Divus Iulius

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The Divus Iulius (also: Divus Julius ) was valid in Rome since the official consecratio in 42 BC. BC as the highest state god next to Iupiter Optimus Maximus . The Divus Iulius is the deity to which Gaius Iulius Caesar became after his assassination in 44 BC. ( IMP · C · IVLIVS · CAESAR · DIVVS : Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar Divus ). The Julian religion was widespread throughout the Roman Empire and is generally considered to be the forerunner of the Roman imperial cult , but continued alongside it until the empire was Christianized .

Introductory explanations

History and meaning of the term divus

Etymologically , the often mentioned contraction of the Latin divinus to divus is incorrect. Rather, the word divus ( Latin for “God” or “divine”; pronounced: “(d) iu-us”, since in Latin at that time there was no differentiation between u and v ) is a synonymous form of deus : both terms were used indiscriminately by the Romans ( diuus <> deus ), a practice that continued after Caesar and the introduction of the imperial cult in Roman poetry. The origin of divus can be found in the ancestral cult of the ancient Roman family, which the spirits of the deceased, the di (v) i parentes and the di (v) i manes , were considered to be an indefinite collective: the ancestor or particularly famous ancestors were originally only rarely singled out as individuals or even distinguished by special veneration, such as B. the diva Angerona and the diva Rumina .

The use of the term changed under Julius Caesar when the Senate looked for a suitable cult name for the dictator . In September 44 BC . AD is divus related to Caesars Apotheosis of Cicero mentioned: Divus Iulius was the Senate officially set at the beginning of that year as a cult name for Caesar. The fact that Caesar accepted the cult name on the proposal of the Senate shows that he tried to distance himself from the antiquated variant deus , which is close to Dieus , the old name of the god Iuppiter or Zeus , which was additionally due to Caesar's rejection of the alternative and all too clear proposal Iuppiter Iulius (Cassius Dio: Dia Ioulion ) is substantiated. It also shows that the apotheosis was prepared for an independent, but Jupiter-related deity, and the fact that Caesar was a flamen Dialis (high priest of Jupiter) from his youth , but was prevented by Sulla from inaugurating, could really motivated him to agree to the cult name Divus Iulius . In addition, it is possible that Caesar himself suggested the cult name in his will (around 45 BC). The latter, however, remains pure speculation.

An earlier reference to Caesar's apotheosis during his lifetime is a municipal temple in Aesernia , which was built after Caesar's appointment as parens patriae in 45 BC. Was dedicated to the cult of the genius Caesaris . The inscription on the temple names Caesar with a variant of his cult name as Deivus Iulius . The inauguration of the genius cult in Aesernia was undoubtedly carried out during Caesar's lifetime, but rather dates back to 44 BC. BC, since the inclusion of Caesar as state god in the pantheon of gods was officially decided by the Senate only this year, despite numerous previously received divine honors.

According to Gradel (2002), the first mention of the cult name divus in connection with Caesar is based on the inscription on the Roman pantocrator statue, which was made after Caesar's victory at Thapsus in May 46 BC. Was built on the Capitol . In this, according to a historical work later written by Cassius Dio , Caesar was called hemitheos . As Cassius Dio, in the case of a deceased emperor on the one hand for the word divus always the Greek translation heros used, on the other hand, in the context of the whole cult name divus as theios translated (ex .: Divus Augustus > theios Augoustos ) for hemitheos the Latin divus presuppose if it was used for the still living ruler, in this case Divus Caesar . (The translation as "demigod" is to be rejected, since hemitheos did not find its way into the Latin language until the fourth century AD. In addition, the direct Latin translation of hemitheos as semideus was first introduced by Ovid in Rome.) The Greeks translated on inscriptions in Caesar's time divus always with theos , since in the Greek language at that time no distinction was made between the new form and the older deus .

The importance of the divus compared to the deus has undergone major changes over the centuries after Caesar's deification. The original post-republican meaning, probably in the course of establishing Caesar's cult names in 46 BC. BC, but no later than 44 BC BC was defined by the influential scholar Varro , placed the divus above all other divine beings: Divi were accordingly the highest ranking gods, and the term divus implied the noblest and most venerable position of a deity who had been a god from the beginning of time. Deus , on the other hand, was the term to be used for mortals who had been consecrated as gods after their death. Varro's momentous definition will have further increased the political explosive power of Caesar's apotheosis, also with regard to the subsequent imperial cult: the Divus Iulius was an eternal god, and Caesar had always been a god, even if this quality was only recognized later. For this reason, the Senate's decision to use the term divus was all too logical.

