PARADOSIS
Contributions to the History of Early Christian Literature and Theology ——————————————— XXIII ———————————————
Sr. DOMINIQUE CUSS, F. C. J.
IMPERIAL CULT AND HONORARY
TERMS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
1974
PARADOSIS is i n t ended as a series of s t u dies in ancient Christian literature and theology. The Greek term, already familiar to the earliest Christian writers, has been adopted as a title since it is convenient fox quotation and reference, while at the same time serving to cover contributions in various languages. It implies, further-more, both a principle and a prograrxune. Christian theo-logy is by its nature rooted in the past. Only in so far as it remains in living contact therewith is it capable of further growth. Hence any study, however unassuming, that throws light on tradition or its sources becomes by the very fact a contribution to the theology of the present.
OTHMAR PERLER.
PARADOSI S
Contributions to the History o f Early Christian Literature and Theology XXIII
Sr. D OMIN IQU E CU S S, F.C.J.
IMPERIAL CULT AN D H O N O
R A R Y
T ERM S IN TH E N E W
T E S T A M E N T
T HE U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S F R I B O U R G S W I T Z E R L A N D 1974Publication subsidized by the Fribourg University Council Fribourg Switzerland © 1974 by the Fribourg University Press, Fribourg Switzerland
A CK N O W L E
D G M E N T S
I wish t o e x p r ess m y a p p r e c iation fo r t h e i n t e r es t an d h e l p o f M me Lilly K a h i l , P r o f e ssor of A n c i en t H i s t or y a t t h e U n i v e r s i t y
of Fribourg
/ Switzerland, dur in g m y y e a r s o f s t u d y u n d e r h e r guidance. My thanks are also due to Reverend Pere C. Spicq, O. P. for his helpful criticism and suggestions. I thank Mr . P. D e v ambez, Conservateur-en-Chef du D e p a rtement des A n t i q u i tes g r ecques et romaines au Musee du Louv re, Dr . R. H i g g ins and the members of t he Department of G r e e k a n d R o m a n A n t i q u i t i e s a t t h e B r i t i s h Museum, and Professor T. Zawadzki, of Fri b o urg U n i v e rsity.I am grateful to all those who encouraged and helped me, especially during the months of research at the British Museum, and to P. and K. Gill and J. T. McGr ath, M. S. F. S. for reading and correcting my The photos of the coins and the «Apotheosis Diptych» are repro-duced with the permission of th e T r u s t ees of the B r i t ish M u s eum. work.
PLAN
• • Acknowledgments B bjbljography .. . . .l . . . . A bbrevjations .. . . .. . . . I ntro duction 5 9 17 19 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •I. The Sources of the Imperial Cult and Its Early Development 23 24 27 30 a) Divine Honours in the Hellenistic East
b) Divine Honours in the Roman Republic
c) Divine Honours in the Early Empire .. . . . II. Neu Testament Implications touards the Roman Empire and the Emperor . 36
36 39 a) The Attitude of Christ towards the Roman Empire
b) The Attitude of St. Paul towards the Emperor .. . . . c) The Attitude of Pilate and the Significance of the Expression
C d F rlend of Caesar
III. References to the Imperial Cult in the Apocalypse 50 50 53 63 71 1. The 'Blasphemous Titles' of the First Beast .. . . .
a) The Title 'Kup~og' in Imperial and Christian Usage
b) 'Zco~jp' — Its Hellenistic and Christian Meaning .. . . . c) The Title of 'Divi Filius'
2. Acclamations — a Possible Interpretation of the Term 'Blasphemous Titles' as Used in the Apocalypse ... . . . . . • . . . • . . . . 3 . The Legend of 'Nero Redivivus' .. . . . . . • . . . .
74 88
IV. The Significance of the 'Second Beast' of the Apocalypse and Its Implic'ations T •
sn Impersal Forship
a ) The Prtesthoods... . . .
b) The Significance of the Term 'Image of the Beast' and the
V. Two Cult-Expressions Paralleled in Imperial and Christian Usage ... 113 1. The Notion of 'Ascension' as an Expression of Glori6cation . . . . 113 2 . The Profane and Religious Implications of the Term 'Em~qhvgm' 1 3 4
VI. P ersecution in Relation to the Imperial Cult... . . . . . . 145 a) Direct Persecution and Its Causes. .... . . 146 b) Indirect Persecution . . .... . . 154 C onclusfon • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 159 Scriptural Index I dndlces M odern Scholars • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 162 163 166 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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165.
Scovv, K., The Significance of Statues in Precious Metals in Emperor W'orshtp. TAP}IA LXII (1931) 101 — 123.
