Dio reports that, at the time Augustus was declared Divus, Livia, who was already called Julia and Augusta, was appointed his priestess (Cassius Dio 56.46.1). The term Dio uses is hiereia, which occurs in the same passage as his account of the priests and sacred rites (en tais hierourgiais) that were assigned to Augustus on his deification. As Livia was also permitted to employ a lictor, an honour that Tiberius apparently restricted to her function as priestess,Footnote ¹ everything suggests that Livia played a part in the state cult. In contrast, the festival Livia established in honour of her deceased husband was certainly a private gathering: three days of scenic games to which were invited only persons of the highest station.Footnote ² To distinguish between the two is crucial to the precise title of Livia's office. Just as Mark Antony had been made flamen of Divus Iulius—to all appearances for life (Cassius Dio 44.6.4)—so Germanicus was appointed life-long flamen Augustalis (Tac. Ann. 2.83.2)—a distinctive term of office compared with the single year accorded provincial flamines in the Latin West.Footnote ³ The office of Livia ought correspondingly to have been that of flaminica, even if it was unprecedented for a woman to serve a god who in the light of his will was technically her father. A precise parallel to all this, it is important to note, exists in the case of Divus Claudius, whose cult Agrippina was appointed to tend and who in her capacity as priestess of Divus Claudius was granted in addition two lictors.Footnote ⁴ Fortunately in this case the exact terminology of her office is given by Tacitus in his account of the honours bestowed by the Senate on Agrippina, who evidently was named flaminica (Ann. 13.2.6):Footnote ⁵

The background to this nomenclature is perfectly clear. As Wissowa pointed out long ago, flamen denotes the specific function of performing sacrifice and occurs in connection with the three major and twelve minor flamines of the pontifical college, also with other important priesthoods such as the Fratres Arvales.Footnote ⁶ In contrast, while the pontifex maximus and the flamen Dialis bore the title sacerdos publicus (Cic. Leg. 2.9; Serv. on Aen. 12.534; Varro, Ling. 6.21), the general term sacerdos with the name of the godhead is otherwise excluded from the official nomenclature of state priesthoods. Furthermore, apart from a handful of ancient priesthoods which, strictly speaking, belong in the category of municipal cult—sacerdotes Albani, Lanuuini, Caeninenses, Cabenses,Footnote ⁷ for example—along with some priesthoods of lower rank—sacerdotes uirginum Vestalium, sacerdotes sacrae urbis, sacerdotes bidentales Footnote ⁸ —the word is largely associated with the priestesses of state-recognized oriental cults: sacerdotes publicae Cereris p. R. Q., sacerdotes Bonae Deae, sacerdotes Matris deum Magnae Idaeae Footnote ⁹ . To round the list out one might add the use of the term in such priesthoods as sacerdotes dei Solis inuicti, sacerdotes Mithrae, sacerdotes Isidis, sacerdotes urbis Romae.Footnote ¹⁰ In short, incomplete though it is,Footnote ¹¹ this selection of examples suffices to show that the most senior priests in Rome were not referred to as sacerdotes. As priestess of Divus Augustus, Livia ought therefore to have been termed flaminica Diui Augusti. To have named her sacerdos of the deified Augustus would have associated the first and greatest of the deified emperors with a priesthood appropriate to minor Roman deities or, more humiliatingly, with cults imported from the Greek East—an implausible combination.Footnote ¹²

Against this picture must be set the evidence of Ovid, who refers to Livia as coniunxque sacerdos (Pont. 4.9.107):

Similarly Velleius Paterculus calls Livia sacerdotem ac filiam (2.75.3):

As a result of these two literary passages it has been claimed that the priestly title of Livia was sacerdos and that to describe her as flaminica is incorrect.Footnote ¹³

The first argument to be made in rebuttal is that neither Ovid nor Velleius calls Livia sacerdos Diui Augusti, a title which we have seen to be impossible. It is true that neither does Tacitus add Diui Claudii in the case of Agrippina (above, p. 1), but then the form flamonium is simply the abstract term for her priestly office. What Ovid and Velleius do in practice, therefore, is refer to the priesthood of Livia by the general term sacerdos.Footnote ¹⁴ Whether other considerations come into play is less clear, but metrical requirements may be part of the picture. Flaminica with its one long and three short syllables would fit the metre of Ovid only if the last short syllable were elided, an impossibility in Pont. 4.9.107 since the first word of the next line begins with numina. The contrary is the case with sacerdos, one short syllable followed by two long,Footnote ¹⁵ but these considerations aside the fundamental point to stress is that exact terminology is not to be expected in poetry. None of these objections would apply to Velleius, of course, yet despite the partial rehabilitation of this author in recent years, the verdict still stands that as an historian he is unreliable in light of his blatant admiration for Tiberius.Footnote ¹⁶ In any event, by way of clinching the argument, it is crucial to observe that in the provincial imperial cult of the Latin West sacerdos refers only to the living emperor—with or without Roma—whereas the appropriate term for the deified emperor is flamen.