In the fourth century AD, however, this Varronic interpretation experienced a 180 degree turn in the writings of the Virgil commentator Servius , because he wanted to reverse Varro's eccentric disregard for the chronological development from deus to divus . The Divi had been the immortal elite class of the gods in Varro's time, but were increasingly seen as a special and inferior sub-category of the highly generalized Dii . The process of the consecratio of a deceased ruler contradicted, according to a later view, the quality of the Divus as “eternal God”. This was reinforced by the fact that Rome increasingly gave up the cult of its posthumously divinized emperors and preferred the cult of the incumbent emperors, especially in the municipal and private sphere. The Servian reinterpretation may be responsible for the often-mentioned interpretation of the word divus as a "divine", which corresponds more to the Christian concept of " holy " (Latin sanctus ). Despite Servius, this has no historical basis, even if the later divinized emperors no longer had the same status as the Divus Iulius or his son, the Divi (Iuli) filius ("Son of God"), who was revered as Divus Augustus after his death .

Historical misunderstandings

"Deification" versus "Deification"

In 1968 Gesche introduced a differentiation of divinization terminology, which, however, was viewed by most as too sharp. According to Gesche, deification should be understood as the granting and execution of honors, as they were similarly customary for gods, but through which the honored person was not elevated to the state gods under sacral law, despite divinization, but only received a certain increase in rank in the human-political area ( terminus technicus: isoteoi timai ). Deification , on the other hand, should mean the official admission of a person to the state gods, carried out by the state and sanctioned by the sacred law of the state. In order to be able to speak of deification, those criteria would have to be fulfilled that are also given for the other state gods: the existence of a) a cult name , b) a cult site and c) a functioning cult , i.e. i.e., specifically in relation to Rome, the office of a state priest . According to Gesche, it should apply that before the cult had not come into effect in every detail, the final recognition as a state god was practically missing. This state of affairs becomes particularly clear in the case of the creation of a new god, in the consecratio of the Roman emperors.

However, such strict categorization did not exist in ancient Roman reality. The apotheosis was always the result of a complex and constantly changing game of two extremes, on the one hand the collective flood of emotions, on the other hand the legally valid legalization of a religious duty. Both the truly religiously motivated masses and the political and theopolitical calculations of the ruling class were at work simultaneously and alternately at all times. Especially in the case of Caesar's apotheosis in the turbulent times of the Roman Revolution, it is almost impossible to distinguish between the tendencies of deification, deifying acts, flattery and real divinization decrees, as well as between the urban Roman, municipal, private, Eastern Hellenistic or Roman colonial dynamics of an emerging new religion to distinguish exactly. Based on this narrow view as presented by Gesche et al. was represented, a persistent branch of research in historians' circles has been able to hold up to this day, whose representatives deny that Caesar was ever deified by the Senate during his lifetime. Furthermore, a certain theopolitical program was often rumored that Julius Caesar must have allegedly pursued. Even if Iulius Caesar as pontifex maximus was the highest authority in Roman religious questions and thus many innovations can be directly attributed to him, this argument misunderstands the entire system of granting and accepting honors in Roman society: honors were a possibility, status or the defining the social position of a person or a deity, but also an instrument for exercising power, d. H. a way to fix the person to a certain concept, to bind them politically and thereby to guarantee a benevolent and good rule. It could be honorable for a ruler to refuse excessive honors. On the other hand, however, a rejection of honors always implied a rejection of the moral obligations associated with them, even to the point of breaking any relationship with the res publica . It was therefore socially irresponsible for a ruler to ignore all honors and proposals addressed to him by the Senate.

The Diadem and the Rex title

The constant scholarly discussion of Caesar's pursuit of royal dignity also created diametrically opposed views. However, the question of Caesar's monarchical ambitions is already flawed, because there was no official and generally recognized definition in Rome of what constituted a “god”, what a “king” or even a “god-king”. The fact that striving for a diadem and a Rex title would have meant either Caesar's political death or the end of the res publica is self-evident, but not relevant, because our modern image of kingship, which only through the royal title, which is inseparable from the essence of monarchical power, as well as whole profane is finally defined as a new form of government through certain props and insignia (crown, throne, etc.), is not applicable to late republican Rome: the legalization of an official monarchy in Rome was impossible without completely changing the form of government of the res publica , which at the same time would have meant their abolition. Furthermore, no monarchical tradition or structure existed in Rome either in the recent past, represented by a vacant throne, or presently as a competing ruler, although there had been a precedent prior to Caesar's path to power: the first step towards one new monarchical form of government in Rome was founded by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus on his third triumph in 61 BC. Taken.

