,
but even it never entirely lost its prominence, whereas the general idea
of the supremacy of the imperial cult was now established for all time
to come. But this secular celebration of Augustus is interesting aside
from the relation of Juppiter and Apollo, for it affords another
illustration of the skilful combination of new and old in the Augustan
reorganisation. In form the festival is avowedly the old one, but in two
respects at least it introduces a new element. In the first place
participation in the old festival, as in all the old festivals, had been
confined to Roman citizens. Others might look on, but they could not
take part, nor were they the recipients of any of the blessings which
were to follow. But now every free member of the community, with wife
and child, might join in the celebration, and thus the note was struck
which was to be the keynote of all that was best in the changes
introduced by the empire whose "highest and most beautiful task," as
Professor Mommsen puts it, "and the one which she fulfilled most
perfectly, was gradually to reconcile and thus to put an end to the
contrast between the ruling city and the subordinate communities, and
thus to change the old Roman law of city-citizenship into a community of
the state which embraced all the members of the empire." But even this
was not all; under the guise of this restoration of an old republican
institution a blow was struck at the very foundation of all republican
institutions, namely the power of the Senate. It was _par excellence_
Augustus's festival, arranged by him or by those to whom he had
committed the details. The Senate had little or nothing to say about it
and yet the control of such religious celebrations had hitherto formed
an inalienable part of the Senate's power. Even in the procession itself
the republican magistrates do not seem to have been officially present.
It was thus no longer the Senate inviting the magistrates and the
citizens in good and regular standing to perform a certain divine
function, but it was the emperor inviting all the members of the
community, citizens and non-citizens alike, to join with him in
worshipping the gods of the new state.

A great part of Augustus's success was unquestionably due to a certain
form of moral courage. For all his diplomacy and his desire to feel the
pulse of the people he was never lacking in the courage of his own
convictions. This can be seen nowhere better than in his attitud