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Providentia and Aeternitas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Martin Percival Charlesworth
Affiliation:
St. John's College, Cambridge

Extract

During the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, as the Principate slowly developed, certain qualities and attributes of the emperor tend to become personified or regarded as permanent elements in the character of the ruler: it may be Clementia, or Indulgentia, or Munificentia, it may be the Greek Philanthropia or Euergesia. In this way they tend to acquire a special meaning, or rather a complex of special meanings. Two such words are Providentia and Aeternitas, and the object of the present study is to review some of the evidence (it would be difficult to collect all) and elucidate the significance which the word Providentia or the word Aeternitas might convey to a citizen of the Empire in the second century.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1936

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References

* I wish to express my thanks to Miss J. M. C. Toynbee, Mr. H. Mattingly, and Mr. C. T. Seltman for their kind assistance.

1 This fragment of Musonius is given in Schenkl's 2nd edition of Epictetus, III, xv, 14, and will be found as fragment 43 in O. Hense's edition of Musonius, Leipzig,. 1905.

2 Seneca, dial. I (de Providentia), 1. For providentia as a translation of pronoia see Cicero, de nat. deor. I, 18 (he also sometimes uses prudentia).

3 For a treatment, based upon the coin-evidence, of this topic, see Schultz, O. Th., Die Rechtstitel und Regierungsprogramme auf römischen Kaisermünzen, 2127Google Scholar.

4 Cicero laid some emphasis upon the divine inspiration of his own providentia. Quintilian, when warning against the evil of praising oneself, remarks (XI, i, 25) ‘et M. Tullius saepe dicit de oppressa coniuratione Catilinae: sed modo id virtuti Senatus, modo providentiae deorum immortalium assignat’; we shall meet the providentia deorum again later. See also ad Atticum, I, xvi, 6 and Plutarch, Cicero, 31.

5 Deonna, W., La légende d'Octave Auguste Dieu Sauveur et maître du monde, Rev. Hist. Relig. LXXXIII, 1921, 32, 163; LXXXIV, 1921, 77Google Scholar.

6 The older form of the text is in Orientis Graeci Inscr. Selectae, II, 458; a revised and improved form by Buckler, W. H. will be found in Suppl. Epig. Graecum, IV, 490Google Scholar. For a similar sense of gratitude (though there is no mention of providentia) see the Latin inscription from Narbo, Dessau, ILS, 112.

7 Baetica, Dessau, ILS, 103: the Cyrene edict conveniently in Malcovati, H., Caesaris Augusti … Fragmenta, 43, no. CIIGoogle Scholar.

8 Mattingly-Sydenham, The Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. I, 95 ffGoogle Scholar. For the Emerita coin see Vives y Escudero, A., La Monéda Hispanica, IV, 66, no. 59Google Scholar; coins from Italica, in Spain, bear the legend PROVIDENTIAE AUGUSTI, op. cit., 127, no. 9. In Heiss, A., Description générale des monn. ant. de l'Espagne, the Emerita coin is nos. 28 and 29, p. 401Google Scholar; the Italica one, no. 8, p. 380.

9 This adoption, in fact, was one of the best pieces of foresight of this ‘circumspectissimus et prudentissimus princeps.’ But that an Ara Providentiae Augustae already existed in Rome (as R. Peter seems to assert in his article upon Providentia in Roscher's Lexikon) appears to me very doubtful. The Italica coin (supra) with its legend Providentiae Augusti around a pictured altar suggests that there was such an altar in that town, but not necessarily in Rome. It is mentioned in the Acta Fratrum Arvalium (Henzen), p. xlv, for the reign of Gaius, which gives a terminus; I prefer, as will be seen, a date in 31 or 82.

