What is augustan propaganda at a glance?

The Augustan propaganda program: four streams feeding one image An owned concept map. A central rectangle reads "The image of Augustus: restorer, not revolutionary." Four labelled boxes surround it, each connected by an arrow into the centre. Religion (top left): temple restoration of 82 per Res Gestae 20, Pontifex Maximus 12 BC, the Lares Augusti reform of 7 BC, the templum divi Iulii of 29 BC.

What is the procession?

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?

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?

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 pergamum, 29 BC?

In the East the temple to Roma and Augustus dedicated at Pergamum was among the earliest and most prominent instances of direct worship of the living Augustus, granted at the request of provincial communities keen to secure favour, and modelled on existing Hellenistic ruler cult.

What is the Lares Augusti?

In 7 BC Augustus reorganised Rome into 265 vici (neighbourhood wards), each administered by four annually elected vicomagistri, typically freedmen. Each vicus received a crossroads shrine at which the traditional Lares (household/neighbourhood guardian spirits) were now worshipped alongside Augustus's genius, folding the imperial cult into the most local unit of everyday religious practice and giving freedmen, otherwise excluded from formal political life, a real stake in the regime's cult.

What is posthumous deification?

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?

Res Gestae 20 records the restoration of 82 temples in Rome in his sixth consulship (28 BC), a figure Augustus states he undertook "on the authority of the senate," "neglecting none that needed repair at that time." The Pantheon, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the temple of Castor and Pollux, and many others were rebuilt or restored.

What is the templum divi Iulii?

Vowed after the deification of Julius Caesar by the senate in 42 BC and dedicated in 29 BC in the Forum Romanum, on the site of Caesar's cremation, the temple to the divine Julius made Augustus divi filius, "son of a god," a title used constantly on his coinage without Augustus ever claiming divinity for himself in his lifetime.

What are priesthoods?

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?

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?

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.

The Aeneid (composed 29 to 19 BC, published posthumously) presents Augustus as the destined ruler of Rome, descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas. In Book 1, Jupiter promises Aeneas's descendants "imperium sine fine," empire without end or limit, tying Rome's destiny directly to the dynasty Augustus claimed. Anchises's prophecy in Book 6 places Augustus as the climactic figure of Roman history.

NESA 2021 HSC (verbatim)-style practice: How significant was propaganda in contributing to Augustus' authority?

A 25-mark essay needs thesis, developed paragraphs, and historiography. **Thesis.** Propaganda was central but not sufficient. Augustan authority rested on army + Egyptian wealth + settlements + propaganda acting together. Propaganda was the medium through which power became publicly legible and durable. **Visual program.** Ara Pacis Augustae (9 BC), Forum of Augustus (2 BC), Temple of Mars Ultor (2 BC), Mausoleum of Augustus (28 BC), and Augustan coinage projected peace, dynastic continuity, religious restoration, and descent from Aeneas and Romulus. **Literary program.** Virgil's Aeneid, Horace's Odes, Livy's history, and the lyric of Propertius and Tibullus. Maecenas coordinated patronage. The poetry presented Augustus as the destined ruler. **Res Gestae.** Augustus's own account, inscribed in bronze at his Mausoleum. Presents the principate as restoration; downplays violence; claims unprecedented public benefactions. **Religious revival.** 82 temples restored (Res Gestae 20), Secular Games (17 BC), Vesta cult, Lares Augusti at crossroads shrines. **Imperial cult.** Worship of his genius in the West; direct worship in the East. Ara Romae et Augusti at Lugdunum (12 BC). **Titles.** Augustus (27 BC), Pontifex Maximus (12 BC), Pater Patriae (2 BC). Religious-military-political authority compounded. **Limits.** Propaganda did not create authority; it expressed and reinforced it. The army, Egypt, and the settlements provided the material basis. **Historians.** Zanker (Power of Images, 1988) canonical. Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) integrative. Syme treats propaganda as a facade for military power. **Conclusion.** Propaganda was significant as the medium; not the underlying source of authority. Markers reward visual, literary, religious, historians, and judgement.

§-Syllabus dot point

NSWAncient HistorySyllabus dot point

How did religion and propaganda support the Augustan regime?

