Dio reports that, at the time Augustus was declared Divus, Livia, who was already called Julia and Augusta, was appointed his priestess. The term Dio uses is hiereia, which occurs in the same passage as his account of the priests and sacred rites that were assigned to Augustus on his deification. As Livia was also permitted to employ a lictor, an honour that Tiberius apparently restricted to her function as priestess, everything suggests that Livia played a part in the state (...) cult. In contrast, the festival Livia established in honour of her deceased husband was certainly a private gathering: three days of scenic games to which were invited only persons of the highest station. To distinguish between the two is crucial to the precise title of Livia's office. Just as Mark Antony had been made flamen of Divus Iulius—to all appearances for life —so Germanicus was appointed life-long flamen Augustalis —a distinctive term of office compared with the single year accorded provincial flamines in the Latin West. The office of Livia ought correspondingly to have been that of flaminica, even if it was unprecedented for a woman to serve a god who in the light of his will was technically her father. A precise parallel to all this, it is important to note, exists in the case of Divus Claudius, whose cult Agrippina was appointed to tend and who in her capacity as priestess of Divus Claudius was granted in addition two lictors. Fortunately in this case the exact terminology of her office is given by Tacitus in his account of the honours bestowed by the Senate on Agrippina, who evidently was named flaminica : … decreti et a senatu duo lictores, flamonium Claudiale, simul Claudio censorium funus et mox consecratio. (shrink)

Shortly before the death of Augustus, Tiberius dedicated the celebrated ara numinis Augusti, thus formally enshrining the numen of Augustus within the Imperial Cult. The step was a radical one, fundamental to the whole development of the emperor's ‘divinity’. Whereas the official cult of the emperor's genius had continued a traditional Republican practice, if with significant differences, to ascribe numen to the princeps was to establish Augustus as a through whom divinity could function as an intermediary. For to pay cult (...) to the numen Augusti was to ascribe to the human emperor the quintessential property of a god. (shrink)

Suetonius records that as Vespasian lay on his death-bed his dying words were Vae puto deus fio . If we assume that Vespasian could hardly have believed that he was literally destined for divinity, it is an open question what exactly he intended by this remark. As a general rule scholars seem to have interpreted it as a sarcastic sneer at deification: one reads for example such statements as ‘Historically we do not associate the reign of Vespasian with the Emperor (...) Cult. (shrink)