ABSTRACT
As the inscription appears to originate from the epistyle of some public building, previous discussion has usually attributed it to the imperial temple constructed on the east side of the forum, between the so-called Sacellum Larum Publicorum and the building of Eumachia. The temple will in that case be contemporary with the aedificium Eumachiae, to which it closely compares in technique and material of construction, so have been built about the turn of the last century B. C. The basic point that nothing supports Taylor’s theory of corporate municipal cult of the Genius Augusti has now been enlarged on by I. Gradel in his recent reappraisal of Mamia’s inscription. Comparison with the Hellenistic model of pouring a libation to the ruler’s daimon at mealtimes rather suggests that the offering itself will have been strictly speaking to his genius.
