Augustus and the Cult of the Emperor

Faced with the worship of the ruler in the Greek east, Augustus could do little more that regulate a practice that had already existed over three centuries. His problem in Rome, in contrast, was to adapt the cult of the ruler required by contemporary practice to the usage of the Republic in such as way as to distance himself from Caesar, whose indiscretion had produced his untimely death. The system he hit upon was to emphasize Republican forms, key abstractions, and the worship of state gods closely connected with his rule: in other words to establish the cult of the emperor by other then direct means. In the Latin west in contrast he was free to shape the ruler cult as he chose. His principal contribution here was to establish regional centres at Lugdunum and elsewhere for the worship of Roma and Augustus, a prescription originally laid down for nonRomans in the Greek east. Sharply to be distinguished from this is the altar of Augustus at Tarraco reported by Quintilian. This can only be municipal, not the foundation monument of the provincial cult of Hispania citerior, which began only after the emperor’s death and dei?cation.