L'apoteosi di Augusto

This paper analyses Augustus’ funerary ceremony of 14 AD and specifically focuses on the procedure of the Apotheosis and the significance of the great dynastic tomb in Campo Marzio. The analysis of the ceremony’s religious meaning reveals a typical case of ‘invention of tradition,’ pretending that it respected the oldest beliefs of the Roman religion rather than new revolutionary needs. The ideological contents of the message connected with the death of the princeps had been accurately selected by Augustus himself in his lifetime as he had planned the entire ceremony in great detail, imbuing it with high symbolic content. The message transmitted through this was a conscious alternative to Hellenistic ideologies.