The earliest use of the divine epithet augustus, 27 BCE-37 CE: Dynastic names and religion in the Augustan principate

In 27 BC the Senate conferred the cognomen Augustus on C. Julius Caesar (Octavianus) for his renewal of constitutional rule. This renewal concealed the creation of the principate, but the events of 27 marked an division between the civil wars and the new regime, and the name Augustus became a symbol of the new dynastic government and its ideals. Soon after 27, deities at Rome began to receive the epithet augustus as part of their official nomenclature (e.g., Pax Augusta, Lares Augusti). Earlier scholarship has briefly explained the august gods as protectors of the emperor and public versions of the emperor\u27s domestic cults. The present work argues that they were rather the gods who defined and delivered the blessings of the principate to the Roman people. The argument proceeds cult by cult analyzing ritual, topography, architecture and decoration. Public attention paid the august gods created at the impetus of Augustus published the benefits of the principate, and the intermixing of the cults with other events of imperial significance linked Augustus personally to these blessings. The dynastic implications of using a personal name to symbolize the system of governance of the principate transferred to the divine epithet augustus, and the heir to Augustus\u27 throne might inherit Augustus\u27 special connection to the august gods along with his honorific name. More modest dedications to august gods began almost immediately at Rome and elsewhere. Gods such as Janus, Fortuna and Mars, all connected to the new regime, became Augusti outside of Rome though they never accepted the epithet at Rome. Thus the august gods provided a method for recognizing and honoring the Augustan regime. The end of Augustus\u27 life saw the formation of a new ideology based on continuity with the past and the security of the present rather than the revival of mores antiqui and the end of civil war. The name Augustus passed to Tiberius and the Domus Augusta. New august gods such as Providentia Augusta, Securitas Augusta and Aeternitas Augusta published the new ideology