Introduction

Abstract The Introduction sets out to achieve three things: (1) to justify why poetic discussions of Augustus’ divinization merit critical attention and require treatment as a distinct category; (2) to situate the present study in relation to existing scholarship and current thinking on Augustan poetry; (3) to explain the interpretive approach and reading strategies adopted in this book, laying out the ways in which this study can illuminate scholarly understanding of Augustan poetry. The main focus of the Introduction is to challenge the idea that the poetic discourse of Augustus’ divinity is more or less an expression of attitude towards Augustus. Through a detailed examination of Cicero’s Pro lege Manilia and Pro Marcello, it will be shown that discussions of divinization in late Republican political discourse cut to the core of Rome’s complex relationship with dictatorship and autocratic authority. Against this backdrop, the Introduction proposes that poetry’s discourse on Augustus’ divinization should thus be understood as an attempt to interrogate and come to terms with political change. Propertius 3.11 is used as a case study to demonstrate this point.