Enduring Arguments: Priestly Expertise in the Early Principate*

summary:

One of the key aspects of the Augustan settlement, and more generally of the early Principate, was the firm control of the princeps over public religion, including the main priestly colleges. This paper sets out to consider several related problems: what place—if any—did the expertise that priests deployed in the performance of their duties have in that period? How did emperors engage with it? What impact did it have on the workings of the Senate? How can these issues shed light on the interplay between politics and religion at a time of profound historical change?