d
the rank in importance which it had under Augustus. On the other hand if
one went low enough and looked sufficiently deep down certain elements
in the religious life of the community could be found which continued
almost unchanged from century to century. These were the simple elements
which were involved in family worship, the sacrifices at the hearth of
Vesta, and those to the Genius of the master of the house. Here simple
beliefs and elementary cult acts had continued virtually unchanged from
the very earliest period down to the present. These cults did not need
any formal restoration on the part of the emperor, for they had not
experienced the decline which the other cults had suffered, but by just
so much more they would afford a firm foundation for his empire and his
own rule if he could in some way succeed in connecting them with
himself. In the case of Vesta this was comparatively easy. The Pontifex
Maximus was the guardian of the Vestal virgins, and thus on March 6,
B.C. 12, when Augustus became Pontifex Maximus, it was quite natural
that there should be a festival to Vesta and that the day should
continue as a public holiday. The Pontifex Maximus however was supposed
to live in the Regia down in the Forum, where Julius Caesar as Pontifex
Maximus had actually lived. This Augustus did not desire to do, hence he
gracefully gave up the Regia to the Vestal virgins and made his official
residence in his own house on the Palatine, fulfilling the religious
requirements by consecrating a part of that house. On a portion of the
section thus consecrated a temple of Vesta was built and dedicated April
28, B.C. 12. This was strictly speaking his own "Vesta," the hearth of
his own house, but the prominence of the temple of Vesta there had an
effect similar to the prominence of the temple of Apollo on the
Palatine, and the whole state began thus to worship at the hearth of the
emperor, and in time the emperor was worshipped at each individual
hearth.

But the crowning touch of Augustus's religious policy was yet to come;
this was the establishment of the worship of the Genius of the emperor.
After Actium and in the earlier years of his reign it is certain that
Augustus would not have thought of putting himself, even in the
spiritualised form of his Genius, before the people as an object of
worship. But the tendency to emperor-worship which Oriental influence
had brought with it was not without its effects on the emperor hi