The Reorganization of Spain by Augustus (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916. Excerpt: ... or assistance of those it most benefitted; or we are told that a loathsome custom of the effete Orient was transplanted by a calculating princeps to the vigorous Occident, and there forced down the throats of an unwilling people. The evidence which comes from the Iberian peninsula does not support either of these conclusions. It appears rather to sustain the belief that the natural and wholesome feeling of relief of the Roman world when the Pax Romana was assured was skillfully crystallized by Augustus into an abiding institution. The reason for reviewing the subject of the imperial cult in the Spanish municipalities is not for the introduction of new evidence, but to obtain a better understanding of the relationship of the cult to general administrative policy. It has been the custom to regard it as an institution apart from the real life of the people, and the governmental policies of the rulers. Fiske1 has found some antecedents in Roman customs as well as the Graeco-Oriental ingredients; Kornemann2 has considered the cult as an agent for the advancement of Roman Kultur; Hirschfeld3 has noted the deep-seatedness of the cult in that its forms were transferred almost intact to the Christian Church. None of these facts can be explained as the result of the adoption of an Oriental fad, or as the product of a cult introduced by a hypocritical despot. While Augustus was slowly recovering from an illness brought on by the hardships of the Cantabrian campaign, he received in Tarraco an embassy from the people of Mytilene announcing the formal deification of Augustus by that city in the customary Hellenistic fashion.4 The pleasant reception offered that embassy did not escape the notice of the local dignitaries, and they hastened to emulate their eastern fellow...