Dutiful respect owed to the gods, to one's family and to one's country, the disposition Roman writers treat as the foundation the other civic virtues stand on. Aeneas, whose defining epithet in the Aeneid is pius, carries his father from burning Troy and founds Rome on this virtue rather than on conquest alone. Augustus named it among the four virtues inscribed on the golden shield the Senate voted him in 27 BCE, recorded in his own Res Gestae.
Facts
Origins
Place of Origin Origin of the NameLatin pietas, from pius, dutiful, the root that also gives English piety; the same word covers reverence toward gods, parents and country as a single disposition rather than three separate virtues. 1 Attributed Author / CompilerNamed by Augustus among the four virtues on the Clupeus Virtutis, the golden shield the Senate voted him in 27 BCE, recorded in his own Res Gestae Divi Augusti, chapter 34; a much older civic and religious value the Res Gestae formalizes rather than originates. 2 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailOne of the four virtues the Senate inscribed on Augustus's golden shield in 27 BCE, alongside virtus, clementia and iustitia; Roman religious calendar and festival practice treated its neglect as a serious civic failing rather than a private matter. 3 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceDutiful reverence toward the gods, one's family and one's country, treated as a single disposition and as the foundation of Roman civic virtue. 1 Disputed
Origin PeriodA civic and religious value through the Roman Republic from at least the fourth century BCE, formally inscribed among the four virtues on Augustus's shield in 27 BCE; its exact origin within Republican practice is not precisely dateable. 3 Connections
Associated With
This source names Aeneas directly: "the other civic virtues stand on. Aeneas, whose defining epithet in the Aeneid is pius, carries his father from burning Troy and founds Rome on this virtue rather than on conquest alone."
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
This source names Augustus directly: "virtue rather than on conquest alone. Augustus named it among the four virtues inscribed on the golden shield the Senate voted him in 27 BCE, recorded in his own Res Gestae."
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
In Language
Opposes
The atlas holds no dedicated entry for impietas, neglect of due reverence toward gods, family and country; the nearest existing contrary in the vocabulary is Pride, since classical sources repeatedly describe impious acts as compounded by an inflated sense of one's own standing over what is owed to gods and elders. Named here as an approximation, not an equivalence.
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Originates in Language
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Related To
Fides, Virtues Both named on Augustus's golden shield or among the core Roman civic virtues.
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Virtus, Virtues Both named among the four virtues on Augustus's Clupeus Virtutis, recorded in the Res Gestae.
Source Res Gestae Divi AugustiAugustus
Sources
1. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition
Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012Originates in Language: Latin, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: latinView the Source 2. Res Gestae Divi Augusti
Augustus
3. Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic
H. H. Scullard, Thames and Hudson, 1981
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