Horace, Odes 4. 5: Pro Reditu Imperatoris Caesaris Divi Filii Augusti

Abstract

Abstract In the late summer of 1 5 BC Augustus wrote to Horace from Gaul and requested a poem to commemorate the magnificent victory which his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, had won over the Vindelici. The care that was being taken over the representation of this victory and its significance is revealed by the choice of 1 August as the day of victory, the fifteenth anniversary of the fall of Alexandria in 30 BC.2 The Gallic campaign also provided a focal point for a further refinement and redefinition of the role of Augustus. The war had been conducted under the auspicia or Augustus by Tiberius and Drusus acting as the legati. Since Augustus had secured through his pictas and his special relationship with the gods the divine support without which there would have been no victory, it was Augustus, not Tiberius or Orusus, who was acclaimed as imperator for the victory. The importance attached to communicating effectively this carefully nuanced relationship between Augustus and his legati is reflected in the coinage of this period.

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