Religion, propaganda, and the Pax Romana, including the Ara Pacis, the Res Gestae, the imperial cult, the religious revival, the Augustan poets, and the visual program of the new Rome

A focused answer to the HSC Ancient History dot point on Augustan religion and propaganda. The Ara Pacis Augustae, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, the imperial cult, the religious revival (Vesta, Pontifex Maximus, pomerium), the Augustan poets (Virgil, Horace, Livy), the Pax Romana, and the verdicts of Galinsky, Zanker, and Syme.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.813 min answerUpdated 2026-07-01

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

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What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to describe Augustus's religious and propaganda program in detail: the Ara Pacis, the Res Gestae, the imperial cult, the religious revival, the literary program, the visual program of the new Rome, and the ideology of the Pax Romana, and engage with the canonical modern scholarship of Zanker and Galinsky.

In plain English

Think of Augustus as running the biggest, longest personal-branding campaign in history, except the "adverts" were temples, coins, poems, and a giant altar, and the "brand values" were peace, family, tradition, and the favour of the gods. A modern comparison: a new CEO who inherited a company after a hostile takeover spends years funding community projects, sponsoring the company anthem, and putting up a "founders' wall" of respected past leaders with themselves at the end of the line, so staff experience the takeover as a natural continuation rather than a seizure of power. Augustus did this with religion (restoring temples everyone recognised), monuments (the Ara Pacis, the Forum of Augustus), and poetry (Virgil's Aeneid), so that one generation on, his rule felt inherited rather than won by civil war.

The answer

The Ara Pacis Augustae

The Altar of the Augustan Peace, dedicated on 30 January 9 BC near the Campus Martius. Commissioned by the senate in 13 BC to commemorate Augustus's safe return from Spain and Gaul.

The altar consists of a sacrificial precinct enclosed by a marble screen. The screen's exterior depicts four scenes:

The procession: 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.
Roma and Tellus: 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).
Aeneas and Romulus: 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.

The Ara Pacis combines religious sacrifice, imperial family piety, and the iconography of peace and fertility. Paul Zanker (The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988) treats it as the canonical example of the Augustan visual program.

The Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Augustus's own account of his life and deeds, written in the first person. Composed at the end of his life and intended for inscription on bronze pillars at his mausoleum.

The original Roman text is lost. The surviving copy comes from the wall of the Temple of Roma and Augustus at Ankara (the Monumentum Ancyranum), with fragments from Apollonia and Antioch in Pisidia. The Latin text is paired with a Greek translation.

The Res Gestae presents the regime as a restoration of the Republic. Key passages:

Chapter 1: "At the age of 19, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I liberated the state."
Chapter 20: "I rebuilt 82 temples."
Chapter 25: "All Italy of its own accord swore allegiance to me and demanded me as its leader."
Chapter 34: "In my sixth and seventh consulships [28 and 27 BC], after I had extinguished civil wars, and at a time when with universal consent I was in complete control of affairs, I transferred the state from my own power to the discretion of the senate and the Roman people... after which time I excelled all in influence (auctoritas) although I had no more power than the others."

The Res Gestae is the most-studied piece of Roman political self-representation.

The imperial cult

The cult of the emperor varied by region.

In the East: Direct worship of Augustus as a god. The Greek world had long worshipped Hellenistic rulers as divine; Augustus accepted this in the East. The temple of Roma and Augustus at Ankara housed the Res Gestae.
In Italy and the West: Direct worship was avoided in Augustus's lifetime. His genius (the personal protective spirit) was worshipped. The Ara Romae et Augusti at Lugdunum (modern Lyon, dedicated 12 BC) was the centre of the Western imperial cult, the meeting-point for an annual assembly of Gallic tribal delegates.
Pergamum, 29 BC: In the East the temple to Roma and Augustus dedicated at Pergamum was among the earliest and most prominent instances of direct worship of the living Augustus, granted at the request of provincial communities keen to secure favour, and modelled on existing Hellenistic ruler cult.
The Lares Augusti: In 7 BC Augustus reorganised Rome into 265 vici (neighbourhood wards), each administered by four annually elected vicomagistri, typically freedmen. Each vicus received a crossroads shrine at which the traditional Lares (household/neighbourhood guardian spirits) were now worshipped alongside Augustus's genius, folding the imperial cult into the most local unit of everyday religious practice and giving freedmen, otherwise excluded from formal political life, a real stake in the regime's cult.
Posthumous deification: Augustus was declared divus (a god) by the senate after his death in AD 14. Tiberius dedicated the temple of Divus Augustus.