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Gottingen, 1906.
VI (1905) 205-235.
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ZRG
IN TROD U CTI ON
In this work, I h a v e c on fi ned m y self to c e r tain aspects of im p erial cult-worship which are mentioned or implied in the New T e stament. N ecessarily this does not giv e an o v e r all v iew o f t h e i m p e r ial c u l t in the first century, but, since such a study presupposes a knowledge of the general situation in this sphere, the sources and early develop-ment of the cult will be discussed briefly in the First part of this work. The mass of material — particula,rly inscriptions and papyrus texts-i s so vast t ha t c o m p l et e l texts-i st s h av e n o t b e e n i n c l u d ed , a l t h o u g h reference to where they may be found has been made in the footnotes.
I n the way of general background and introduction to t hi s w o r k , a brief survey of the development of imperial honours in the Hellen-i stHellen-ic East has been Hellen-included, and I am p a r tHellen-icularly Hellen-indebted to M Hellen-i s s L. R. Taylor s bo ok, Th e D i v i n i ty of t h e R o m an E m p e ror, i n t h i s section which is no more than a review of the situation and a study of some of the sources of the imperial cult. The writings of L. Cerfaux and J. Tondriau, in particular, their joint book Le Cu lte a'es Souverains, give general outlines of many of the points which have been consid-ered in this work. It is perhaps too facile to see Christian aspects of cult as the direct descendants of Hellenistic worship, but at the sa.me time, one ha.s often to admit the possibility of H e l l enistic influences, even if indirectly and in a negative way.
In exegetical works, especially those dealing with the A p o calypse, reference is made to various aspects of cult-worship and t e rms are used in the New Testament which imply a knowledge or an influence of imperial cult-practices. In this work, I h ave attempted to study in more detail some of these references, and to add to the interpretations which have already been suggested by the various New T e s tament commentators, besides giving the h i s t o rical context and th e p a g an u sage of cult-terms and expressions. In particular, E. B. Al l o's wo r k , L 'Apocalypse, has constantly been consulted, as it is still one of t h e
f undamental works o f c r i t i c is m o f t h e A p o c a l y p se. Th e t w e l f t h , thirteenth and seventeenth chapters have received the m ost c o n si-deration, for the veiled references to the activities of the two b easts are interpreted as aspects of cult worship.
In dealing with these two 'beasts' of the Apocalypse, there is much that I have deliberately avoided repeating; for example, the question of the 'number of the beast' and the identification of 'the seven heads'. For these points, no attempt has been made to re-assess the problems involved, since this would have been outside the scope of this work.
The chapter concerning the 'blasphemous titles' of the fi rst beast deals with the implications behind the most ob v i ous ti t les common both to Christ and the emperor, and in a d d i t i on, I h a v e s u g gested that the increasing use of acclamations, especially those savouring of the divine, could have scanda,lized the Christians of the first century and thus occasioned the remarks made in the Apocalypse. The symbol of the beast as described in the seventeenth chapter of the Apocalypse has given rise to speculation as to whether John's words could have been influenced by the legend of Nero Redivivus. A section has been devoted mainly to the accounts of this legend as found in th e early texts, and the reasons why such legends could have evolved about this particular emperor.
The most likely interpretation of the m y sterious 'second beast' is that it was the symbol of t h ose men wh o f u r t h e red in a.ny way the imperial cult, and this would refer particularly to the imperial priest-hood and the pagan priestpriest-hoods insofar as they were tools for imperial p ropaganda and cult-worship. Th e m e n t io n o f t h e ' i m a g e o f t h e beast' gives rise to speculation as to the i m p o r t ance of cu l t - images in imperial worship and how they were regarded by adherents of the imperial cult or by so-called atheists.
Having given the hi storical context of s uch a p ocalyptic phrases, t he significance of tw o e x p r essions which are stri k ing i n t h e N e w Testament has been considered, those of A scension and Ep i p h any. Both had a considerable influence in fashioning imperial propaganda for the masses, and they had their roots in older civilizations as well. The symbols for the ascension of a ruler were varied and popular in art in all it s f o r m s , an d r e v e r ses of c o in s especially il l ustrate the variety of representations in this field.
P ersecutions have been dealt wit h o v e r t h e y e ar s i n s uc h d e t ail t hat it would seem superfluous to add a chapter on t hi s p o i nt . Y e t 20
some mention must be made in order to judge how far the author of the Apocalypse had been influenced by his knowledge of past atroc-ities committed against the Christians. This, like the First chapter, is a necessary repetition to understand more clearly the background in
which the New T e stament w r i t ers and, in p a r t i cular, the author of
the Apocalypse, were living.