It is therefore a logical reaction that Caesar, in the fight against Pompey during the civil war, also attached importance to stately attributes, which had to arouse clear royal associations and unequivocally testify that Caesar and the Senate had embarked on the path to a new monarchical rule: i) the red boots of the kings of Alba Longa , which are said to have already been worn by Romulus , ii) Caesar's white young horse on his triumphal procession as an analogy to the kings of Roman mythology, iii) the corona laurea , a golden variant of the triumphal laurel of the Etruscan kings , iv) the toga purpurea of the ancient kings, v) the authority, like Romulus, to consecrate the spolia opima to Iuppiter Feretrius , vi) the extension of the Pomerium , vii) the college of Luperci Iulii , viii) the statue under the statues of the mythical Kings , and ix) various allusions to the domination aesthetic of the Hellenistic kings in the caesar ian coin propaganda.

Yet there is no doubt that Caesar vigorously and publicly rejected the two unmistakable elements of traditional Roman royal rule, the title Rex and the diadem of the ancient Roman kings. Despite his obvious aversion and the impossibility of establishing a royal rule in Rome, the character of Caesar's rule was de facto monarchical: as dictator perpetuo he was the sole ruler of all Romans - not only for life, but "forever". With this measure the Senate succeeded in anchoring Caesar's monarchical autocracy factually and legally legalized. It was therefore not necessary for Caesar to strive for the insignia and the title of the Roman monarchy. Nevertheless, in the course of counter-propaganda, he was repeatedly suspected of wanting to be appointed King of Rome, whereby it should be noted that his opponents did not accuse him of his un-republican monarchical form of rule, but rather assumed that he was striving for a diadem and a Rex title, i.e. the Labels of a Roman monarchy that had always been viewed in public opinion as tyrannical and hateful. This argumentation was later also one of the main arguments for the committed "tyrannicide" in the propaganda of the conspirators after the Ides of March 44 BC. Chr.

Summary

The religious and political honors for Caesar must be seen primarily because of their conspicuous internal contradictions as attempts by his followers and an overwhelmed senatorial class to shape the new and unique role of Julius Caesar as monarchical ruler and living god. However, this drove the almighty dictator into a political impotence. His fatal fate in this exceptional historical situation shows that it was no longer possible for him to maintain the right measure and the right balance in the face of the ever more numerous and extravagant requests for honor and flattery. His own "Caesarian" dogma of innovation, boldness and speed, through which he had gained a large part of his power religiously and militarily, stood in his way in the saturated political sphere of the res publica . Thus he became a victim of political circumstances, from which he had visibly alienated himself at the end of his life and could hardly be mastered. However, his murder had no effect on the creation of the new god Divus Iulius . On the contrary, it additionally underpinned his apotheosis and thereby laid the foundation for the later imperial cult under his successor Octavianus.

Summarizing the current state of research, it can be stated that Caesar was divinized during his lifetime by a resolution of the Senate and the confirmation, which is not undisputed in Rome, was carried out posthumously by consecratio . Furthermore, the historical sources do not support the assumption that Caesar was striving for the title of king and diadem, but only prove the zeal of his followers and the slander campaign of his opponents, who repeatedly misused these symbolic elements of the Roman monarchy for their own purposes. Even so, Caesar's rule must ultimately be classified as monarchical. The ambiguous and heterogeneous nature of today's Caesar image is directly attributable to the different assessment of the Roman ruler in the ancient sources, the tendency of which can only rarely be classified as neutral: this results in the denigration campaigns of his opponents at the time on the one hand and the ardent admiration of his followers on the other hand to this day in contrasting, hardly reconcilable positions in the research areas of history and religious studies. Since a distinction was seldom made between the questions about Caesar's apotheosis during his lifetime and his pursuit of the title of king and diadem, it is not surprising that most scholars can only answer both questions in the negative or only in the affirmative. These two actually different complexes were already coupled with each other by Caesar when he in 68 BC. The laudatio funebris held on his deceased aunt Julia: Caesar himself saw the inviolability of kings and the holiness of the gods as something that was inherent in his sex, that is, naturally and naturally due to him from birth. In the political turmoil after his death, the developments that had already begun were completed: as Divus he became the first eternal god of the Roman Empire, and due to the abolition of the republican dictatorship he remained as dictator perpetuo the last eternal monarch of Rome.