10 This phrase about the stars must be in compliment to Tiberius' known love of and knowledge of astrology.

11 Dessau, ILS, 157.

12 Dessau, ILS, 158.

13 For these two Corinth inscriptions see West, A. B., Corinth, vol. VIII, part ii, 1931, nos. 15 and 110Google Scholar.

14 There is yet another dedication to Providentia Augusta at Interamna, though undated, Dessau, ILS, 3793. There can be no doubt that the overthrow of Sejanus by the ‘foresight’ of Tiberius made a great impression on the provinces. For that reason I am inclined to date the well-known inscription from Naix (CIL, XIII, 4635)Google Scholar, ‘Tib. Caesari Aug. fil. Augusto et pro perpetua salute divinae domus,’ after the punishment of Sejanus, for the divinity of the ‘divina domus’ was thereby triumphantly vindicated. For the growing prestige of the domus Augusta see Gagé, J., Divus Augustus, Rev. Arch., 34, 1931, 11Google Scholar. We may note that the phrase ‘divina domus’ occurs in late Tiberian times and after: so Phaedrus, V, vii, 38 — ‘superbiens honore divinae domus’ — and compare the language of decrees at Cyzicus, (IGRR, IV, 144Google Scholar) and of Tlos (IGRR, III, 547Google Scholar), in which we encounter such phrases as αἰώνιος οἶκος and οἶκος ἄϕθαρτος καὶ ἀθάνατος For some interesting remarks on the origin of the phrase Divina Domus, see Pippidi, D. M., Dominus Noster Caesar, A propos du texte de Scribonius Largus, in Atheneum I, 1935, 637 (esp. 643-653)Google Scholar.

15 For Tiberius' administration of the provinces see Marsh, F. B., The Reign of Tiberius, 134159Google Scholar.

16 Josephus, , Ant. Jud. XVIII, 172Google Scholar. This passage is one of those concerned with events at Rome which show considerable stylistic peculiarities and difficulties, where it is possible that Josephus is drawing directly upon a Latin original and translating the terms as best he can; see Charlesworth, M. P. in Camb. Hist. Journal, 1933, IV, 105CrossRefGoogle Scholar. J. Enoch Powell has suggested that the whole passage should read τὰς δ' ἀρχὰς συγχωρεῖν τοῖς ἄπαξ εἰς αὐτὰς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καταστᾶσιν ἀϊδίους, προμηείᾳ τῶν ύποτελῶν, which would be a great improvement; see his note in Class. Rev. L, 1936, 11.

17 For this pronouncement see Suppl. Epig. Graecum, IV, 516Google Scholar; for the so-called SC de aedificiis non diruendis see Dessau, ILS, 6043. The early Alexandrian coins of Nero (Vogt, J., Die alexandrinischen Kaisermünzen, pp. 2829Google Scholar) proclaim ‘the foresight of the new Augustus,’ πρόνοια νἐου Σεβαστοῦ.

18 Henzen, , Acta Fratrum Arvalium, lxxivGoogle Scholar.

19 Henzen, l.c., lxxxi.

20 Dittenberger, , OGlS, 669Google Scholar; see Wilcken, U. in Zeits. d. Sav.-Stift, XLII, 1921, 144 ff.Google Scholar, and cf. Reinmuth, O. in Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc., LXV, 1934Google Scholar.

21 Tacitus, , Histories, I, 12Google Scholar and II, 1.

22 Henzen, l.c., xc. A coin figuring Galba, with the legend PROVIDENT. S. C., must (Mr. H. Mattingly kindly informs me) be seriously considered for posthumous issue (Mattingly-Sydenham, I, 216, no. 164).

23 Tacitus, , Histories, I, 29Google Scholar.

24 Plutarch, , Otho, 16Google Scholar.

25 Tacitus, , Histories, II, 59Google Scholar; Mattingly, H., Coins of the Rom. Emp. in the Brit. Mus., I, 1923, Table 61, 46Google Scholar. Perhaps we may also refer to this event a PROVIDENT. S. C. coin of Vitellius, Mattingly-Sydenham, I, 228, no. 24. As being a possible danger the boy was afterwards put to death by order of Mucianus, Tacitus, , Histories, IV, 80Google Scholar.

26 For the frequency of the PROVIDENTIA issues under Vespasian see Mattingly-Sydenham, II, 74, 79, 87, 91, 95, 97, 98, 102, 104, 105, and 107. The coin showing Titus receiving the globe from Vespasian is on p. 128: on the globus as symbol of power see Alföldi, A. in Mitt. Deutsch. Arch. Inst. (Röm. Abt.) L. 1935, 117 fGoogle Scholar. There is a reference to the Pronoia of Vespasian in Dio Cassius, LXVI, 11, τό τε σύμπαν τῇ μὲν προνοίᾳ τῶν κοινῶν αὐτοκράτωρ ἐνομίζετο, ἐς δὲ δὴ τἆλλα πάντα κοινὸς καὶ ίσοδίαιτός σϕισιν ἦν, but this may be Zonaras and too late to use as evidence.

27 Mattingly-Sydenham, II, 229; for the providentia of the Senate cf. the Tiberian example, Dessau, ILS, 159.

28 Pliny, , Paneg. 10, 4 (ed. Schuster, M., 1933)Google Scholar.

29 Dessau, ILS, 282 (Tarracina) and 6106 (Rome); the Ancona arch, 298. But Paribeni, R., Optimus Princeps, II, 116Google Scholar, is inclined to refer the Tarracina inscription possibly to road-making or other public works.

