Conclusions
This chapter first draws together conclusions about the range of claims and counter‐claims made about divine qualities during the Republican period by individuals and groups from a range of social strata. It highlights the importance both of physical resources and of oral culture in the ways the cognitive vocabulary of divine qualities was used in Republican society. It then explores engagements with such qualities in the early empire. The capacity to restrict meanings and associations increased with the existence of an imperial family, but divine qualities also continued to be important in this period because alternative readings and associations could still be made, and such qualities were useful to senators and other people as well as to emperors. Imperial case studies include episodes found in Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio, acclamations, Pompeian graffiti, ships, slave names, and the tomb of Claudia Semne.
Keywords: early empire, resources, emperors, imperial family, oral culture, acclamations, graffiti, social strata, Claudia Semne, restricting meaning
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