The Idea of aeternitas of State, City and Emperor in Augustan Poetry

• Autores: Katarzyna Balbuza
• Localización: Klio: Beitrage zur alten geschichte, ISSN 0075-6334, Vol. 96, Nº 1, 2014, págs. 49-66
• Idioma: alemán
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The years of the early Principate, especially the rule of Augustus, are witness to the radical change, on the contrary to Republic, in the number of references of aeternitas especially in Roman poetry. Famous Augustan poets close to the idea of aeternitas are Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Horace and Ovid. Numerous references to the concept of aeternitas constituted the outcome of the contemporary mentality and specific world views towards the issue of the permanence and stability of the state; they resulted from social expectations as well as from ideological creations of the new power. The notion of aeternitas, which Augustan authors referred to, was deliberately set in the religious and political tradition of Rome. By means of this notion, poets extremely frequently conveyed the idea of the permanence and stability of the state as well as of the prevailing political system. Most often the concept was evoked in the context of the tradition of the foundation myths of Rome, especially with reference to the heroes of those myths (e.g. Romulus, Aeneas), ancient cults (e.g. of Vesta) as well as religious and political institutions (e.g. Pontifex Maximus). The tendency to treat the state as eternal seems to have increased in 12 B.C. This coincided with two events?� the assumption of the function of Pontifex Maximus by Augustus (6th of March 12 B.C.) and attending with care to Vesta, who was linked to the House of Augustus on the Palatine.