30 The five quotations come from Pliny's Letters (ed. M. Schuster): VIII, 17, 2; X, 54, 61, 77, 108.

31 The four quotations come from the Third Oration on Kingship in von Arnim's edition of Dio; the passages are 43, 50, 62, and 52; cf. also 107–108 and 127.

32 Mattingly-Sydenham, II, 246; for the later issues see 269 and 271.

33 Ib., 339 (Adoptio) and 415 and 418 (Providentiae Deorum).

34 Instances of Providentia Deorum on coins are frequent during the second century: the Arval Acta mention vows to Providentia Deorum ‘pro salute imperatoris’ in 183, Henzen, p. clxxxviii (? for the detection of a conspiracy). For coins referring to the adoption of Antoninus see Mattingly-Sydenham, II, 370, 339, and 444. For the Alexandrian Pronoia coin of A.D. 187/138 see J. Vogt, l.c., 109 ff. Vogt also refers the type Pronoia Sebaste of 196/197 to the designation of Caracallus as Caesar.

35 The coin, Mattingly-Sydenham, II, 429; Avidius Quietus' edict, Dittenberger, , OGIS, 502Google Scholar.

36 Fronto, , ed. Naber, 224Google Scholar; Aurelius, Marcus, Meditations, I, 16, 2Google Scholar.

37 At this point I have departed from my rule of strict chronological order, for though the two speeches will be found in B. Keil's text of Aristeides (Vol. II, Berlin, 1898), the first (εἰς βασιλέα) is certainly not by Aristeides. It is post-Antonine and probably of early third-century date; on the whole question see Boulanger, A., Aelius Aristide, Paris, 1923, 382–4Google Scholar (and the articles and discussions there cited).

38 The providentia of Marcus and Commodus, Bruns, , Fontes Iuris Romani, ed. 7Google Scholar, no. 63, line 12; of Commodus, ib., no. 86, Col. 8, line 1; Providentia with Annona attributes, Cohen, Description historique. … Severus Alexander, nos. 499 ff. (I owe the reference to Mr. Mattingly); of Gordian, Dessau, ILS, 5876 and Dittenberger, Sylloge3, no. 888.

39 Dessau, ILS, 430 (the restorations are Mommsen's).

40 For the coin references see the article by Nock cited in the text; the two inscriptions quoted here are Dessau, ILS, 618 and 637.

41 On this topic see M. P. Charlesworth in this journal, XXVIII, 1935, 41.

42 The providentia of Hadrian; Bruns, Fontes7, no. 115; of Trajan, Pliny, , Ep. VI, 19, 3Google Scholar; for Hadrian as the ruler who aimed at the happiness of his subjects see Pausanias, I, v, 5. It may be noted that in the third century Origen replies to Celsus' claim that men must look for everything to the emperor, since to him has been given all upon earth, by saying, ‘No, what we get, we get from God and from His pronoia’ (Origen, , contra Celsum, VIII, 67Google Scholar).

page 123 note 1 Ovid, , Fasti, III, 419 ff.Google Scholar; IV, 949 ff. For a full treatment of Vesta and the Palladium as guarantee of Roman power see now Gross, P. K., Die Unterpfänder der römischen Herrschaft, 1935, 6996Google Scholar. A brilliant article by Cumont, F., L'Eternité des empereurs romains, Rev. d'hist. et de litt. relig. I, 1896, p. 435Google Scholar, shows the growth and progress of the notion especially in the third and fourth centuries. Here I merely add a little more of the early evidence.

page 124 note 2 Tacitus, , Ann. IV, 16Google Scholar; Dio LIX, 3, 4 and LX, 22, 2. Claudius ordered the Vestals to celebrate the cult of the dead Livia, Dio LX, 5, 2. Livia may have been connected, even in her lifetime, as wife of the Pontifex Maximus, with the Vestals; see Richmond, O. L. in Journ. Rom. Stud. IV, 1914, 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar (esp. p. 209).

page 124 note 3 For the Feriale Cumanum see Dessau, , ILS, 108Google Scholar. The connections between these birthdays and the cult of Vesta had already been noticed by Weber, W., Unters. z. Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrianus, 251, note 907Google Scholar.

page 125 note 4 Valerius Maximus, V, 3Google Scholar, 1.

page 125 note 5 Acta Fratr. Arval. (Henzen), p. lxxxi; Suetonius, , Nero, 11Google Scholar.

page 125 note 6 For these coins see Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, I, 1928, pp. cxcix, ccxx, ccxxii, cxxiv, ccxxvii, and ccxxixGoogle Scholar.

