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of Borne was in itself sacred ;DIVUS AUGUSTUS. 277and Augustus was wiseenough to see the inadvisability of making innovationson the traditions of the Sacra moneta, nor in laterdays did the vanityof even Domitian or Commodusinveigle them into making the attempt. Augustushad, however, propagated the idea by issuing coins tothe memory of Divus Julius. Tiberius carried it onby means of the Divus Augustus series. The logicalconclusion from this posthumous deification was thatdivine, or, at any rate,the emperor during his life wasof a divine nature. But the coins of Caligula makeno mention of any apotheosis of Tiberius, nor do thecoins of Claudius record that of Caligula.It is evident,therefore, that this logical conclusion had not yetfound definite expression, doubtless on account of thedisregard evinced by Caligula and Claudius for theirpredecessors so that, instead of the deification of;each emperor in turn, we find during this period theonly assertion of the theory lies in the repeated issueof coins in honour of Divus Augustus.This series, as we have seen, continues down to thetime of Claudius. No references to the divine Augustusoccur on the coins of Nero, but distinct evidence ofa development in the theory of the emperor's divinitymay be discovered in the two small symbols whichfrequently occur as adjuncts of Nero's portrait theaegis, an emblem of Jupiter, and the globe, a symbol ofuniversal dominion. Thus Nero not only arrogatedto himself the attributes of divinity, as Caligulaappears to have done, but went a step farther bypublicly expressing the idea on the coinage. It is,moreover, not without significance that on many ofhis dupondii and brass asses Nero is represented wear-