The religious revival

Augustus presented himself as the restorer of traditional Roman religion.

Temple restoration: Res Gestae 20 records the restoration of 82 temples in Rome in his sixth consulship (28 BC), a figure Augustus states he undertook "on the authority of the senate," "neglecting none that needed repair at that time." The Pantheon, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the temple of Castor and Pollux, and many others were rebuilt or restored.
The templum divi Iulii: Vowed after the deification of Julius Caesar by the senate in 42 BC and dedicated in 29 BC in the Forum Romanum, on the site of Caesar's cremation, the temple to the divine Julius made Augustus divi filius, "son of a god," a title used constantly on his coinage without Augustus ever claiming divinity for himself in his lifetime.
Priesthoods: 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.
Pontifex Maximus: 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.
The Secular Games (ludi saeculares): 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.

Model responses

Source-analysis response. "Source A, a reconstructed shrine inscription of the type erected by a vicus after 7 BC, records the vicomagistri dedicating an altar to the Lares Augusti alongside the traditional crossroads Lares. This is useful evidence for how the imperial cult reached ordinary Romans: the reform reorganised the city into 265 vici under freedmen officials, meaning loyalty to Augustus's genius was expressed through a religious structure Romans already recognised, the crossroads shrine, rather than through an imposed new cult. Its usefulness is limited by the fact that no vicus inscription of this exact type survives complete; historians reconstruct the reform from Suetonius, the fasti, and scattered epigraphic fragments, so any single 'inscription' used in an exam is illustrative rather than a transcribed original." Marker's note: names the reform and date precisely, explains significance beyond describing the source, and flags the reconstructed nature of the evidence.

Essay paragraph. "The religious revival was propaganda that also did real institutional work. Res Gestae 20's claim of 82 temples restored cannot be independently verified, but the underlying program, filling all four major priestly colleges, reviving the lapsed Flamen Dialis, and combining the pontificate with the principate from 12 BC, gave Augustus a religious authority no earlier Republican magistrate had held simultaneously with political command. Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) argues this was received by many Romans as a genuine, welcome restoration after decades of civil war neglect of the temples, not merely imposed spectacle, which complicates any reading of the revival as pure top-down manipulation." Marker's note: uses the Res Gestae as evidence while noting its evidentiary limits, and deploys a named historian to qualify rather than just illustrate the argument.

The Augustan poets

Augustus and his cultural minister Maecenas (an equestrian) cultivated the literary elite.

Virgil (70 to 19 BC): The Aeneid (composed 29 to 19 BC, published posthumously) presents Augustus as the destined ruler of Rome, descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas. In Book 1, Jupiter promises Aeneas's descendants "imperium sine fine," empire without end or limit, tying Rome's destiny directly to the dynasty Augustus claimed. Anchises's prophecy in Book 6 places Augustus as the climactic figure of Roman history. In Book 8, the shield forged for Aeneas by Vulcan depicts scenes of Roman history culminating in the Battle of Actium (31 BC) at its centre, Augustus leading Italy against Antony and Cleopatra under the protection of the gods, turning Rome's most recent civil war into a cosmic contest of Roman order against Eastern excess.
Horace (65 to 8 BC): Odes (published in three books, 23 BC; a fourth book around 13 BC) praise the regime's restoration of peace and order. The Roman Odes (3.1 to 3.6) are explicitly Augustan. The Carmen Saeculare was commissioned for the Secular Games of 17 BC.
Livy (59 BC to AD 17): 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.
The counter-case: Ovid: Propertius and Tibullus wrote within the patronage system without serious friction. Ovid did not: his witty, sometimes irreverent love poetry (the Ars Amatoria) sat awkwardly with the regime's professed moral revival, and in AD 8 Augustus relegated him to Tomis on the Black Sea for a "carmen et error," a poem and an unspecified error, that Ovid himself never named. Historians use Ovid's exile as evidence that the literary program was neither uniform nor fully controlled, and that a poet could fall foul of the regime's self-image even without direct political opposition.

The visual program of the new Rome

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.

