ABSTRACT
As a rule, one finds with the pro salute formula some such phrase as et domus divinae / totiusque domus divinae immediately following the emperor's name, often with that of specific members of his family. The attribution of numen to the domus divina as a whole is in fact very rarer. A comparable text may occur at Geneva, where a dedication reads numinibus. A more circumspect analysis suggests a different conclusion. In the first place numen is attributed at an early stage to the domus Augusta, a formula that occurs simultaneously with and must be considered in practice analogous to domus divina. In general the formula numini domus Augustae / Augusti / Augustorum seems common enough. Surprisingly, the significance of this development has been largely overlooked in contemporary scholarship. In theory domus Augusta was the house of the living emperor, domus divina the house of the divus, but the distinction between the formulae is largely a vanishing one.
