Priesthood and Augustan Imperial Power (I AEC - I EC) through the analysis of the political-religious representations of Livy in the work Ab Urbe Condita (Books I-V)

• Grant number: 24/06405-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Margarida Maria de Carvalho
• Grantee: João Pedro de Almeida Castro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This work focuses on the events that took place between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. A period of central importance for the Roman Republic, which saw its power structure give way to a new regime based on the centralizing figure of Augustus, the Principality. At this juncture, we find our author Titus Livius (64/59 B.C.E. - 17 C.E.), a Paduan historian whose magnum opus was Ab Urbe Condita, a work of antiquity, with an expressive volume that narrated an exemplary Roman past, from various aspects of the society that Livius knew. The prominence of religious aspects is striking in the narrative, with special emphasis on priestly figures and their religious actions in the broad field of sacred law, constituting one of the main carriers of Roman religious tradition in his work. The use of the priesthood in association with tradition and, consequently, power, seems to have received equal attention from the princeps Augustus during the 1st century B.C.E., given his concern to propagate his image as a priest. In addition to his priestly position, Augustus promoted various religious reforms in the Urbs that were of fundamental importance for the constitution of imperial power. Given the prominence of the priesthood in Ab Urbe Condita, in the occupations and religious reforms promoted by the princeps in the period, we set out our working hypothesis. This consists of analyzing how the political-religious representations of Titus Livius are associated with the Emperor's politics in the construction of his imperial power through the link with an exemplary past constituted by the author. To contemplate this hypothesis, we used the first pentade of books in Ab Urbe Condita, which narrate the entire monarchical experience in Rome, the establishment of the Republic and the consulate. In this way, we tried to identify how the past narrated by Titus Livius was linked to the issues of his time, constituting itself as an instance of power.