Providentia
In
Providentia was an important moral and philosophical abstraction in Roman discourse. Cicero says it is one of the three main components of prudentia, "the knowledge of things that are good or bad or neither,"[2] along with memoria, "memory," and intellegentia, "understanding."[3] The Latin word is the origin of the Christian concept of divine providence.
Imperial cult
Upon the death of
In 28 AD, after Tiberius arrested and executed Sejanus for conspiracy, the Cult of Virtues played a role in the propaganda that presented the restoration of Imperial order as a return to constitutional government. Sacrifices were offered to Providentia along with Salus ("Security"), Libertas ("Liberty"), and the Genius. Providentia at this time also received a permanent full-time priest (sacerdos) devoted to her.[5] In the wake of the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero, religious observances in 59 AD to repair the state included sacrifices by the Arval Brethren to various deities, among them Providentia.[6]
Providentia appeared on
Providentia in numismatics
Providentia has been the main motif for many collector coins and medals, the most recent one is the famous
References
- ^ J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), p. 886.
- ^ Prudentia est rerum bonarum et malarum neutrarumque scientia.
- ^ Cicero, De Inventione 2.160; Elizabeth Henry, The Vigour of Prophecy: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid (Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), p. 68.
- ^ Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," pp. 886–887, 891.
- ^ Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 892.
- ^ Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," pp. 895, 897.
- ^ Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome: Approaches and Problem," ANRW II.17.2 (1981), p. 813, "The Cult of Virtues," pp. 900, 903, 904, 905, 907.
- ^ Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 902.