CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The Cipus episode must be understood in literary terms as a mythologization of Julius Caesar previous to his apotheosis, just as the Aesculapius episode constitutes a mythologization of Augustus. The purpose is to allude in a mythologized way to two episodes of Caesar´s political life: the rejection of the royal emblems first from the Senate and then from Antonius in the Lupercalia (Suet. Iul. 79, 2). But, although the most central aspect of this representation of history is the device per se, it is possible to see also a reflection on monarchy in the history of Rome, which functions as a significant interpretation of the recent history: the monarchic legacy, which evokes not only Tarquinus but also Numa, should not be understood as a mistake and Cipus and Caesar, unlike Augustus, failed to assume it, even though Ovidian (Numan) conception of monarchy is problematically applied to Augustus.