I . THE S O U R C E S O F
T H E I M PE R I A L CU L T
A ND IT S
E A R L Y D E V E L O P M E N T
There are very real difficulties in assessing the implications behind the deification of a Roman emperor due in great part to the sophisti-cation of modern thinking, which tends to make a clear, even exagge-rated distinction between man and the divine. Christian beliefs have, n o doubt, done much t o i n fl u e nce this t r end away f ro m p r i m i t i v e i deas of divinity and th ere is lit tle li k elihood t o day that one w o u l d accept the possibility of a man passing from the hu man state to the divine as a result of his heroic actions.
Yet the legends from the most p r i m i t iv e races make us aware of t he extent of t hi s belief in th e a n c ient w o r ld ; h e r oes evolved in t o divine beings as a reward fo r t h ei r d e eds of g r eat co urage during t heir lifetime. Pliny the E l der acknowledges this fact when he pr o -claims that to enrol such men — that is, rulers — among the deities, is the most ancient method of showing gratitude for their benefactions'. In this manner the heroes received those honours which w ere nor-mally reserved for th e g o ds ; i n G r e e ce, fo r e x a m ple, pr ayers and libations were offered to f o r mer h e r oes before an im p o r tant event, and an illustration of this is given by Pl u t arch when he relates how A lexander made a sacrifice to Athena at Il ium and p o u red out l i b a -tions to the heroes to obtain favour for his expedition against Persia '. While considering the parallels to the symbolism of the emperor-cult in the New T e s t ament, it i s n e cessary to understand the effect s uch a cult w o ul d h av e ha d o n t h e r o unds of th e R o m an s o f t h i s epoch, and the traditions and conceptions which, over the centuries,
' PLINY, Natural History II 19: «hie est vetustissimus referendi bene merentibus
gratiam mos, ut tales numinibus adscribant.»
PLUTARGH, Alexander 15,4: « 'Avugo!q 8k dq "D«ov i0u<zE ~ 'AOqvu xal 'eoiq
ljpG)Gt,V CCJ7TC(,GE. »
h ad stimulated this particular form o f w o r s h ip . T o g r a s p f u ll y t h e position of the fi rs t R o ma n e m p e r or, i t i s n e c essary to t r ace back these traditions to the real predecessor of Augustus, Alexander, who conquered for himself an immense empire, embracing as it did those O riental kingdoms w h ich ha d p r e v i o u sly k n ow n p e r i od s o f g r e a t glory and a developed culture — Persia, Babylon and Assyria.
a) Divine Honoursin the Hellenistic East
I n the Greek w o r ld , d i v in e h o n o ur s had b een bestowed by m a n y cities on their founder or r u le r a f ter hi s d eath, and he ca,me to be r egarded as the patron and p r o t ector of t h e c i t y , t o w h o m i t w a s expedient that the i n h a b itants should o fFer their p r a y ers. In t ernal crises led cities to go even far ther, in r e n d ering di v in e h o n o urs to their deliverers or 'Saviours', even during th eir l i f etime '. We l e arn f rom Plutarch that L y s a nder wa s th e fi rs t G r e e k t o r e c e iv e s u c h honours during his lifetime, with altars, ofFerings and paeans, the songs of triumph '. The same author also recounts how the Samians decided to change the name of their festival formerly dedicated to Hera, and to give it the new title of L y sandreia, in honour of L y sander
The cross-currents of Oriental inRuences in the Greek world ma.kes i t possible to u n d erstand how t h e d e m an d o f A l e x a n d er, t hat h e should be regarded as a god, came to be accepted as reasonable, for the achievements of Alexander seemed to be t h ose of a su per-man a nd had never been equalled in the past. By th e end o f t h e f o u r t h century B. C., few Greeks would have regarded deifica,tion or ev en the rendering of divine honours as an impious act worthy of b l am e. Divine honours were not al w ays imposed from ab ove, how ever, a nd even in the case of A l exander, it is p r o b able that the h o n o u r s r esulted in some measure from th e sp o nta,neous enthusiasm of th e p eople. Yet it w a s A l e x a nder h i m self wh o m a d e t h e d e m an d f o r
' As M . P . C H A R LEswoRTH points o u t(Some Observations on the Ruler Cult,
specially in R'ome. HThR XXVIII (1935), p. 11), these honours would have been
given to their saviour «had he died in the mo ment of achievement.>>
Po>p.ouq a'c rc6X«cc avbcr~aav ct>q 8«cp xcci, 8ucr(ac; s8ucrav, c(q >cpcovov Bb >racavsq
tIo8$c>av ...»
