Augustus (title)

Augustus (plural Augusti; /ɔːˈɡʌstəs/ aw-GUST-əs, Classical Latin: [au̯ˈɡʊstʊs]; "majestic", "great" or "venerable") was the main title of the Roman emperors during Antiquity. It was given as both name and title to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (often referred to simply as Augustus) in 27 BC, marking his accession as Rome's first emperor. On his death, it became an official title of his successor, and was so used by all emperors thereafter. The feminine form Augusta was used for Roman empresses and other female members of the imperial family. The masculine and feminine forms originated in the time of the Roman Republic, in connection with things considered divine or sacred in traditional Roman religion. Their use as titles for major and minor Roman deities of the Empire associated the imperial system and family with traditional Roman virtues and the divine will and may be considered a feature of the Roman imperial cult.

In Rome's Greek-speaking provinces, "Augustus" was translated as Sebastos (Σεβαστός), or Hellenised as Augoustos (Αὔγουστος); these titles continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, although they gradually lost their imperial exclusivity in favour of Basileus and Autokrator.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the title "Augustus" would later be incorporated into the style of the Holy Roman Emperor, a precedent set by Charlemagne who used the title serenissimus Augustus. As such, Augustus was sometimes also used as a name for men of aristocratic birth, especially in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. It remains a given name for males.

Some thirty years before its first association with Caesar's heir, augustus was an obscure honorific with religious associations. One early context (58 BC) associates it with provincial Lares (Roman household gods). In Latin poetry and prose, it signifies the further elevation or augmentation of what is already sacred or religious. Some Roman sources connected it to augury, and Rome was said to have been founded with the "august augury" of Romulus.

The first true Roman known as "Augustus" (and first counted as a Roman emperor) was Octavian. He was the grand-nephew and later posthumously adopted as the son and heir of Julius Caesar, who had been murdered for his seeming aspiration to divine monarchy, then subsequently and officially deified. Octavian studiously avoided any association with Caesar's claims, other than acknowledging his position and duties as Divi filius ("son of the deified one"). Nevertheless, his position was unique and extraordinary. He had ended Rome's prolonged and bloody civil war with his victory at Actium, and established a lasting peace. He was self-evidently favoured by the gods. As princeps senatus ("first man or head of the senate") he presided at senatorial meetings. He was pontifex maximus, chief priest of Roman state religion. He held consular imperium, with authority equal to the official chief executive. He was supreme commander of all Roman legions, and held tribunicia potestas ("tribunician power"). As a tribune, his person was inviolable (sacrosanctitas) and he had the right to veto any act or proposal by any magistrate within Rome.

He was officially renamed Augustus by the Roman Senate on 16 January 27 BC – or perhaps the Senate ratified his own careful choice; "Romulus" had been considered, and rejected. This name was deemed too blatant as it would make Octavius the second founder of Rome. So his official renaming in a form vaguely associated with a traditionally Republican religiosity, but unprecedented as a cognomen, may have served to show that he owed his position to the approval of Rome and its gods, and possibly his own unique, elevated, "godlike" nature and talents. His full and official title thus became Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus.

Augustus' religious reforms extended or affirmed Augusti as a near ubiquitous title or honour for various minor local deities, including the Lares Augusti of local communities, and obscure provincial deities such as the North African Marazgu Augustus. This extension of an Imperial honorific to major and minor deities of Rome and her provinces is considered a ground-level feature of Imperial cult, which continued until the official replacement of Rome's traditional religions by Christianity. The religious ambiguity of the title allowed for this kind of deification throughout the empire as subjects – beginning from Asia and Bithynia – adopted the worship of the genius or soul of Augustus, establishing a ruler-cult.

The first emperor bequeathed the title Augustus to his adopted heir and successor Tiberius in his will. From then on, though it conferred no specific legal powers, Augustus was a titular element of the imperial name. Subsequently, the title was bestowed by the Roman Senate. Until the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), the title was unique to its bearer; in 161 Marcus Aurelius elevated Lucius Verus (r. 161–169) to Augustus and both bore the title at the same time.