The God of Rome

Inspiring reverence and blasphemy, combining paternal benignity with sexual violence, transcendent universality with tribal chauvinism, Jupiter represents both the best and the worst of ancient religion. Though often assimilated to Zeus, Jupiter differs from his Greek counterpart as much as Rome differs from Greece; “the god of Rome” conveys both Jupiter’s sovereignty over Rome and his symbolic encapsulation of what Rome represents. Understanding this dizzyingly complex figure is crucial not only to the study of Roman religion, but to the whole of literary, intellectual, and religious history. This book examines Jupiter in Latin poetry’s most formative and fruitful period, the reign of the emperor Augustus. As Roman society was transformed from a republic or oligarchy to a de facto monarchy, Jupiter came to play a unique role as the celestial counterpart of the first earthly princeps. While studies of Augustan poetry may glance at Jupiter as an Augustus figure, or Augustus as a Jupiter figure, they rarely explore the poets’ richly nuanced treatment of the god as a character in his own right. This book fills that gap, demonstrating how Jupiter attracts thoughts about politics, power, sex, fatherhood, religion, poetry, and almost everything else of importance to poets and other humans. It explores the god’s manifestations in the five major Augustan poets (Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid), providing a fascinating window on a transformative period of history, as well as a comprehensive view of the poets’ individual personalities and shifting concerns.