| Heritage World Coin Auctions > Showcase Auction 61373 | Auction date: 5 May 2024 |
| Lot number: 22044 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot  | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Ancients Divus Augustus (27 BC-AD 14). AE as (30mm, 10.94 gm, 12h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 2/5. Rome, AD 22/3-30. DIVVS•AVGVSTVS PATER, radiate head of Divus Augustus left / PROVIDENT, altar enclosure with closed double-paneled doors; S-C across fields. RIC I (Tiberius) 81. On 17 September 14 AD, one month after Augustus's death, the Senate voted for the late emperor's deification and the founding of a grand temple in the capital city. Temples, shrines, and altars for the worship of Augustus had already begun sprout up during his lifetime, but after 14 AD religious commemorations surged to prominence as the official imperial cult of the deified Augustus (the "Divus Augustus Pater" often seen on coins issued throughout the Julio-Claudian dynasty). The Temple of Divus Augustus in Rome would not be finished until the start of Tiberius's successor's reign over two decades later: the enormous delays in the temple's completion are thought to have been due to the meticulous care and detail put into the building's construction. Without a central place of worship, the rituals ended up being performed in a variety of temples throughout Rome. Tiberius organized a college of priests and priestesses, known as the Sodales Augustales, to perform the rites of the imperial cult. Members of the Sodales would be chosen from the senatorial elite or the imperial family itself: they even included Augustus's widow, Livia. The cult of Divus Augustus was thus a central feature of the reign of the emperor Tiberius, who used the imperial cult to reinforce his own legitimacy and divinity in the eyes of the Senate and the Roman populace at-large. Temples to Divus Augustus would go on to become a ubiquitous feature of the Roman Empire. https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/roman-imperial/ancients-divus-augustus-27-bc-ad-14-ae-as-30mm-1094-gm-12h-ngc-choice-xf-5-5-2-5/a/61373-22044.s?type=DA-DMC-CoinArchives-WorldCoins-61373-05052024 HID02906262019 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved |  |
