Augustalia

The Augustalia were, during the Roman Antiquité, a festival celebrated in the honor of Auguste.

They were celebrated for the first time in -19 in the honor of Auguste, when it had returned to Rome, after having regulated the businesses of the East. Among the honors which were decreed to him on this occasion, it accepted only that one furnace bridge was devoted to the Fortune which had brought back it and which the day of its return was classified among the festivals under the name of Augustalia .

To this occasion of the plays similar to those by which one celebrated its birth were given in the circus, with the ides of October, and were renewed the following years by the care of the consuls: these plays were called Ludi augustales . They however were registered in the records like celebrates annual, under the terms of a senatus consult, only from 767 (14 after JC).

After the death of Auguste, the Treasury made the expenses of them, and the powerful orators of the plebs were charged to take care of it. Later, this load fell on the Préteur pérégrin.

The festivals lasted from October 5th to 12th and were preceded by a procession in the circus, in which one walked, probably in tanks and on litters, the images of Auguste, his Genius, those of the reigning emperor, etc the magistrates who governed the plays appeared in this procession with the triumphal costume.

The name of Augustalia ( Sebasta , Sebasmia , Augoustalia , Augousteia ), is often also given to plays celebrated out of Rome in the honor of Auguste, the day of his birth or in other circumstances.

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