Ibid. 18,4: «Zap,coc 8b va reap' aurochs 'Hpaia Aucrav8psca xahscv s>l>riq>(cravro.»
PLUT. Lysander 18, 3: «vrp~vcp p.sv yap, <bc ta~opa7. Aoup~Z, 'EXXjvcov axe/vcr
the Sun».
divine worship ', and who encouraged the belief that he was Dionysus incarnate. This cult of A l e x ander was the corner-stone of the deve-l oping rudeve-ler-cudeve-lt and f o r med th e b a sis for th e i m p e r iadeve-l cudeve-lt w h i c h was to play such an important role in the po l i t ical and religious life of the Emp ire '
T he Orientals were accustomed to g i v i n g d i v i n e h o n o u r s , n o t only to their heroes, but also to their kings, for whom deification was a key factor in the upholding of their position. In Egypt, for example, it had been the practice to l oo k o n t h e P h a r aoh as «the great and
g ood god», transformed by the act of c o r o n ation i nt o « th e Son o f The Ptolemies continued the tradition of the Pharaohs, organizing the cult of all the princes who had reigned in Egypt since the time of Alexander. The apotheosis of the living ruler, however, did not hold a deep significance for the Greeks in Eg ypt at t hi s epoch. Thus th e Hellenistic rulers foll o wed th e p r e c edent sta.rted by A l e x ander of forming State cults in their ki n g d om. Th e i n scriptions and coins of this period testify to a flou r i shing cult, for such ti t les as 'Soter' and ' Theos' are very com mon at t h i s t i m e ' . H a v i n g f o r m e d a c u l t t o Alexander at Alexandria by about 285 /4 B. C., Ptolemy I gave a new look to cult worship in Egypt, and after his death, Ptolemy II formed a combined cult of the deceased ruler and Berenice under the title of 'Oso). Zco~qpEq' and later a Festival known as Ptolemaieia was founded i n their honour. Ptolemy II an d A r s i no e shared a cult d u r in g t h e i r lifetime with the deceased rulers.
T he cult-forms rendered to r u l er s i n E g y p t f a l l i n t o t w o m a i n divisions; that going b ack to An c i e nt E g y p t a n d t h e o f F icial state cult with its Gr eek form an d o r i g i n ' . T h i s d i v i s ion is perhaps too ' L. R. TAYLQR, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, Middletown, 1931, pp.
21-For more details of the c ul t t o A l e x a n d er, cf. P. ScHNABEL, Zur Fr age der
Selhstvergo'tterung Alexanders Klio XX (1.926) pp. 398-414.— U. Wit.cKzN, A l e xa n ders Zug in die Oase Siua SbB X.XX (1928) pp. 576 — 603. In particular, pp.
588-5 90: Die Gewinnung der G o t t e ssohnschaft als M o t i v . — W. W. TARN T h e
Hellenistic Ruler Cult and the Da-emon,JHS XLVIII (1928) pp. 206 — 219.— A. D. Nacre, Notes on the Ruler Cult, JHS XL-VIII (1928) pp. 21 — 30.— L.R. FA RNELL,
Hellenistic Ruler Cult, JHS XL-IX (1929) pp. 79 — 81.— K. PRUMM, Der christliche
Glaube und die altheidnische Welt, I. Leipzig, 1935, pp. 180 — 182.— C. HABIcHT, Gottmenschentum und griechische Stadte, Munich, 1956, pp. 17 — 36.
3 E. BrKERMAN Les Institutions des Seleucides, Paris, 1938, Ch. VII.
This distinction is m ade by TA Y LQR, Divinity, p. 30; cf. a ls o, E. BE vAN,
28.
Histoire des Lagides, Paris, 1934, pp. 66 — 67.
superficial once the inscriptions are studied more closely — the private cult ofFered by the Greeks according to their ow n c u stoms, and the a pplication to the ruler of such d i v in e t i t les as were fitting, had no connection with the cult off'ered by the E g y p t ians in t h eir t e m ples, and attested by the language of the priestly decrees such as is found on the f'amous Rosetta Stone. There is also evidence for cult-worship off'ered by cities in particular for their special patron, such as that of Alexander in Alexandria, not to be confused with the official cult of A lexander which was established by the government for th e w h o l e country.
