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Numina Augustorum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Duncan Fishwick
Affiliation:
St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Extract

Shortly before the death of Augustus, Tiberius dedicated the celebrated ara numinis Augusti, thus formally enshrining the numen of Augustus within the Imperial Cult. The step was a radical one, fundamental to the whole development of the emperor's ‘divinity’. Whereas the official cult of the emperor's genius had continued a traditional Republican practice, if with significant differences, to ascribe numen to the princeps was to establish Augustus as a through whom divinity could function as an intermediary. For to pay cult to the numen Augusti was to ascribe to the human emperor the quintessential property of a god.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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