Caesar’s Comet, the Julian Star, and the Invention of Augustus
Octavian is credited with turning a comet seen in 44 b.c.e.  into a symbol of Julius Caesar’s divinity and using it to advance his own political aims. Yet historical evidence argues against this account. Moreover, representations of the sidus Iulium (Julian star) on coins and in poetry adopt diverse and autonomous perspectives on the princeps. The idea that Augustus circulated the sidus as part of an image campaign seems instead to originate with Ovid, whose deification narrative at Metamorphoses 15.745–851 retrojected the princeps ’s mature power onto his early career and fueled the belief that Augustus gained and maintained power through propaganda.
Dirty Linen, Fabrication, and the Authorities of Livy and Augustus
At 4.20.5–11, Livy famously interrupts his narrative to report hearing that Augustus had discovered an inscribed linen corselet in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. The inscription, Livy tells us he has heard, said that A. Cornelius Cossus had dedicated the corselet as spolia opima when he was consul. Augustus's story thus contradicts the account Livy has just related, in which Cossus dedicated spolia opima as military tribune. Livy's treatment of Augustus's testimony, I argue in the first part of this paper, associates this discovery with prominent episodes early in the Ab Urbe Condita in which persons of authority fabricate supernatural stories and use them to influence persons of lower status. The association distances Livy and his readers from Augustus's account. This distancing, I argue in the paper's second part, has implications for our understanding of Livy's literary project and offers scope for reflection on the interrelationship of historiographical and political authority at the beginning of the Principate.
Religions of Rome
1. Earliest Rome 2. The deities of Rome 3. The calendar 4. Religious places 5. Festivals and ceremonies 6. Sacrifices 7. Divination and diviners 8. Priests and priestesses 9. Individuals and gods: life and death 10. Rome outside Rome 11. Threats to the Roman order 12. Religious groups 13. Perspectives Glossary Deities and their epithets Bibliography Indexes.