T he Seleucids received divine honours in m an y t o w n s an d w e r e o fficially deified a f te r t h e i r d e a t h . S e l e ucos I w a s h o n o u r e d a s Zs),suxog Zsuc Ntxo'tiptop and Antiochos I a s ' A 7 to).Xo~v Ztozqp. One s earches in vain fo r u n i f o r m it y o f c u l t i n t h e v a s t E m p i r e o f t h e Seleucids but th e v a r i o u s O r i e n ta l i n fl u e n ces w h ic h e x e r cised a certain pressure in the development of cult-forms, seem to have led to certain deviations from the Greek form of w o r ship '.
B esides the conferring of such titles as 'God' or ' S a v i our' on t h e ruler, titles which at once point to a. flourishing cult, other honours were off'ered to the Seleucids, parallels of which we find r epeated in the early Roman E m p i re . A m o n t h w a s o c c a sionally renamed in h onour of the r u l er, and already in 28 1 B . C., I l iu m h a d a m o n t h c alled 'Seleuceios' '. T o wn s w e r e l i k e w is e r e named i n h o n o u r o f certain rulers, as is seen with Seleucia in Pieria and Antioch in Syria. This custom continued during th e E m p i r e ; f o r e x a m p le, T i r i d a t es r ebuilt Ar t axata and r e n amed i t N e r o n i a i n 6 6 A . D . ' . W e F i n d simila,r examples for this practice during the reign of Augustus; soon
after 25 B. C.,
J uba II of M a u r etania began the construction of h i s r esidence of Iol, w h ic h h e c a l led Ca,esarea in honour o f A u g u s t u s sometime after this year '. In 22 B. C., Herod began the construction' Cf. HABIcHT, Gottmenschentum, pp. 105 — 108: Grunderkulte der ersten
Seleu-kiden.
2 BIKERMAN, Indi'tutions, p . 246, note 3 . — An interesting po in t h a s b e e n
noted by D. i& AGIE, Roman Rule in As ia M i n or to t he End af the Third Century
after Christ, Princeton, 1950, p. 490. The Samians introduced a new system of dating years based on the 'years of apotheosis' of Augustus. IGR IV 1726, 1732.
DIo, Roman History LXII 7, 2: « '0 p . sv 8q Tt,p<8a'c~qq wx 'Ap~txEm~x
avolxo-STRABQ, Geography XVII 3, 12: «Hv 8' ~v ~q 7T'cpcXfu ~au~q ~6Xlq 'Ic'oXovoid ix,
8op.qazq Nspuvstac 7t:poaqy6pcugcv. »
jv srnx~faaq 'Iougaq o ~oG II~oksrtaiou ~avqp psrrov6paos Katoapsmv.»
o f another town w h ic h h e c a l led Caesarea in honour of A u g u s t u s, although of fi cial d e d i c a tio n d i d n o t ta k e p l a c e u n t i l 9 B . C .
Describing
Judaea, Strabo mentions how H e ro d r e - n amed SamariaS ebaste, that is, in L a t i n , A u g u s t a,, in h o n ou r o f A u g u s t u s ' . I n Cilicia, there is evidence that Anazarbus received the name of Caesarea f rom Au g u stus, and s o m e y e ar s l a t er , t h e e m p e ro r a l l o w e d t h e inhabitants of Paphos to call their newly erected town, A u g u sta.
T here is another interesting parallel between the cult paid to t h e Hellenistic rulers and that of Au g u stus; in Pergamum, the ruler was o nly deified at his death, and only at t hi s p o in t di d h e r e c e ive t h e title of 'theos', although later coins bear the portrait of an eponymous priest of the reigning ruler.
During the H e llenistic period, the r u ler r e p laced the democratic p olicy of the Classical period, and it w a s fo r t h i s r e ason that m e n looked towards the ruler for all t h eir t e m p oral needs. He was their protector, the providence of the g od s on e a rth and h e b e came the object of their prayers and sacrifices that he m i gh t s afeguard their livelihoods and even their lives.
b) Divine Honoursin the Roman Republic
Thus it may be appreciated how general the notion of deification for rulers and heroes was in th e E a st, and i t w a s f r e ely accepted that honours should be paid to such persons. It was from th e E ast th at the cult rendered to the sovereigns and their representatives passed of worship of a man acceptable to the Roman mind; the G r eek atti-t ude was paratti-ticularly p r on e atti-t o w a r d s d e i fi caatti-tion a f atti-te r p e r i od s o f tension, and in particular, the deliverance from a. foreign aggressor.
Roman governors who gave the i m p r ession of j u s tice were looked on as liberators from oppressors, and Tacitus tells of Smyrna's decla-ration that she had erected a temple to R ome as early as 195 B. C., in the consulship of Marcus Porcius '.
to the West. Contact with the East was the link which made the idea
Ibid. XVI 2, 34: «. .. xat Zapaps!av, jv ' H p !»Bqq Zsgaa~v sTeeovopaasv.»
