College (Seat) of the Augustales
About
Meeting hall and shrine of the Augustales, a civic college mostly of wealthy freedmen tasked with maintaining the imperial cult of Augustus (the priesthood was formalized under Tiberius in 14 CE, though this building's core dates slightly earlier, funded by patrons A. Lucius Proculus and A. Lucius Iulianus). Decorated with Fourth-Style frescoes of the labors of Hercules, the city's mythic founder. Rediscovered in 1740 by early Bourbon tunnel excavations. New category "collegium" introduced since this is a civic/cult association's meeting hall rather than a standalone temple; logged per shift convention. Destroyed in the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius, 38 years before this map's snapshot — included as it's an essential part of the story.
What happened here
An association of men in the same trade or worshipping the same god, and usually both at once. It has a clubhouse with a dining room, a shrine, a set of written rules and an elected treasurer who is chased when the accounts do not balance. Members pay a joining fee and monthly dues; in return they get dinners on the founder's birthday, a vote, a title if they are lucky, and above all a funeral and a place in the collective tomb. Fines are levied for drunkenness at meetings and for starting arguments about seating. Many members are freedmen for whom this is the only office they will ever hold. The authorities watch them, since any organised group is a political risk.
In ancient writing
- AE 1979, 169, dedication inscription marble plaque, cella of the Augustales' hall
Two brothers, Aulus Lucius Proculus and Aulus Lucius Iulianus, funded a dinner for the town councillors and the Augustales to mark the dedication of a monument to the deified Augustus, commemorated on this plaque still fixed inside the hall.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →