he fifth milestone of
the Via Campana, and it is there that the wonderful discoveries have
been made of the inscriptions giving the "minutes" of the meetings of
this curious corporation, beginning with Augustus. But the pastoral side
of their worship was an insignificant matter, even in the age of
Augustus, compared with their prayers and supplications in behalf of the
imperial house, so that the records of this supposedly agricultural
priesthood form one of our best sources for the study of
emperor-worship.

Three other priesthoods, the pontiffs, the augurs, and the guardians of
the Sibylline books (_XVviri_) did not need actual restoration, for
their ability to interfere in politics had kept them alive during the
closing centuries of the republic, when political usefulness was the
surest means of surviving in the struggle for existence. But the fact
that they had been politically powerful made the control of them all the
more necessary for an emperor who wished to have in his hands all the
possibilities of political influence. It was contrary to Augustus's
policy openly to crush any of the institutions which had really been or,
what was from his standpoint very much the same thing, had been thought
to be a bulwark of republicanism. As a matter of fact however these
priesthoods had been one of the chief means of bringing the republic
into the control of one man. Hence for Augustus the problem was easy to
solve; it was only necessary to appear to honour these priesthoods by
raising their dignity still higher and by making only men of senatorial
rank eligible, and then to take the chief position in them himself and
to fill them with his own supporters. Thus the republic was apparently
saved and the empire was really strengthened.

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
ch