' Txczrvs, An@ales IV 5 6 (ed. C. D. Fisher O~ford, 1955): .«seque primos templum urbis Romae statuisse, M. Porcio consule.» In his b ook Ch r i sti'
anil
and Classical Culture, 1Veu York, 1953, p. 25, C. N. CocHRANE writes that in order t o understand the meaning of the emperor-cult, it is necessary to look into t h e
<<mental processes which led to its formation ». Its expression was «the veneration
The liberation of Greece by Rome s representative, Titus Quinctius F lamininus, earned for hi m t h e g e n eral adulation of th e p e o ple o f
Greece — altars were erected in his name, hymns of praise were sung in his honour, and sacrifices were offered which continued, Plutarch p oints out, «even down t o ou r o w n d a y » ' . I n s c r i p t i ons show t h at his name was linked with t h ose of th e g o ds, and d e dications were made at Chalcis to Titus and Herakles (Tu tu xxi 'Hpetxks7
) and Titus
and Apollon (Tt~cu xett 'A7r6XXtuvt). Plutarch makes a telling remark c oncerning these and other honours which T i tu s r eceived from t h e Greeks: «that these honours were made sincere by the astonishing g ood-will wh ich hi s e q u i t a ble n a t ure called f o r th » . T h i s p h r a s e s uggests an underlying sense — that other h o n o urs offered in l e s s favourable circumstances lacked the sincerity and spontaneity which gave them real meaning; a suggestion which gives a clue to the atti-t ude of R o man c i atti-t i z ens faced w iatti-t h m u c h t h e s a m e s i t u a tion b u t without the «astonishing good-will» of th e p eople, as, for example, d uring the latter part of the reign of D o m i t i a n .R oman governors continued to r e c e ive such h o n o ur s f ro m t h e grateful provincials who recognized the justice and tolerance of the distant power of Rome in the representative who ruled directly over them; the example of Cicero is well-known, how th e p r o v i n c ials of Cilicia offered him «statues, shrines and sculptured chariots», which were, nevertheless, refused'.
The religious traditions of the Romans differed greatly from those o f the Greeks, yet the no t ion o f d ei fi cation fo r t h ei r a n cient k i n g s was not totally absent from the Roman way of thinking, for, according to Virgil, they adored Picus, Faunus and Latinus who w ere said to h ave reigned on the Latium, and to w ho m h e g i ves the title of « D i patrii, indigetes» . Similarly, there is the l e gend of R o m u lu s w h o
of the living and the deification of the dead emperor)>. Neither of these two forms were a novelty to Rome. Roman magistrates received veneration like the sovereigns in the Hellenistic world.
-o ~ay ~<iraq Irkq8~v«q Tro<ouv, c5vom 8«up«er j 8<' e7c<eixn«v 'q8ouq.»
PLUT. Titus I"lamininus 16, 4: «d~l. 86 xai xa0' jp.aq ... >>
Ibid. 17, 1: 'H o av 8R xat. ~apa ~Gv HD.cov 'EXXqvuv ~t.p.al, ~p(arousal., xaI.
' CrcERo, Ad. Att. V 2 1 , 7 (ed. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Cambridge 1968): <<Ob haec benehcia, quibus illi obstupescunt, nullos honores mihi nisi verborum
decerni sino; statuas, fana, -~0pm~a prohibeo.»
Hildesheim, 1963.
VIRGIL, Georgics I 498 (Commentary by J. Connington and H. Nettleship
)
was caught up into heaven where he became «a benevolent god for them instead of a good king» '.
The Di M a nes were gi ven a g e n eral veneration; t h ere seems to have been nothing in early Roman history which compares with the Greek hero-cult, but a l r eady to w ards 15Q B. C., foreign i d eas and practices had inffuenced the Roman co nception of a p o t h eosis, and even Romans themselves developed little by l i t tl e t hi s t e n dency to offer divine honours to their deliverers '.