page 126 note 7 Mattingly-Sydenham, , The Roman Imperial Coinage, II, pp. 28 and 39Google Scholar.

page 126 note 8 Dessau, , ILS, 60496052Google Scholar; for the significance of the Victoria Augusti see Gagé, J., La Théologie de la Victoire Impériale, Rev. Hist. CLXXI, 1934, 1Google Scholar; for the emphasis laid upon the heirs of the house, the ‘liberi,’ cf. coins with the legend LIBERI IMP. AUG. VESPAS. (Mattingly-Sydenham, l.c., 52–54).

page 127 note 9 Mattingly-Sydenham, l.c., 28 and 39; 131 and 134n.; 191 and 192 (A.D. 85).

page 127 note 10 Costa, G., Religione e Politica nell' Impero Romano, 1923, 82Google Scholar. For details see F. Sauter's dissertation, Der römische Kaiserkult bei Martial und Statius, where he shows that Martial and Statius constantly refer to Domitian as aeternus. But I do not agree with his interpretation of the AETERNITAS issue. Cumont has shown, op. cit., 440, how all the attributes of the emperor, Virtus, Pax, Victoria, Felicitas, etc., become aeternae in the third century.

page 127 note 11 Pliny, , Ep. IV, 11Google Scholar; Suetonius, , Domit. 8Google Scholar; Dio Cassius, LXVII, 3Google Scholar.

page 127 note 12 Tacitus, , Hist. III, 74Google Scholar.

page 128 note 13 See Alföldi, A., Insignien und Tracht der römischen Kaiser, Römische Mittheilungen, L, 1935, esp. 103Google Scholar. For the coins see Mattingly-Sydenham, l.c., 28, 36, and 39; also 185, 188, 192, 194, and 196.

page 128 note 14 The institution of the Capitoline agon; Suetonius, , Domit. 4, 4Google Scholar.

page 128 note 15 The formula of the Arval vows; Henzen, l.c., 110. Compare with this Pliny, , Paneg. 67, 3Google Scholar.

page 128 note 16 As early as A.D. 30, when Velleius Paterculus wishes to conclude his history with a solemn vow (II, 131), the three deities he selects are Iuppiter Capitolinus, Mars Gradivus, and Vesta. P. K. Gross, in his penultimate section (l.c., 117 ff.) dealing with Sonstige Unterpfänder Roms, remarks, ‘Sie lassem sich nach zwei Gruppen scheiden. Die andere stehen in Beziehung zum Vestaheiligtum, die anderen zum kapitolinischen Hügel.’ As Cumont noted, in 1896, ‘le foyer de Vesta devint ainsi le symbole non seulement de l'indestructibilité de l'État romain, mais de celle du principat.’ To this I would merely add that the Flavians promoted it greatly.

page 129 note 17 Acmonia: IGRR (Cagnat-Lafaye), IV, 661. The date is 85, the same year as the issue of the Domitianic AETERNITATI AUGUSTI coins.

page 129 note 18 Nerva's adoption of Trajan: Pliny, , Paneg. 8Google Scholar, and Dio Cassius LXVIII, 3, 3 and 4.

page 130 note 19 Pliny, , Ep. X, 35 (44) and 52Google Scholar (60).

page 130 note 20 Pliny, , Ep. X, 59 (67) and 83Google Scholar (87).

page 130 note 21 Pliny, , Ep. X, 112Google Scholar (113), 3, and 41 (50).

page 130 note 22 Ammianus Marcellinus, XV, l. 3; Symmachus (O. Seeck), Relat. II, 2 and III, 3 (I owe the Symmachus references to Cumont's article).

page 130 note 23 Ammianus Marcellinus, XIV, 6, 1Google Scholar; XV, 7, 1 and 7, 10; XVI, 10, 14, and eight other times.

page 130 note 24 Toutain, J., Les Cultes païens dans l'Empire romain, I, 1907, 181193Google Scholar.

page 131 note 25 See MrsStrong, Arthur, Apotheosis and After Life, especially 88 ff.Google Scholar

page 131 note 1 For Hellenistic ideas of monarchy see Goodenough, E. R., The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship, Yale Class. Stud. I, 1928, 55Google Scholar, passim, and the fascinating study by Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great and the Unity of Mankind, British Acad. Proc. XIX, 1933, esp. 39Google Scholar.

page 132 note 2 Reade, W. H. V., Introduction to E. Moore's text of Dante's de Monarchia, Oxford, 1916, xiv–xvGoogle Scholar. I owe the reference to Dr. C. W. Previté-Orton.