Alba Longa, Bovillae and Rome: the religious tradition of the gens Iulia

The religio Romana originated from the sacred tribal institutions of the Latins , from the rites and deities of the Etruscans and from the appropriation of the cults in Lavinium and Alba Longa . In addition, an increasing influx of Greek cults and the related introduction of Hellenistic syncretisms has been recorded in southern Italy since the time of the Gracchi . This development is reflected in the religious tradition of the Iulii , but v. a. also in the reinterpretation of the ancient Roman cults by Julius Caesar, during whose tenure as pontifex maximus Rome introduced numerous religious innovations. Caesar's family, the gens Iulia , belonged to the so-called Aeneadae , the “Trojan” families of Rome, who traced their descent to Aeneas or one of his companions. The Iulii family was founded by Ascanius , son of Aeneas. The family name Iulius goes back to Ascanius' cognomen Iulus (from Latin iulus , German: "woolly worm"). Aeneas' successor as king was not granted to the Julier ancestors. Thus Numitor Silvius ascended the throne, and Ascanius Iulus held a high priesthood instead. The Julians initially lived in Alba Longa, the mother city of Rome, but after the city was destroyed they moved to Rome and were assigned to the tribus Fabia as a patrician family .

Their gentile cults remained in Rome, but v. a. also preserved in Bovillae , where a member of the family always held a priesthood, but not a high office ( rex sacrorum ), as propagated by Weinstock (1971). The eponymous founding myth of the fleeing bull ( bos ) was renewed at the beginning of the civil war, when Caesar wanted to sacrifice a bull to the goddess Fortuna before his campaign against Pompey , but the bull escaped, fled the city and swam across a lake. This was seen as a good omen for Caesar's campaign, and some of Caesar's legions subsequently carried a bull on their standard ( signa ). Caesar's connection to the homeland of his family and their symbol was continued in the cult of princeps Augustus and in the later imperial cult: a bull was often sacrificed during his lifetime to heavenly gods such as Divus Iulius and Divus Augustus, like the relief on the altar in the imperial temple of Augustus in the Forum of Pompeii . The connection between the Julian family and Bovillae was renewed after Augustus' death, when the body of the deceased Emperor von Nola was first carried to Bovillae and then to Rome (see also section "Veiovis").

Veiovis

Contrary to popular belief, it was not Venus but Veiovis (also: Vediovis ) who was the main god of the gens Iulia , to whom the family in Bovillae had consecrated an altar. This archaic deity ( agonium according to the old calendar on May 21) was generally identified with the young Jupiter ( Ve (d) iovis as the diminutive form of Iovis ), later also with Apollo . The Julier gentile cult was also known in the city of Rome and began long before Caesar's pontificate. After Aeneas died, he was deified as a Iuppiter indigenous. Aeneas' son Ascanius Iulus inaugurated his cult in Alba Longa and built a temple for him there. The Julians will have seen a welcome parallel to their own ancestor Ascanius Iulus, the son of the Iuppiter indigenous people, when they moved to Rome and Bovillae in the cult of the young Jupiter Veiovis. It is undisputed that the cult of Veiovis was an ancestral and death cult. However, it is unknown whether the Julier also identified Veiovis directly with Iulus. In any case, Julius Caesar preferred the cult of Venus Genetrix for the divine genealogy of his family (see below). Following the example of the Veiovian gentile cult, the cult of Divus Augustus was created in Rome and entrusted to the newly founded class of the sodales Augustales , which also had an important seat in Bovillae, where Emperor Tiberius published a statue of Augustus in 16 AD Set up the shrine. The great fame of the Veiovis cult and its connection to Caesar's family may also appeal to the Senate in 44 BC. Chr. To suggest Iuppiter Iulius as a possible cult name for Caesar and to ascribe the priest of the deified ruler to the class of the flamines maiores , synonymous only with the flamen Dialis .

Apollo

Apart from the identification of the Julian gentile god Veiovis with Apollo , other connections between the Julians and this god cannot be proven before the first principate . Nor was it Caesar who made the cult acceptable in urban Roman circles, because during the civil war Apollo was very popular both in Rome and on the part of all warring parties. Only Caesar's personal connection to Apollo can be mentioned here, which, however, had no genealogical meaning for him : Caesar was born on the first day of the Roman ludi Apollinaris (July 13, 100 BC) and had in 45 BC. BC organized the games themselves at their own expense. His birth in the shadow of Apollo will certainly have influenced Caesar's political actions, especially the choice of his nephew Octavius ​​as his heir and successor, who, according to legend, was conceived by an unearthly act, as Apollo in the form of a serpent during a midnight feast in the Roman Temple of Apollo associated with Octavius' sleeping mother Atia . In July 44 BC BC Marcus Iunius Brutus , one of the conspirators against Caesar, financed the Apollo Games in Rome as praetor urbanus , which Octavianus (formerly Octavius) felt compelled to hold in the same month with his own festival in honor of his adoptive father against the burgeoning one To counter the popularity of the conspirators. Only after his victory at Philippi was Octavianus able to claim Apollo for himself: as Divi filius and later Divus Augustus there is a significant connection to the ancient Graeco-Roman deity. In summary, the importance of Apollo for Julius Caesar is rather minor, and it was only under Augustus that the god also became significant for the gens Juliet .