Major construction included:

The Forum of Augustus (dedicated 2 BC), with the temple of Mars Ultor and statues of summi viri (great men of Roman history)
The temple of Apollo on the Palatine (28 BC)
The Mausoleum of Augustus (begun 28 BC) in the Campus Martius
The Pantheon (built by Agrippa, 25 BC; later rebuilt by Hadrian)
The theatre of Marcellus (named for Augustus's nephew, dedicated by Augustus)
The Saepta Julia (voting enclosure)
The Horologium Augusti (large solar clock with an Egyptian obelisk as gnomon)

The Pax Romana

The Augustan peace was both ideology and reality. Real military pacification (Spain 19 BC, the Alps 16 to 13 BC, Gaul and Germany pushed back temporarily) coexisted with proclamation.

Closure of the doors of Janus: The temple of Janus's doors were closed in time of peace, by ancient custom, only when Rome was at war with no one. Res Gestae 13 records that Augustus closed them three times (29 BC, 25 BC, 13 BC), against only two closures in the entire preceding history of Rome, an unprecedented frequency that Augustus advertises precisely because peace, in Roman religious terms, was itself the product and sign of conquest completed, not its absence.
Coinage as mass media: Coins were the one medium that reached every province and every social class, soldiers' pay, market transactions, taxes. Augustan coinage carried the CAESAR AVGVSTVS legend, images of the Ara Pacis and the closed doors of Janus, the corona civica (the civic crown "for saving citizens' lives"), the clipeus virtutis (the golden shield of virtues voted in 27 BC), and Capricorn (Augustus's supposed birth sign). Because coin types changed frequently and circulated for decades, they let the regime repeat its core images, peace, restored religion, dynastic continuity, far beyond the audience for the Ara Pacis or the Forum of Augustus, who could physically visit Rome.
Tacitus's counter-voice: Writing under Trajan, more than a century later, Tacitus gives the British chieftain Calgacus a famous line condemning Roman conquest: "they make a desert and call it peace" (solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant, Agricola 30). It is not eyewitness Augustan-age evidence, but it is the standing ancient counter-voice to "Pax Romana" as propaganda: a reminder that peace secured by conquest looked very different from the conquered side than from the Ara Pacis's Rome-facing panels.

Augustan propaganda at a glance

Element	Date	Significance
Title Augustus	27 BC	First Settlement
Mausoleum of Augustus	begun 28 BC	Dynastic permanence
Temple of Mars Ultor	promised 42 BC, dedicated 2 BC	Foundational vengeance
Forum of Augustus	dedicated 2 BC	Summi viri statues
Ara Pacis Augustae	dedicated 9 BC	Peace, family, religion
Secular Games	17 BC	New saeculum
Pontifex Maximus	12 BC	Religious authority
Pater Patriae	2 BC	Father of country
Res Gestae	composed late, displayed at Mausoleum	Autobiography of regime
Deification	AD 14	Divus Augustus

Historiography

Paul Zanker (The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988) is the canonical study of the visual program.

Karl Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) integrates the political, religious, and cultural dimensions.

Mary Beard (SPQR, 2015) emphasises the religious allusions of the titles.

Ronald Syme (The Roman Revolution, 1939) treats the propaganda as a facade for military power.

How to read a source on this topic

Section IV sources typically include extracts from the Res Gestae, the Ara Pacis reliefs, Augustus's coinage, Virgil's Aeneid, or Horace's Odes. Three reading habits.

First, watch the visual-textual integration. The Ara Pacis (image) and the Aeneid (text) make the same claims about the foundation of Rome and the regime. Use both registers.

Second, decode the religious vocabulary. Pietas, auctoritas, restitutor, princeps each carry specific Roman religious-political meaning. Use them precisely.

Third, weigh propaganda against reality. The "restoration of the Republic" was political theatre. The Pax Romana was both ideology and (partial) reality.

Command words and using a source

Identify/describe just needs accurate content from the source ("the panel shows Tellus/Pax with children and produce"). Explain needs you to connect that content to a cause or significance ("...symbolising the material rewards of peace"). Assess/evaluate/to what extent need a judgement, weighing evidence on both sides before concluding.

When a source is put in front of you, run all four checks: content (what does it actually show or say), reliability (who made it, when, for what purpose, does bias distort the facts), usefulness (does it answer the question asked, even if biased), and perspective (whose viewpoint, and whose is missing, e.g. Tacitus gives the conquered a voice that the Ara Pacis never does). Weave in a named historian's reading of that type of evidence (Zanker on the Ara Pacis, Syme on the Res Gestae) rather than listing historians at the end; use them to support or complicate your own point.

