Augustus (title)
Augustus (plural Augusti;
In Rome's Greek-speaking provinces, "Augustus" was translated as Sebastos (Σεβαστός, "venerable"), or Hellenised as Augoustos (Αὔγουστος); these titles continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, although they gradually lost their imperial exclusivity.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the title "Augustus" would later be incorporated into the style of the Holy Roman Emperor, a precedent set by Charlemagne who used the title serenissimus Augustus. As such, Augustus was sometimes also used as a name for men of aristocratic birth, especially in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. It remains a given name for males.
Title in ancient Rome
Earliest usage
Some thirty years before its first association with Caesar's heir, augustus was an obscure honorific with religious associations. One early context (58 BC) associates it with provincial Lares (Roman household gods).[4] In Latin poetry and prose, it signifies the further elevation or augmentation of what is already sacred or religious.[5] Some Roman sources connected it to augury, and Rome was said to have been founded with the "august augury" of Romulus.[6]
Imperial honorific
The first true Roman Emperor known as "Augustus" (and first counted as a
He was officially renamed Augustus by the Roman Senate on 16 January 27 BC – or perhaps the Senate ratified his own careful choice; "Romulus" had been considered, and rejected.[7][8] This name was deemed too blatant as it would make Octavius the second founder of Rome.[9] So his official renaming in a form vaguely associated with a traditionally Republican religiosity, but unprecedented as a cognomen, may have served to show that he owed his position to the approval of Rome and its gods, and possibly his own unique, elevated, "godlike" nature and talents.[7] His full and official title thus became Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus.
Augustus' religious reforms extended or affirmed Augusti as a near ubiquitous title or honour for various minor local deities, including the
The first emperor bequeathed the title Augustus to his adopted heir and successor Tiberius in his will.[3] From then on, though it conferred no specific legal powers, Augustus was a titular element of the imperial name.[3] Subsequently, the title was bestowed by the Roman Senate.[3] Until the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), the title was unique to its bearer; in 161 Marcus Aurelius elevated Lucius Verus (r. 161–169) to Augustus and both bore the title at the same time.[3]
The date of an emperor's investiture with the title Augustus was celebrated as the
Beginning with
After the victory over the
The Imperial titles of imperator, caesar, and augustus were respectively rendered in Greek as autokratōr, kaisar, and augoustos (or sebastos[12]). The Greek titles were used in the Byzantine Empire until its extinction in 1453, although sebastos lost its imperial exclusivity and autokratōr along with basileus became the exclusive title of the emperor after the 8th century.
Feminine equivalent
Augusta was the female equivalent of Augustus, and had similar origins as an obscure descriptor with vaguely religious overtones. It was bestowed on some women of the Imperial dynasties, as an indicator of worldly power and influence and a status near to divinity. There was no qualification with higher prestige. The title or honorific was shared by state goddesses associated with the Imperial regime's generosity and provision, such as
The first woman to receive the honorific Augusta was
Other uses
Holy Roman Empire
The formula of semper Augustus ("ever exalted") when translated into German in the late period of the Holy Roman Empire was not rendered literally, but as allzeit Mehrer des Reiches ("ever Increaser of the Realm"), from the transitive verbal meaning of augere "to augment, increase".
Brian Boru
The Irish High King
See also
- Archons
- Auctoritas
- Basileus
- List of Augustae
References
- ISBN 0582053838. entry "Augustus"
- Oxford Reference.
- ^ Brill's New Pauly. Archived from the originalon 2023-03-15.
- ^ Hornum, Michael B., Nemesis, the Roman state and the games, Brill, 1993, p. 37 footnote 23, citing epigraphic evidence from the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul.
- ^ It appears as such in works of Cicero, before its use by Octavian, later known as Augustus. See entry at Lewis and Short's Latin dictionary, online at perseus.org.
- ^ Haverfield, F J, "The name Augustus", Journal of Roman Studies, 5 (1915), pp. 249–250, citing Ennius, Annales, 245 M. (494 V.) "Augusto augurio postquam incluta condita Romast". available from penelope.uchicago.edu
- ^ a b Cassius Dio (c. 230). Roman History, 53.16.
- ^ Haverfield, F J, "The name Augustus", Journal of Roman Studies, 5 (1915), pp. 249–250, available from penelope.uchicago.edu Octavian was also an augur. Haverfield surmises that the choice of "Augustus" as the name might also have meant to overshadow the legend "AUG" on coins issued by his defeated enemy Pompey' – where "AUG" signifies Pompey's status as an augur, defeated with the help of Augustus' superior augury.
- ISBN 0415263166.
- ISBN 0801493110.
- ISBN 978-1781557389.
- ISBN 978-0060816100.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-05-27. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "The Annals of Ulster". celt.ucc.ie. Archived from the original on 15 March 2009. Retrieved 30 March 2018.