A fter the murder of th e G r a c c hi, th e p e ople attempted to s h o w how much they missed and longed for th e b r o t h ers, offering th em divine honours in a remarkably lavish manner. Statues of the Gracchi w ere set in a co nspicuous place, the very g r o un d w h er e t hey h a d been killed was consecrated and the first-fruits of th e season were placed before them. In h i s d e s cription o f t h e s e h o n o u rs, Pl u t arch paints a picture of the most extravagant worship, for many w ent so far as to prostrate themselves and offered their sacrifices before the statues each da.y, acting in the same way as they did before the shrines o f the gods '. Pl u t arch also recounts how , a f ter th e d e f eat of t h e Teutones and Cimbri, the victory was attributed entirely to M a r i u s, and the people acclaimed him th e t h ir d f o u n de r o f R o m e , b e sides which, during t h eir c elebrations at h om e w i t h t h e i r f a m i l i es, th ey brought the ceremonial offerings to Marius as they did to the gods '. It is difficult to judge whether these examples are of honours offered t o 'divine men', o r m e r el y t h e e x p r ession of t h e g r a t i t ud e o f a n enthusiastic and over-demonstrative people; it d epends on w h e ther the people made the offerings to the Gracchi or to M a r iu s as if they were gods, or whether the phra,se «as they did to the gods» is Plut-arch's interpretation of the actions and motives of the people.
C icero's views on th e s u b ject are w o rt h a c l o ser g l ance, for h e himself refused the honours offered him by the provincials of Cilicia, yet showed no indignation at such exceptional honours as statues and incense as were off'ered to Marius Gratidianus as a mark of gratitude
Pamkko>q.»
PLUT. Romulus 27, 7: «... xat Ocbv cupcvq ycvqo6pcvov au~o7q cx Xpqavou
' Cf. M. P. CHARLEswoRTH Observations on the Rgler Cult, p. 22.
PLUT. Caius Gracchus. 17,2: «<Ouov 86 xat xa0' jp.fpav vcoXXot xat
~pock~tm-PLUT. C. Marius. 27, 5: «... cuOup.oupcvot. ~c p.n'a zaf8cov xat ~va<xhv exam'ot.
~ov, ~creep Occov tcpot.g col.qonmv~cj.".»
xav' ol'xov apa voiq
egoism
xal Map/o> 8Ebcvoo xa>. XoLPqg avcqpxov~o...».f or an edict issued while he w a,s praetor '. Th e R o ma n b e l ief t h a t d eceased parents should be regarded as gods is another point su p -p orted by Cicero ', and he also stresses that the rites of th e f a m i l y and ancestors should be preserved '. The Lares were the souls of the a ncestors of each family, wh o a c c o r d ing t o S e r v i us, r eceived th i s honour because they had originally been buried in the horne '.
Although the imperial cult as such was an A u g u stan innovation, m uch was adapted from th e e a r lier R o man t r a d i t i o ns, or t h r o u g h c ontacts with the H e l l enistic wo r ld, o r f r o m m o r e p r i m i t i v e c i v i l i -zations. Honours offered to deliverers and benefactors were certainly foreign to the Roman mind, yet contact with these notions certainly accustomed the Romans to th e E a stern ideas concerning the deifi-cation of their great men. Tow ards the end of the Roman Republic, as later during the A u g u stan age, poetic licence allowed the title of
'deus' to be attributed to a ma n m o r e r e adily than was customary, which must certainly have influenced the people in their acceptance of Caesar's official apotheosis.
O pinion is divided as to w h e t her Caesar allowed divine hon o u r s during his lifetime, though the fact that the Senate voted to give him these honours after his death shows th at, officially at l e ast, Caesar only received deification with all its im p l ications as a dead hero — in much the same way as the Gracchi were honoured unofficially.
c) Divine Honours in the Early E'mpire
As has already been noted, Roman succession to the rule of the East where provincial governors were awarded divine honours, did much t o strengthen the infiltration of E a s tern influences into the R o m a n way of life. The development of the mystery-religions and the growth of scepticism in the traditional gods of the State prepared the ground for new religious forms which were more suited to the trends in the
CrcERO, De Ogciis III 80: «et ea, res, si quaeris, ei magno honori fuit.
Omni-2 Cr+ERo, De Legibus I I Omni-2Omni-2: « D e o r um M a n i um i u r a s a n cta sunto. H u m a n o s leto datos divos habento.»
' Ibid. II 19: «Ritus familiae patrumque seruanto».
SzRvrus, Aeneidos commentarii( G. Thilo & H . H a gen, Leipzig & B e r l i n ,
1923), VI 152: «apud maiores, et supra diximus, omnes in suis domibus
sepelie-bantur, unde ortum est ut L ares colerentur in dom i bus.» bus vicis statuae; ad eas tus et cerei...».
p hilosophy of the l ate H e l lenistic wo r ld , st ressing as they did t h a t which was divine in m an . A l r e ady in R o ma n r e l i g i on, k i n d red ele-ments were evident, as is seen in the worship of the Manes and Lares, but the genuine Roman restraint avoided the extravagance of worship of the Eastern cults. The popularity of Julius Caesar and the adulation p aid to him by th e e n t h u siastic masses led to the f o r m ation of t h e c ult of Di v u s Julius after his death, which soon spread throughout Italy.
