Honouring the gods in the classical Mediterranean realm and on its fringes

Apollo, from victory to heralding a new era: the advent of the Augustan Principate

During the second century BC, Apollo became the undisputed god of victory and triumph in the Roman ruling class' ideology. It remains difficult, however, to detect instances of more personal relationships between the god and figures belonging to Rome's political scene, even though we know that such philosophical beliefs as Pythagorism[1], played an undoubted part in the dissemination of Apollonism. By contrast, those two aspects – the victory – promoting ideology and the private cult – were brought together under Augustus' Principate. In the 1st century BC, Octavian-Augustus[2] made the god one of the underpinning principles of Principate ideology: Apollo, Actium's victor was given pride of place near the imperial residence on the Palatine. Set up as Rome's protector he became on the occasion of the 17 BC Secular Games the herald of a new era.

There is ground to believe that Octavian sought the patronage of Phoebus[3]-Apollo as early as his triumviral days, as attested by some representations of the god on some of Octavian's coinage and the episode of the « Banquet of the Twelve Gods » related by Suetonius[4] in his Life of Augustus (70), during which the future emperor reportedly took on the god's likeness. What were Octavian's reasons for choosing Apollo? Some refer to the long-standing relation his Iulii family maintained with the god; they point out that the first (431 BC) temple had been dedicated by Consul Cnaeus Iulius. The thesis according to which Octavian may have sought to set Apollo, the god of civilisation and measure against Dionysius, Mark Antony's god and the epitome of drunkenness and Eastern excesses has also been well rehearsed. However in the thirties/forties BC, Octavian was not alone in seeking Apollo's patronage since, as evidenced by some Roman coinage, Brutus[5] had done so before him and even Mark-Antony[6] appears as Sol-Apollo on some coins.

In 31 the victory at Actium over Antony and Cleopatra[7]' s fleet marked a turning point in the relation between the god, a would-be Augustus and the imperial ideology in the making. Indeed the victory of Octavian's fleet was attributed to the local god, Apollo who had a sanctuary in the Actium peninsula on the southern flank of the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf. In the description of the battle Virgil sets on Aeneas' shield in his Eaneid, Apollo Actius' intervention is key to routing the barbarian hordes lead by Antony and Cleopatra. After the victory Actium was the site of significant commemorative activity: Apollo's old temple at Actium was rebuilt and in arsenals hard by, were dedicated ten whole war ships, spoils of the sea battle. On the opposite side of the bay the town of Nicopolis was built under the patronage of Apollo. To the north of that city, a hill dedicated to Apollo was the site of games in honour of the god. On the very site of Octavian's camp a monument celebrating his victory was erected: an open air sanctuary set on terraces with an altar surrounded by a portico and which boasted a monumental inscription honouring the gods who granted victory to Octavian (Mars Neptune and perhaps Apollo too are mentioned) as well as an array of bronze naval rams from ships seized from the enemy.

In Rome, in the new the temple of Apollo Palatinus, some of the decorative details also celebrated the victory over Antony and Cleopatra. This sanctuary was dedicated in 36, after the victory at Naulochus over Sextus Pompey[8] but it was consecrated only in 28 after the victory of Actium. In front of the temple, on a pedestal decorated with naval rams, stood a statue of Apollo which we know thanks to some coinage. The temple doors with reliefs sculpted in ivory as described by Propertius[9] depicted the defeat of the Galatians at Delphi and the massacre of Niobe[10]' s sons. The first episode almost certainly alludes to the barbarian hordes lead by Antony, the second to the rightful punishment incurred for his hubris by the defeated triumvir, as identified to Niobe's kin. Still, while the temple on the Palatine is a clear statement of the pre-eminence given the god in the Roman Pantheon, his place in Augustan ideology goes way beyond a mere celebration of values set by Rome in victory and triumph.

Statue of Apollo on Antistius Vetus' denariusInformationsInformations[11]

To start with, the temple's topography, with its direct access from Augustus' home unearthed in archaeological digs points up the fact that Apollo was the god of Augustus' very house while he, according to a tradition reported by Suetonius (Life of Augustus, 94,4) was the god's son. Furthermore, other elements in the temple decoration ferry a political message focussed on the future. As illustrated by Caius Antistius Vetus' denarius (16 BC), the statue of Apollo Actius before the temple shows him sacrificing at an altar, his right hand pouring a libation out of a patera and a lyra his left hand: Apollo is, through sacrificial practice and religious piety, the guarantor of harmony and pacification after fratricidal civil strife. This message was echoed in the cult statue of Apollo Citharoedus inside the cella. Atop the temple Apolllo was enthroned on a quadriga, represented there as the sun god, master of time initiating a new era. We have here the Augustan myth of the golden age celebrated by poets, a myth that is propounded afresh in the celebration of the ludi saeculares[12] in 17 BC.

