OF RELIGION AND MORALITY

*The ideals of Augustus.* A counterpart to the governmental reorganization
effected by Augustus was his attempt to revive the old time Roman virtues
which had fallen into contempt during the last centuries of the republic.
This moral regeneration of the Roman people he regarded as the absolutely
essential basis for a new era of peace and prosperity. And the reawakening
of morality was necessarily preceded by a revival of the religious rites
and ceremonies that in recent times had passed into oblivion through the
attraction of new cults, the growth of skepticism, or the general disorder
into which the public administration had fallen as a result of civil
strife.

*The revival of public religion.* One step in this direction was the
reestablishment of the ancient priestly colleges devoted to the
performance of particular rites or the cult of particular deities. To
provide these colleges with the required number of patrician members
Augustus created new patrician families. He himself was enrolled in each
of these colleges and, at the death of Lepidus in 12 B. C., was elected
chief pontiff, the head of the state religion. A second measure was the
repair of temples and shrines which had lapsed into decay. The temple of
Jupiter Capitolinus, those of Quirinus and the Magna Mater, besides
eighty-two other shrines of lesser fame, were repaired or restored by him.
One of his generals, Munatius Plancus, renewed the temple of Saturn in the
forum. A new temple was erected by Augustus to Mars the Avenger on the
forum begun by Julius Caesar, another to the deified Julius himself on the
old forum, and a third on the Palatine hill to Apollo, to whom he rendered
thanks for the victory at Actium.

*The Lares and the Genius Augusti.* Among the divinities whose cult was
thus quickened into life were the Lares, the guardian deities of the
crossways, whose worship was especially practiced by the common folk.
Between the years 12 and 7 B. C. each of the two hundred and sixty-five
_vici_ into which the city of Rome was then divided was provided with a
shrine dedicated to the Lares and the Genius of Augustus, that is, the
divine spirit which watched over his fortunes. This worship was conducted
by a committee of masters, annually elected by the inhabitants of these
quarters. In this way the city plebs while not worshipping the princeps
himself, were yet encouraged to look upon him as their protector and
guardian.