For an essay, build each paragraph the same way: named, dated evidence, then explanation of what it shows about the question, then a historian's view used to extend or qualify the argument, then a sentence linking back to the thesis.

Exam-style practice questions

Practice questions written in the style of NESA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.

2023 HSC (verbatim)20 marksAssess the importance of Augustus' titles, honours and images for his principate. Support your response with reference to the following interpretation and other relevant sources.

Show worked answer →

A 25-mark essay needs thesis, developed paragraphs, and historiography.

Thesis: Titles, honours, and images were central to the principate, translating the settlements into a visual and ideological program.
Title Augustus (27 BC): Beard (SPQR, 2015) reads it as evoking auctoritas, augury, religious observance. New title; avoided rex.
Other titles: Pater Patriae (2 BC); Pontifex Maximus (12 BC); Princeps senatus; Imperator.
Res Gestae: Inscribed at his Mausoleum; copies throughout the empire (Monumentum Ancyranum at Ankara). Presents the regime as Republican restoration.
Ara Pacis Augustae (9 BC): Imperial family, senate, Vestals, Roma, Tellus. Zanker (Power of Images, 1988): canonical example of the visual program.
Imperial cult: Genius worshipped in the West; direct worship in the East. Ara Romae et Augusti at Lugdunum (12 BC). Divus after AD 14.
Poets: Virgil's Aeneid presents Augustus as destined ruler. Horace's Odes praise restored peace. Livy supports the moral revival. Maecenas coordinated patronage.
Religious revival: 82 temples restored (Res Gestae 20). Secular Games (17 BC). Lares Augusti at crossroads shrines.
Visual program: Forum of Augustus (2 BC) with summi viri. Temple of Mars Ultor (2 BC). Mausoleum (28 BC). Suetonius: "found Rome a city of brick and left it of marble."
Pax Romana: Doors of Janus closed three times. Real pacification + ideology.
Historians: Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996): integrated cultural program. Zanker: canonical. Beard: religious-political titles.
Conclusion: Titles, honours, and images were central; the medium through which power was communicated.

Markers reward titles, Ara Pacis, Res Gestae, poets, historians, and judgement.

2021 HSC (verbatim)20 marksHow significant was propaganda in contributing to Augustus' authority?

Show worked answer →

A 25-mark essay needs thesis, developed paragraphs, and historiography.

Thesis: Propaganda was central but not sufficient. Augustan authority rested on army + Egyptian wealth + settlements + propaganda acting together. Propaganda was the medium through which power became publicly legible and durable.
Visual program: Ara Pacis Augustae (9 BC), Forum of Augustus (2 BC), Temple of Mars Ultor (2 BC), Mausoleum of Augustus (28 BC), and Augustan coinage projected peace, dynastic continuity, religious restoration, and descent from Aeneas and Romulus.
Literary program: Virgil's Aeneid, Horace's Odes, Livy's history, and the lyric of Propertius and Tibullus. Maecenas coordinated patronage. The poetry presented Augustus as the destined ruler.
Res Gestae: Augustus's own account, inscribed in bronze at his Mausoleum. Presents the principate as restoration; downplays violence; claims unprecedented public benefactions.
Religious revival: 82 temples restored (Res Gestae 20), Secular Games (17 BC), Vesta cult, Lares Augusti at crossroads shrines.
Imperial cult: Worship of his genius in the West; direct worship in the East. Ara Romae et Augusti at Lugdunum (12 BC).
Titles: Augustus (27 BC), Pontifex Maximus (12 BC), Pater Patriae (2 BC). Religious-military-political authority compounded.
Limits: Propaganda did not create authority; it expressed and reinforced it. The army, Egypt, and the settlements provided the material basis.
Historians: Zanker (Power of Images, 1988) canonical. Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) integrative. Syme treats propaganda as a facade for military power.
Conclusion: Propaganda was significant as the medium; not the underlying source of authority.

Markers reward visual, literary, religious, historians, and judgement.

Practice questions

Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.

foundation6 marksSource A: a reconstructed neighbourhood shrine inscription of the type set up by a vicus after 7 BC, recording that the local vicomagistri dedicated an altar to the Lares Augusti alongside the traditional crossroads Lares, "for the safety of the household and the state." Using Source A and your own knowledge, describe how Augustus's genius was incorporated into everyday religious practice, and explain the significance of this reform.

