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TheSodales orSacerdotes Augustales (singularSodalis orSacerdos Augustalis),[1] or simplyAugustales,[2][3] were an order (sodalitas) ofRoman priests originally instituted byTiberius to attend to the maintenance of the cult ofAugustus and theJulii.[4][5][6] Their establishment in 14 AD is described in theAnnales ofTacitus.[7][8] Their membership and organisation was very different from that of the Augustales orseviri Augustales, found throughout the cities and towns of the western Roman empire and usually selected by town councilors. Up to 95% of attestedseviri Augustales were freedmen. Many were members of professional associations, not invariably wealthy but still respectable, acting as benefactors to their communities and the State by funding public gifts (Munera), such as entertainments, new buildings and distribution of theCura Annonae (annona or grain dole).[9]
In Rome, the twenty onesodales were chosen by lot from among the aristocracy, to which were added Tiberius,Drusus,Claudius, andGermanicus, as members of the imperial family.[2] Women might be appointed priestesses of Augustus, a practice probably originating in the appointment ofLivia by a decree of theSenate as priestess to her deceased husband.[10] Aflamen could also be a member of the Augustales.[11] These senatorialsodales Augustales were very different from the municipalseviri Augustales, as Linderski put it: “two vastly dissimilar organizations sharing a similar name”.[12] Related to thesodales Augustales were lesser known priesthoods that maintained the cults to deceased, deified emperors, each of whom had their own dedicatedsodality.[13]
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