Which author suggests Augustus is connected with Aeneas through a ritual sacrifice?

Which author suggests Augustus is connected with Aeneas through a ritual sacrifice?

• A. Isabel Paintin
• B. Edith Hall
• C. Camps
• D. Richard Rutherford

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how modern scholars interpret the tie between Augustus and Aeneas in ritual terms. The best answer shows that Augustus is linked to Aeneas not just through lineage or legend, but through a concrete act of ritual sacrifice that ties the emperor to the founder-figure in the sacred, public life of Rome. Isabel Paintin argues this connection by reading how Augustus embodies and channels ceremonial offerings and cultic duties that mirror Aeneas’s own pious sacrifices, effectively making Augustus a living continuation of Rome’s founding rite. This sacrificial link reinforces Augustan political legitimacy by rooting his authority in the same sacred economy that legitimizes Aeneas and the city’s origins. In other scholars’ work, the emphasis might lie on epic rhetoric, performance, or other aspects of propaganda and myth, but Paintin centers the ritual act itself as the mechanism that binds Augustus to Aeneas.

The main idea here is how modern scholars interpret the tie between Augustus and Aeneas in ritual terms. The best answer shows that Augustus is linked to Aeneas not just through lineage or legend, but through a concrete act of ritual sacrifice that ties the emperor to the founder-figure in the sacred, public life of Rome. Isabel Paintin argues this connection by reading how Augustus embodies and channels ceremonial offerings and cultic duties that mirror Aeneas’s own pious sacrifices, effectively making Augustus a living continuation of Rome’s founding rite. This sacrificial link reinforces Augustan political legitimacy by rooting his authority in the same sacred economy that legitimizes Aeneas and the city’s origins. In other scholars’ work, the emphasis might lie on epic rhetoric, performance, or other aspects of propaganda and myth, but Paintin centers the ritual act itself as the mechanism that binds Augustus to Aeneas.