Show worked solution →

Award marks for: (1) accurate description of the vicomagistri/Lares Augusti reform of 7 BC drawn from Source A and knowledge, noting the pairing of the traditional crossroads Lares with Augustus's genius, 2 marks; (2) identification that the reform reorganised Rome into 265 vici, each with four annually elected vicomagistri drawn largely from freedmen, giving a stake in the regime to a class excluded from senatorial politics, 2 marks; (3) explanation of significance: religion became the vehicle for loyalty at street level, folding Augustus into the most local unit of Roman cult without requiring the direct divine worship that was avoided in Italy, 2 marks. Full marks require the source to be used, not just paraphrased.

foundation5 marksOutline the evidence in the Res Gestae for Augustus's religious building program, and identify one limitation of using the Res Gestae as a source for it.

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Award marks for: (1) accurate detail from Res Gestae 20, that Augustus restored 82 temples in Rome in his sixth consulship (28 BC), "neglecting none that needed repair at that time," plus the templum divi Iulii vowed after Actium and dedicated in 29 BC, 2 marks; (2) one further building or religious detail (Pontifex Maximus in 12 BC, the Secular Games of 17 BC, or the Ara Pacis), 1 mark; (3) a stated limitation: the Res Gestae is Augustus's own first-person, posthumously published account, composed to be read as his epitaph, so a self-serving, uncorroborated figure like "82" cannot be checked against an independent tally and the document has an obvious perspective problem, 2 marks.

core8 marksSource B: a described relief panel in the style of the Ara Pacis's east facade, showing a seated female figure flanked by two infants, surrounded by grain, fruit, and a placid ox and sheep, with a smaller panel on the opposite corner showing a helmeted, armed female figure seated on a pile of captured weapons. Using Source B and your own knowledge, explain how the Ara Pacis Augustae used religious and mythological imagery to communicate Augustan ideology. In your answer, assess the usefulness of the Ara Pacis as evidence for this ideology.

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Award marks for: (1) identification of the Tellus (or Pax)/Roma panel described in Source B and its pairing with the procession frieze (imperial family, senators, magistrates, Vestals) and the Aeneas panel on the altar, 2 marks; (2) explanation that the fertility panel communicates the material benefits of the Pax Romana (abundant harvest, safety of livestock) while the armed Roma panel shows peace resting on military victory, and the Aeneas panel with the west facade links the regime to Rome's mythical founder and to pietas, 3 marks; (3) assessment of usefulness: the altar is unmediated archaeological evidence, physically dated by senatorial decree (13 BC) and dedication (9 BC), so it is highly useful for the visual program actually installed in public space, but it shows only what the regime chose to display and cannot show how ordinary Romans read it, 3 marks. Zanker (1988) may be cited as the historian who reads the altar as the canonical visual statement of the whole program.

core6 marksOutline the role of Virgil, Horace, and Livy in the Augustan literary program, and explain why Ovid is often treated as a counter-example.

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Award marks for: (1) Virgil's Aeneid (composed 29 to 19 BC) casts Augustus as the destined heir of Aeneas and Rome's civilising mission, most explicitly in Jupiter's promise of "imperium sine fine" (empire without end) in Book 1 and in the shield of Aeneas in Book 8, which places the Battle of Actium (31 BC) at its centre, 2 marks; (2) Horace's Odes (23 and 13 BC) and the Carmen Saeculare (17 BC) praise the restoration of peace, order, and traditional morality, 2 marks; (3) Livy's Ab Urbe Condita supplies a moralising national history supporting the regime's claimed revival of old Roman virtue, 1 mark; (4) Ovid's eventual relegation to Tomis in AD 8, for an unclear combination of "carmen et error," and the playful, sometimes subversive tone of works like the Ars Amatoria, are used by historians to show the literary program was not monolithic patronage-for-praise, 1 mark. Maecenas may be named as the coordinating patron of Virgil and Horace.

core7 marksExplain the difference between the imperial cult in the eastern and western halves of the empire under Augustus, using named examples.