The myth of a new golden age and the role played therein by Apollo-Sol bear the hallmark of early Hellenistic Stoicism[13]. The trace of beliefs pertaining to this « religious philosophy » among the ruling classes as from the end of the 2nd century BC can be seen in the coinage of some members of the Populares[14] group who anticipated the advent of the golden age in conjunction with the reign of the Sun superseding that of Saturn. During the triumviral era too, coinage showed Apollo assimilated to the sun and circa 40 BC Virgil's 4th Eglog proclamed the advent of a new era, under the reign of Apollo (Tuus iam regnat Apollo). This general trend of beliefs found itself « institutionally » acknowledged in the ideology of the Augustan Principate wherein Apollo, the Princeps and millenarist beliefs in the birth of a new world were closely bound together.

Coinage aureus p. clodius 42av. © The Trustees of the British Museum

At the celebration of the Secular Games in 17 BC, the last day of the festivities was given over to the recitation of Horace[15]'s Carmen Saeculare by a choir of 54 young people before the temple of Apollo Palatinus following the ceremonial sacrifices in the honour of Apollo and Diana. The millenarist ideology in which framework the Carmen Saeculare give Apollo-Sol and Diana-Luna a major role to play find a perfect illustration in the breastplate reliefs on the famous statue of Augustus of Prima Porta also dating back to 17 BC. The decoration, deliberately organised in a circular pattern, revolves around the episode of the Parthians' return of the standards from Crassus[16] and Antony's armies to Rome in 20 BC. It is dominated at the centre by the image of the sky god – right above which is the head of Augustus' statue – with Sol hurtling across the sky on his quadriga preceded by Luna and Aurora. On a lower register Apollo is found astride a griffin along with Diana and her deer, as clear counterparts to Sol and Luna above, in the same way as the Earth goddess offsets the Sky figure.

Augustus of Prima Porta; Inv. 2290. Braccio Navo Gallery. photo © Musei vaticani

Introduced in Rome as early as the 5th century BC as a healing god, Apollo became a victory granting god as from the Second Punic War. Since the 2nd century BC up until the Augustan Principate it was the celebration of the values of victory and triumph that underpinned the bond between the god and the Roman ruling class, as amply illustrated by a rich iconographic record. The god of the Delphi oracle, slayer of the Celts in 279, further served to epitomise the fight against the Gaulish threat for one and, for that matter, against any arising from such « barbarian » peoples as dwelt in Cisalpine Gaul. In the 1st century BC Octavian-Augustus placed the god at the heart of Principate ideology: Apollo, Actium's victor gets pride of place near the imperial residence on the Palatine hill. He had become Rome's tutelary god and on the occasion of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BC, he was hailed as the harbinger of a new era.

  1. Pythagorism

    Philosophical set of beliefs developed by Pythagoras of Samos at the turn of the 5th century. Starting in the 2nd century BC it had a significant following in Rome.

  2. Octavian-Augustus (63 BC- 14 AD)

    Caesar's adopted son and first Roman emperor, he reigned from 27 BC (date at which the Senate granted him the title of Augustus) until his death. By birth, he was named Caius Octavius but, being related to Caesar (his mother was the dictator's niece) he was adopted by him in his will. He then became Caius, Julius Caesar Octavianus. In order to impose his power in Rome in 43 BC, he joined Lepidus and Mark-Antony to form the second Triumvirate. In 36 BC, Lepidus was sidelined. In 32 BC, the political alliance with Mark Antony was terminated as the latter firmly entrenched in Egypt, sided with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. In 31 BC, at the battle of Actium, Octavian leading troupes from Italy and the Western provinces was victorious over Mark-Antony and his ally the queen of Egypt. Thereafter, he remained alone at the head of the state. Become Augustus in 27 BC, he pooled in his hands several powers: supreme command of the provinces and the armies therein, tribunal powers and the consular power he contrived to hold on to for several years. These vast powers enabled the emperor to undertake an ambitious politics towards the consolidation of military borders, and the transformation of the Roman Empire's politico-administrative structures.

  3. Phoebus

    A title focussed on Apollo's solar nature.

  4. Suetonius (c. 69-122 AD)

    Scholar and historian of ancient Rome, he belonged to the equestrian order. Under Hadrian, he served as imperial secretary. In charge of the emperor's correspondence, he had access to the imperial archives, where he found precious information towards his first work the De Viris illustribus (published c. 113) and even more so towards The Twelve Caesars (published between 119 and 122). It offers a biography of the first Roman emperors, from Augustus to Domitian, to which was added a biography of Julius Caesar. Nothing is known of his life after he was dismissed by the emperor.

  5. Marcus Iunius Brutus (c 85-42 BC)

    Roman senator, jurist and philosopher of the end of the republican era. He sided with Pompey's party during the civil war which opposed the latter to Caesar. After the battle of Pharsalus, he was pardoned by Caesar who advanced his career. He nevertheless stood by his republican ideals and plotted with Cassius Longinus a coup against the dictator who died at his hand and those of the other conspirators in 44. Hounded by Caesar's partisans, he fled eastwards. He committed suicide after being defeated at Philippi in 42 BC.

