AUGUSTĀLES--(1) (sc. _ludi_, also called _Augustalia_, sc. _certamina_, _ludicra_), games celebrated in honour of Augustus, at Rome and in other parts of the Roman empire. After the battle of Actium, a quinquennial festival was instituted; and the birthday of Augustus, as well as that on which the victory was announced at Rome, were regarded as festival days. It was not, however, till B.C. 11 that the festival on the birthday of Augustus was formally established by a decree of the senate, and it is this festival which is usually meant when the Augustales or Augustalia are mentioned. It was celebrated iv. Id. Octobr. At the death of Augustus, this festival assumed a more solemn character, was added to the Fasti, and celebrated to his honour as a god. It was henceforth exhibited annually in the circus, at first by the tribunes of the plebs, at the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, but afterwards by the praetor peregrinus.--(2) The name of two classes of priests, one at Rome and the other in the municipia. The _Augustales_ at Rome, properly called _sodales Augustales_, were an order of priests instituted by Tiberius to attend to the worship of Augustus and the Julia gens. They were chosen by lot from among the principal persons of Rome, and were twenty-one in number, to which were added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus, as members of the imperial family. They were also called _sacerdotes Augustales_, and sometimes simply _Augustales_. The _Augustales_ in the municipia are supposed by most modern writers to have been a class of priests selected by Augustus from the libertini to attend to the religions rites connected with the worship of the Lares, which that emperor was said to have put up in places where two or more ways met; but there are good reasons for thinking that they were instituted in imitation of the Augustales at Rome, and for the same object, namely, to attend to the worship of Augustus. They formed a collegium and were appointed by the _decuriones_, or senate of the municipia. The six principal members of the college were called _Seviri_, a title which seems to have been imitated from the _Seviri_ in the equestrian order at Rome.