Mars

Apart from the legend that Caesar's uncle Gaius Marius was a son of Mars and Venus, there are no connections between the Julian house and the Roman god of war until the Principate of Augustus. Due to the late Republican Marius legend, Mars is considered the gentile god of Julier, which is also shown in the fact that Caesar after his military successes in the civil war and his triumph in 46 BC. BC announced that a temple would be built to Mars on Campus Martius . Caesar's plan never came to fruition, and it was left to his successor, Augustus, to complete the construction in 2 BC. To perform. However, this was the cult site of a new god, Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger"), and it was not on the Martian field, where Augustus had his mausoleum and the large sundial built in return , but on the Forum Augustum , clear indications that Augustus was pursuing his own plans in this case. In addition, the epithet Ultor was much more than a variant: vengeance was a sacred duty in Rome at that time, and Octavianus had had in 42 BC. Vowed to persecute the murderers of his divine father, pro ultione paterna . The connection between Mars and Venus, especially Venus Victrix , had long been known in Rome. In the late phase of his principality, however, Augustus often linked his Mars Ultor with the Venus Genetrix der Julier, probably to renew the traditional pair of gods in accordance with Julian theopolitics.

Venus

The Julier's preferred cult was the goddess Venus . Venus is related to Fortuna in many ways and was originally an ancient Italian goddess without her own flaming and festival. It appeared in multiple forms in local cults, as evidenced by its numerous epithets: Cloacina , Fisica , Iovia , plagiara , (Fisica) Pompeiana , Libitina , Calva , Salacia , Murcia , Mefitis , Obsequens , Verticorda , Postvota , Libentina , Felix , Frutis , Mater etc. The identification of Venus with the Greek goddess Aphrodite happened in the course of the first Hellenization , probably already before the 5th century BC. The many different local expressions of the goddess can only be combined hypothetically into a homogeneous image of a pre-imperial Venus, BC. a. also with regard to the syncretism to Aphrodite. Since the Oscars referred to the Greek Aphrodite as Herentas , the Etruscans as Turan , but the word Venus also occurs among the Oscars, their original function must have been different. [...]

Further information

Caesar had promoted this cult even before his death when he had a statue of himself erected with the inscription deo invicto ("the invincible god"). The descent of Iulii from Aeneas , the son of the goddess Venus Genetrix , underpinned Caesar's apotheosis to Divus Iulius in a lasting way.

The epithet of Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus , Divi filius , goes back to the Divus Iulius and shows Octavianus as the successor to the elevated Iulius Caesar: initially, when Octavianus accepted the testamentary adoption, his name was simply Caii filius , “son of Gaius ". For his idolized father, the later princeps built in 29 BC A temple in the Roman Forum in Rome .

See also

swell

  • Appian : Roman History , Books 13-17 ( Civil Wars , Books 1-5) (*)
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero : Letters to Atticus, to the brother Quintus, to Brutus
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero: Philippine Speeches
  • Cassius Dio : Roman History Books 37–50
  • Nikolaos of Damascus : Life of Caesar (Augustus) ( bios Kaisaros )
  • Plutarch : parallel biographies: Sulla , Pompeius , Cicero , Caesar , Brutus , Antonius , Cato minor Uticensis (*)
  • Suetonius : Divus Iulius (*)
  • Velleius Paterculus : Historia Romana ( Ad M. Vinicium consulem libri duo )
(*) (partially) dependent on Gaius Asinius Pollio : Historiae

literature

Web links

Primary literature

English translations

Original texts

General links

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 9, 2628 : GENIO · DEIVI · IVLI · PARENTIS · PATRIAE · QVEM · SENATVS · POPVLVSQVE · ROMANVS · IN · DEORVM · NVMERVM · RETTVLIT
  2. ↑ Lat. Inscription roughly : SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS DIVO CAESARIS
  3. ↑ Sueton, Julius 6, 1: Amitae meae Iuliae maternum genus from regibus ortum, paternum cum diis inmortalibus coniunctum est. Nam ab Anco Marcio sunt Marcii Reges, quo nomine fuit mater; a Venere Iulii, cuius gentis familia est nostra. Est ergo in genere et sanctitas regum, qui plurimum inter homines pollent, et caerimonia deorum, quorum ipsi in potestate sunt reges.