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NSWAncient HistoryQuick questions
Section IV (Historical Periods): The Augustan Age 44 BC to AD 14
Quick questions on Religion, propaganda, and the Pax Romana under Augustus: HSC Ancient History
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the imperial cult?Show answer
The cult of the emperor varied by region.
What is the visual program of the new Rome?Show answer
Augustus claimed (Suetonius, Divus Augustus 28) that he had "found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." The boast was substantially accurate.
What is the procession?Show answer
South and north walls show the imperial family, senators, magistrates, the Vestal Virgins, and priests in a religious procession. The procession includes Augustus, Agrippa, Tiberius, Livia, Drusus, and the children of the imperial household.
What is roma and Tellus?Show answer
The east entrance shows Roma (the personification of the city, armed) and Tellus or Pax (the earth goddess or peace, with children, fruits, and animals representing Italian fertility).
What is aeneas and Romulus?Show answer
The west entrance shows Aeneas sacrificing at Lavinium and (probably) Romulus and Remus with the wolf, linking Augustus to the foundational figures of Roman myth.
What is the Lares Augusti?Show answer
Augustus added his genius to the household and crossroads shrines, blending the imperial cult into everyday religious practice.
What is posthumous deification?Show answer
Augustus was declared divus (a god) by the senate after his death in AD 14. Tiberius dedicated the temple of Divus Augustus.
What is temple restoration?Show answer
Res Gestae 20 records the restoration of 82 temples in Rome. The Pantheon, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the temple of Castor and Pollux, and many others were rebuilt or restored.
What are priesthoods?Show answer
Augustus filled the major priestly colleges: he was a member of all four (pontifices, augures, quindecimviri sacris faciundis, septemviri epulonum). He revived the Flamen Dialis (priest of Jupiter), an old priesthood that had lapsed.
What is pontifex Maximus?Show answer
Augustus became chief priest in 12 BC on the death of Lepidus. The combination of pontificate and political authority became a permanent feature of the principate.
What are the Secular Games?Show answer
Held in 17 BC, the games marked the beginning of a new "saeculum" or age. Horace wrote the Carmen Saeculare for the occasion. The games were both archaic ritual and Augustan political theatre.
What is virgil?Show answer
The Aeneid (composed 29 to 19 BC, published posthumously) presents Augustus as the destined ruler of Rome, descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas. Anchises's prophecy in Aeneid 6 places Augustus as the climactic figure of Roman history.
What is horace?Show answer
Odes (published in three books, 23 BC; a fourth book around 13 BC) praise the regime's restoration of peace and order. The Odes Roman Odes (3.1 to 3.6) are explicitly Augustan. The Carmen Saeculare was commissioned for the Secular Games of 17 BC.
What is livy?Show answer
Ab Urbe Condita (history from the foundation), composed across the period, providing the moral and historical narrative supporting the Augustan moral revival. Books 1 to 10 and 21 to 45 survive.
What are other poets?Show answer
Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid (the latter eventually exiled in AD 8 for reasons disputed).