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Award marks for: (1) accurate distinction that Augustus permitted or accepted direct worship of himself as a god in the Greek East, where ruler cult had a Hellenistic precedent, exemplified by the temple to Roma and Augustus dedicated at Pergamum in 29 BC, 2 marks; (2) in Italy and the West, direct worship of the living emperor was avoided; instead his genius (protective spirit) was worshipped, most visibly through the Lares Augusti reform of 7 BC folding his genius into neighbourhood crossroads shrines, 2 marks; (3) the Ara Romae et Augusti at Lugdunum, dedicated 12 BC, as the organising centre of the Western provincial cult (for the Gallic tribes), still addressed to Roma-and-Augustus jointly rather than Augustus alone, 2 marks; (4) note that full, unqualified deification (divus) came only after his death in AD 14, 1 mark.

exam25 marks"Religion and propaganda did not create Augustus's authority; they expressed and secured it." To what extent do you agree with this statement?

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A Band 6 response needs a thesis, evidence across the religious and propaganda program, named historians, and a direct "to what extent" judgement.

Thesis: Agree substantially: the settlements of 27 and 23 BC, the loyalty of the legions, and control of Egypt's wealth were the material basis of Augustus's power; religion and propaganda converted that power into a durable, publicly legible legitimacy, but did not by themselves create it.
Religious revival as legitimation: Res Gestae 20 claims 82 temples restored in Rome and the dedication of the templum divi Iulii in 29 BC to the deified Julius Caesar, making Augustus divi filius (son of a god) without claiming divinity for himself. The Pontifex Maximus office (from 12 BC) fused the highest religious authority with the principate. The Secular Games of 17 BC, with Horace's Carmen Saeculare, staged the regime as the start of a new age of Roman virtue.
Local reach: the Lares Augusti: The 7 BC reorganisation of Rome into vici under vicomagistri, worshipping the Lares Augusti alongside the traditional Lares, embedded loyalty to the princeps in everyday, street-level cult, reaching freedmen who had no formal political voice. Argue this is propaganda operating through genuine lived religion, not mere spectacle.
The Ara Pacis Augustae: Voted by the senate in 13 BC and dedicated in 9 BC, the altar's procession frieze (imperial family, senate, Vestals), Tellus/Pax panel (fertility and peace) and Aeneas panel (mythic foundation and pietas) fused dynasty, peace, and religious tradition into a single monument. Zanker (The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, 1988) treats it as the canonical statement of the whole visual program.
The Forum of Augustus and the summi viri: The Forum, with the temple of Mars Ultor (vowed 42 BC after Philippi, dedicated 2 BC), staged Augustus as the avenger of Caesar and placed statues of the summi viri, great men of the Republic, in a curated sequence that made Augustus the culmination of Roman history rather than its interruption. This is history written in marble, selectively.
The poets: Virgil's Aeneid gives the regime a foundation myth in which Jupiter promises Rome "imperium sine fine" and the shield of Aeneas in Book 8 places Actium (31 BC) at the centre of Roman destiny. Horace's Odes and Livy's history reinforced restored peace and traditional virtue; Maecenas coordinated the patronage. Ovid's later exile (AD 8) and the lighter tone of some Augustan poetry show the program was not total or uncontested.
The imperial cult and the Pax Romana: Direct worship in the East (Pergamum, 29 BC) against cult of the genius in the West (Lugdunum, 12 BC) shows a program calibrated to local expectation. The closure of the doors of Janus three times (29, 25, 13 BC, Res Gestae 13) proclaimed peace secured by conquest; Tacitus's later, hostile formulation (put in the mouth of Calgacus, Agricola 30) that Rome "makes a desert and calls it peace" is the standing counter-voice, a reminder that the Pax Romana was peace for Rome's beneficiaries, not a costless outcome for the conquered.
Historiography: Zanker reads the whole program as a coherent, deliberately constructed visual language. Ronald Syme (The Roman Revolution, 1939) is more sceptical, treating "propaganda" itself as underpinned by, and a facade for, the army and the proscriptions that actually delivered power. Karl Galinsky (Augustan Culture, 1996) argues for a more consensual, less top-down "Augustan culture," in which elite and popular participation shaped the program as much as central direction.
Model paragraph (Ara Pacis): "The Ara Pacis Augustae, voted by the senate in 13 BC and dedicated in 9 BC, demonstrates that Augustan propaganda operated through religious form rather than beside it. Its procession frieze places the imperial family among senators, magistrates and Vestal Virgins in a single sacrificial rite, while the Tellus and Roma panels pair the material rewards of peace with the military victory that secured it. Zanker's reading of the altar as the canonical Augustan monument is persuasive because the same visual grammar recurs across the Forum of Augustus and the coinage: a repeated formula, which is exactly what makes it propaganda rather than incidental patronage." Marker's note: the paragraph names the date, describes the evidence precisely, cites a historian, and argues rather than describes.
Conclusion: Religion and propaganda were the medium, not the source, of Augustus's authority: they translated a settlement resting on legions and Egyptian wealth into an ideology that felt restorative rather than revolutionary, and reached from the Forum down to the crossroads shrine.

