The Household and Mystery Religions and Foreign Cults, Philosophical Schools, Associations, and Jewish Synagogues
The Social Setting of the Ministry The success of Augustus can largely be ascribed to his ability to capitalize on the household in its religious, social, and political manifestations. The penetration of the image of Caesar, for example, into the private hearth — the sanctum of the family community — and alongside the Lares and Penates, established
Augustus as a household god and won for him a place at the centre of Roman family life.40 The importance of the family in the early Empire can be seen in Augustus' use of domestic ideology and the existing patronage system derived from the extended household structure for his own benefit. Augustus was anxious to restore society in such a way that each part was connected to himself. By the time of the Principate the traditional Roman family was in a state of decay.41
Augustus sought to re-establish family values, but in a way that fostered devotion to the Empire and to himself He prohibited marriage between partners of unequal status, he sought to curtail divorce through punishment, and he attempted to stop the decrease of the Roman population through legislation in which unmarried widows or widowers, or widowed heiresses without children, were kept, at least in part, from their inheritance. In contrast to this, large families gained certain remunerative advantages.42 Augustus' more far-reaching strategy, however, was to incorporate the entire Empire under his authority. In 2 B.C. he was acclaimed pater patriae, although he was seen as this long before winning the title.43 With this came the appropriate potestas. "Loyal subjects would be, henceforth, favoured sons and daughters of the 'father of the fatherland.' , ï 4 4 It is in this greater context that the Lex Papia Poppaea is to be understood.45 So also at the conclusion of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, after recounting his great works, the Emperor recalls that he is hailed "pater patriae" by "the entire Roman people."46 "This paternalism reveals the emotional basis upon which the power of the Caesar rested."47 Tiberius did not forget this,48 nor did successive emperors.49 This was no abstract relationship. It was established by formal oaths of allegiance to the house of Caesar.50 Imperial power was extended throughout the empire by a web of personal servants, slaves, and freedmen under the potestas of Caesar, forming his οίκος (cf. Phil. 4:22). The picture of the ideal empire was, therefore, that of a harmonious household, protected, maintained, and supervised by the ideal pater patriae. If the state was a familia, the emperor was its paterfamilias.51 "The perpetuation of the Caesarian system" Judge writes, "was not the result of sinister dynasticism: it was the product of the characteristic Roman sentiments of the family's obligation to its own tradition, and the loyalty of dependants to the patron household."52
The Household and Mystery Religions and Foreign Cults, Philosophical Schools, Associations, and Jewish Synagogues So far we have relied to a large extent on the opinions of the ancient literati to fill out a picture of the Graeco-Roman household. But it would be methodologically dangerous to leave the matter here. The opinions of a Cicero, Cato, or Pliny were formed within a social stratum which constituted a minuscule fraction of ancient society. And it would be misleading to present the ancient household as a static phenomenon. Its central interest for us in this thesis is its