But the priesthood to which Augustus devoted his most especial attention was the priesthood of Vesta, the Vestal virgins.  Here he was guided not only by his desire to improve the condition of the priesthoods in general but also by his especial interest in the cult of Vesta.  The reasons for this interest in Vesta will be explained in a moment when we discuss the emperor’s favourite cults; but a word about its effects on the priestesses of Vesta may be said here.  The Vestal virgins had been relatively little contaminated by politics, but the priesthood had suffered along with all the rest of the religion of the state because of the general indifferentism and neglect of religious things which characterised the closing centuries of the republic.  The best families in the state were not as ready as in the earlier days to devote their daughters to the service, and thus the rank and consequently the influence of the Vestals had to some extent declined.  But now all this was immediately changed, the outward honour and the insignia of the Vestals were increased until they were allowed such privileges as not even the emperors possessed.  When they went through the street, they were attended by a lictor as the higher officers of the state were, and they were given special seats at the theatre.  But the most characteristic thing which Augustus did for them and that which helped their cause the most was the emperor’s declaration, made to be repeated in public gossip, that if he had a grand-daughter of the proper age he would unhesitatingly make her a Vestal virgin.

Toward the close of his life Augustus prepared a statement of what he had accomplished during his reign, a sort of compte rendu of his stewardship.  In a roundabout way almost all of this has been preserved to us and it naturally forms the greatest source of our knowledge of his activity.  After reciting a large number of his religious reforms he adds:—­“The spoils of war I have consecrated to the gods in the Capitoline temple, in the temple of the god Julius, in the temple of Apollo, in the temple of Vesta, in the temple of Mars the Avenger.”  These words give us a clue to the more especial religious interests of Augustus, a clue which is all the more needed because of his apparently catholic spirit, and his seemingly general interest in all the forms of old Roman religion.  No man who restored and in some cases entirely rebuilt eighty-two temples to various deities could be accused of undue partiality in emphasising certain phases of religion to the total exclusion of others.  But as a matter of fact underneath this general interest there were present certain very specific interests, and this passage in his own writing adds great strength to the other evidence as to what these gods were.  Naturally in every list of pre-eminent deities Juppiter must be present, hence the mention of the Capitoline temple first; as a matter of fact however Augustus’s worship of Juppiter was much