to pay a fine on admission
(
summa honoraria) and give games and other
treats to the people. These admission fees went into the chest of the
municipality, not into a corporate fund of their own; they were thus an
ordo, not a
collegium. In return they had the distinction of the
praetexta while in office, and might also be buried
in it; that of the
bisellium, with a place of
honour in the theatre; and were accompanied on state occasions by two
lictors bearing fasces (ib. 206-7). We are reminded of some of the incidents
of municipal dignity in modern times. (Egger,
Examen critique des
Historiens anciens de la Vie et du Règne d'Auguste,
Paris, 1844, Appendix II. p. 357 if.; Zumpt,
de Augustalibus et
Seviris Augustalibus Commentatio Epigraphica, Berol. 1846;
Henzen, in
Zeitschr. für Alterthumsw., 1848, Nos.
25-27 and 37-40; J. Schmidt,
de Seviris Augustalibus, Halle,
1878; 0. Hirschfeld, in
Zeitschr. für die
österreichischen Gymnasien, 1878, p. 292 ff.; and
especially Marquardt, iv. (i.) pp. 197-208, ed. 2 (1881).
[
W.W]