  6. Mark Antony (83-30 BC)

    Born in the senatorial order, he remained faithful to Caesar and defended the dictator's political heritage after his assassination in 44 BC, year of his consulate in Rome. After warring against a Republican Senate he formed a political alliance with Lepidus and Octavian in the framework of the Second Triumvirate. The following year, Antony and Octavian defeated the Caesaricides, Brutus and Caius on the plain of Philippi (Macedon) thus putting paid to the Republican party's hopes. The triumvirs then shared the Roman Empire between them handing over Greece and Asia to Antony. In the East, he led a disastrous campaign against the Parthians but had more success in Armenia and Media. As early as 41 BC, Antony had entered into a relationship with the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra who gave him three children. This notwithstanding, on a visit to Rome to establish peace between his partisans and Octavian, he married the latter's sister Octavia in 40 BC. However by 32, the conflict with Octavian had flared up again, which found a final resolution to the advantage of Octavian at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. He sought refuge by the queen of Egypt at Alexandria and committed suicide in 30 upon the arrival of Roman troupes in Egypt.

  7. Cleopatra (c. 69-30 BC)

    A daughter of the Greco-Macedonian Lagid (or Ptolemaic) dynasty, Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt between 51 and 30 BC., first with her two brothers and spouses, successively Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV, then alone starting in 44 BC. From her relationship with Julius Caesar, she had a son Caesarion, born after the dictator's death and acknowledged as king of Egypt by his political heirs during the fight against the Caesaricides. In 41 she started an affair with Mark Antony which yielded three children: the twins Alexander-Helios and Cleopatra-Selene and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Mark Antony's fall after his defeat at Actium in 31 BC brought about her downfall: after Antony's suicide she also took her own life in 30 BC.

  8. Sextus Pompey (c. 68-35 BC)

    Son of Pompey the Great. After his father's death he became involved in the resistance to Caesar. After the dictator's death, the Senate appointed him prefect of the Roman fleet based in Massilia. Declared an enemy of the people by the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC, he took over Sicily with the support of his fleet. The acknowledged governor of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica in 39, Sextus Pompey was defeated and driven out of Sicily after the battle of Naulochus in 36. He was to die at the hand of Mark Antony's right-hand-man, in Asia Minor where he had sought refuge.

  9. Propertius (c. 47- c.16/15 BC)

    Latin poet, author of four books of elegies. Whereas love is the central theme of the three first, Book IV includes several poems expounding the origin of Roman and Latium rites and legends. The sixth text in that book is dedicated to the victory of Actium, the other Elegies take their reader back to Rome's beginnings.

  10. Niobe

    Tantalus' daughter in Greek mythology. She boasted her fecundity and the beauty of her children in the presence of Leto who never had but two children, Artemis and Apollo, no less. These two however killed all of niobe's children with their arrows to punish her hubris.

  11. © The Trustees of the British Museum

  12. Ludi saeculares

    They were held in Rome to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next, a saeculum amounting to the longest conceivable human life span that is 100-110 years. The games lasted three days and three nights and included theatre shows and sacrifices to the gods of the underworld. The first reliably attested celebration of the games dates back to 249 BC, the second took place in 149 or 146 BC as it could not take place during the period of civil strife. The games were reintroduced by Augustus in 17 BC.

  13. Stoicism

    A philosophical school of thought created in 301 BC by Zeno of Citium. In the 3rd century, stoic philosopher Cleanthes identified Apollo with the sun, on the basis that the sun is the lyre's plectrum by which means Apollo resets the world in its original harmony. In the same spirit, his successor Chrysippus believed fire to be the original element of the universe: after each cyclical conflagration destroying the universe, the fire was the seed of each rebirth.

  14. Populares

    During the Republican era, those Roman politicians who championed measures favouring the people without such a trend uniting them in a political party as understood today.

  15. Horace (65-8 BC)

    Latin poet, author of Satires, Epodes, Odes, Epistles. In his youth he joined the ranks of the Caesaricides, Brutus and Cassius, the former entrusting him with a legion at the battle of Philippi (42 BC). Thanks to an amnesty, he was able to return to Italy after the defeat but he was destitute. Thanks to poet Virgil's friendship, he too became a protégé of Maecenas an art lover close to Octavian. In 17 BC, with a solid literary reputation to his name, he was invited to compose the Song of the Ages (Carmen Saeculare) solemnly interpreted on the occasion of the Secular Games by choirs of young men and women drawn from the Roman aristocracy.

  16. M. Licinius Crassus (c. 115 – 53 BC)

    Roman politician, twice a consul. Known for his considerable wealth, he became a member of the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey. After his second consular mandate in 55 BC, as governor of Roman Syria, Crassus launched a military campaign against the Parthian empire on the eastern frontier of the Empire which ended in his defeat at Carrhae where he died in 53 BC. In 20 BC in a gesture of acceptance of Roman authority the Parthians handed back those aquilae taken from Crasus' legions.

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AccueilAccueilImprimerImprimer Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan, Professor of Ancient History, Université du Maine (France) Paternité - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de ModificationRéalisé avec Scenari (nouvelle fenêtre)