The most obvious example is the title of the high priest of Tres Galliae, who served the cult of Roma and the living emperor at the Altar of the Three Gauls: sacerdos Romae et Augusti ad aram … or variant.Footnote ¹⁷ When a temple to serve the cult of the Divi was built at Lugdunum under Hadrian, the title remained sacerdos ad aram / templum Romae et Augustorum … uel sim.Footnote ¹⁸ Even at a later stage, when the focus of the cult returned to the altar, the title was still sacerdos ad aram Caes. n. / Caess. nn. apud templum Romae et Augg. … uel sim.Footnote ¹⁹ Likewise, in the general Danube region the priest of Dacia bore the title sacerdos / sacerdotalis arae Aug. n. … uel sim., appropriate to the cult of the living emperor at an altar.Footnote ²⁰ Similarly the provincial priest of Pannonia Superior served as sacerdos arae Aug. / Augg. or variant,Footnote ²¹ while in Pannonia Inferior the priestly title sacerdos arae Aug. n. prouinciae Pannoniae inferioris uel sim. is the rule.Footnote ²² Neither Moesia Inferior nor Dalmatia has produced any vestige of the content of the cult served by the sacerdos prouinciae Footnote ²³ but in Dacia we have several examples of a sacerdos arae Aug. uel sim., clear indication of the cult of the living emperor at an altar.Footnote ²⁴

The term flamen in contrast is distinctive of provinces that served the deified emperor. Interestingly, in Lusitania a flamen originally served both Divus Augustus and Diva Augusta until, with the multiplication of deified empresses, their cult was assigned—as explicitly attested in Baetica (see below)—to a flaminica. Footnote ²⁵ In Hispania Citerior in particular some seventy-six flamines and eleven flaminicae are recorded to have served the cult of the deified emperor or emperors even with the inclusion of Roma: cf. flamen Romae Diuorum et Augustorum … uel sim.Footnote ²⁶ The term Augustorum, especially in company with Roma, nevertheless suggests the inclusion of the living emperor with the deified dead Augusti, precisely as does its corresponding form Sebaston in the Greek East.Footnote ²⁷ Similarly Narbonensis has produced eight flamines and one flaminica, only one of whom gives any indication of the content of the cult: flamen Augg. A composite cult of living and deified emperors as in the Spains seems nevertheless the unavoidable inference here.Footnote ²⁸ Likewise in Baetica, where at least twenty-three flamines are preserved, the titles of several read flamen Diuorum Augustorum prouinciae Baeticae or variant.Footnote ²⁹ Of particular interest is a single flaminic. Diuar. Aug. splend. prouinc. Baetic. Footnote ³⁰ Much the same titulature also survives in the Cottian and Maritime Alps.Footnote ³¹ Africa Proconsularis in contrast is exceptional in that the original title flamen Aug. prouinciae Africae gave way to sacerdos / sacerdotalis prouinciae Africae uel sim., a modification usually attributed to the local prestige of the title sacerdos rather than to any change in the content of the cult.Footnote ³² Sardinia was likewise anomalous in that provincial priests termed flamen Diuorum Augustorum were later styled sacerd. / sacerdotalis prouinciae Sardiniae or variant with no apparent change in the focus of the cult on deified Augusti.Footnote ³³ Presumably Sardinia simply followed the lead of Africa Proconsularis in modifying the provincial title.

In short, the formative years of the cult of Divus Augustus at Rome combine with the development of provincial ruler cult in the Latin West to demonstrate that Livia cannot have been styled sacerdos Diui Augusti. Footnote ³⁴ This term is excluded by the obvious impossibility of saddling Livia with a demeaning title, a designation appropriate to a minor Roman god or a cult that originated in the Greek East—not to the priestess of a major god at Rome. With Ovid's usage of sacerdos now brought into perspective the conclusion stands that, whatever the origin of the erroneous information in Velleius, Livia can have served as priestess of the deified Augustus only as flaminica Diui Augusti, not as sacerdos Diui Augusti.