Markers reward a sustained argument answering "to what extent," specific dated evidence (temples, Ara Pacis, Lugdunum, Pergamum, the poets), at least two named historians used to build or qualify the argument, and a stated final judgement.

exam25 marksEvaluate the extent to which Augustus's religious program and the ideology of the Pax Romana concealed the realities of his power.

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A 25-mark response needs a thesis directly answering "evaluate the extent," paragraphs weighing concealment against genuine restoration, named historiography, and a model paragraph.

Thesis: The religious program and the Pax Romana partially concealed the coercive basis of Augustus's power, but the concealment was neither total nor purely cynical; it coexisted with a real, if selective, restoration of traditional cult and real, if uneven, peace.
What was concealed: The Res Gestae presents Augustus as constitutionally restoring the Republic ("transferred the state from my own power to the discretion of the senate and the Roman people," Res Gestae 34) while omitting the proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate and the defeat of fellow Romans at Actium. The deification of Julius Caesar and the templum divi Iulii (dedicated 29 BC) retrospectively sanctified the faction that had won a civil war. The Pontifex Maximus office (12 BC) concentrated religious authority that had previously been separated from the chief magistracy.
What was genuinely restorative: Res Gestae 20's claim of 82 temples restored, whatever its precise accuracy, reflects a real building program addressing decades of civil-war neglect. The revival of lapsed priesthoods (the Flamen Dialis) and the Secular Games of 17 BC drew on authentic antiquarian religious practice, not invention. The Lares Augusti reform of 7 BC gave freedmen a genuine, if carefully bounded, stake in civic religious life through the vicomagistri.
The Pax Romana as both ideology and reality: The triple closure of the doors of Janus (29, 25, 13 BC) was propaganda, but real pacification underlay it in places (Spain by 19 BC). Tacitus's later formulation that Rome "makes a desert and calls it peace" (Agricola 30) is the crucial counter-voice: it names the coercion that "Pax Romana" as a term obscures, and should be weighed against the Ara Pacis's celebratory register rather than simply accepted or dismissed.
The Ara Pacis and the imperial cult as calibrated concealment: The Ara Pacis (dedicated 9 BC) shows the imperial family as pious citizens among the senate, not as autocrats; the avoidance of direct worship in Italy and the West, against acceptance of direct worship at Pergamum (29 BC) in the East, shows the regime managing perception differently for different audiences rather than one uniform message.
Historiography: Syme argues the whole religious and cultural apparatus was propaganda serving a power seized by force. Zanker treats the visual program as a genuinely persuasive, coherent ideology rather than simple deception, changing how Romans understood their own history. Galinsky pushes further, arguing much of "Augustan culture" reflected genuine elite and popular buy-in rather than top-down concealment.
Model paragraph (Res Gestae): "The Res Gestae is the clearest evidence of concealment through selection rather than falsification. Augustus does not claim to have avoided civil war; he simply does not mention the proscriptions, moving directly from raising an army 'on my own initiative and at my own expense' (Res Gestae 1) to a narrative of public benefaction and religious restoration. This is not straightforward lying but curation: every fact offered can be independently checked against inscriptions and coinage, yet the overall impression, a smooth, consensual transition to a restored Republic, depends on what is left out." Marker's note: names the source precisely, distinguishes omission from fabrication, and reaches a judgement about the mechanism of concealment.
Conclusion: Augustus's religious program concealed the coercive origins of his power more than it fabricated outright, folding a real, selective restoration of Roman cult and a real, incomplete peace into an ideology that made the principate feel inherited rather than seized.

Markers reward a direct answer to "extent," evidence for both concealment and genuine restoration, at least two named historians in tension, and a final judgement.