E ven in its original form, th e i m p e rial cult wa,s very much mo r e c omplicated than w o ul d a p p ear at fi rs t g l a n ce. A u g u s tus was n o t divine in himself, and officially it w a s hi s G e n iu s t hat wa s ad ored during his lifetime, but an absolute prohibition of the worship of th e person of the emperor was not pra,ctical in the provinces or even in Italy outside of Rome, as Augustus was soon to discover. However, t his worship was only allowed in c o n j u n ction w it h t h a t o f t h e D e a R oma, although deviations from t hi s r u l in g ar e a p p arent from t h e i nscriptions. At Rome, Au g u stus was at pains to link up th e n e w l y -established
emperor-
cult with the traditions rooted in the Republican era, in order to supply an ideal for the masses while respecting those men who were wary of innovations which were not firmly r o o ted in the past.The divinity of th e emperor was honoured in d i v erse ways — the inhabitants of the Roman
Empire
adored the Genius of the reigning emperor at least in the early stages of the development of the imperial cult, homage was paid to members of the imperial family, the 'domus A ugusta', as well as t o t h e i m p e r ial L a r es, t o t h e V i c t o r y o f t h e emperor, and to the many deified qualities which seemed most signif-icant of an emperor's reign '. In s p it e of t h ei r a p p arent differences, all these aspects of the i m p e r ial c ul t w e r e d e r i ved f r o m a . s i m ila.r concept, a,nd were inspired by a similar sentiment, which was essen-tially a religious devotion to the master of the Roman Emp i r e.It is essential to realize that in dealing with his vast empire, Augustus adopted the safe princip]e that in the East it was permissible to regard
' For example, Pax, Clementia, Justitia... W. M. GREEN, in Notes on the
Augus-tan Deities, CLJ 23 (1927) pp. 86 — 93, gives a full list of d eiced abstractions, (apart from omitting Honos ). I found evidence of the following abstractions on coins of the Ist Century in the Br i t ish Mu seum — Abundantia, Aequitas, Aeter-nitas, Annona, Bonus E v e n tus, Concordia, Felicitas, Fides, Fortuna, Genius, tustitia, Liberalitas, Libertas, Moneta, Pax, Pietas, Providentia, Salus, Securitas,
Spes, Victoria, Virtus.
t he emperor in the same way as the pr ev ious ruler. T hu s w e h a v e seen how, in Egypt, to the native, Augustus was the successor of the Ptolemies, and, as such, a di v in e fi g u re. I n t h e H e l l e n i zed East, a
distinction was made between the Roman and non-Roman citizens; the natives continued their p r a ctice of w o r s h i p p ing R om e s r e pre-sentative, in this case, the emperor, along w it h th e g o d d ess Roma, while the Roman citizens were free to continue worshipping the tradi-t ional gods of Ro me. A u g u s tradi-tus refused tradi-to admitradi-t d i r ectradi-t w o r s hip o f his person, but official disapproval did not p r ev ent such wor ship in the East. The cult of the D iv i an d th e G e n ius of the li v ing emperor g radually developed and came to h ol d a p r o m i n ent p o sition in t h e empire. Politically, this policy of A u g u s tus was a tremendous revo-l ution; this reorganization of the i m p e riarevo-l rerevo-ligion in an a t t empt t o
unite the vast Roman Empire by a common bond of l o y alty tow ards t he person of th e e m p er or, l i n ke d w i t h t h e p e r s o n i fication of t h e power of Rome. With the varied nationalities within its frontiers, the Roman Empire needed this unifying force which the emperor himself could supply; Roman citizens had to learn to recognize their common enemies, which were the enemies of the emperor.
It has already been noted that a usual form of h o n our was the re-n amire-ng of towre-ns ire-n h o re-n ou r o f t h e e m p e ror are-nd hi s f a m ily '. A p a r t from the honour attached, it was also a subtle method of propaganda insofar as the towns became constant reminders of the central author-i ty author-in the p e r son o f t h e e m p e r or . B u t t h e i m p e r i a l c u l t w a s n o t merely an invention to form a b ond of u n it y t h r o u g h out the empire and to provide the people with a com mon o b ject of l o y alty — at the s ame time, there was a deep feeling of r e l ief fo r t h e e r a o f p e a c e e stablished by Au g u stus wh ich f o un d a n o u t l e t i n t h e o ff i c ia l a n d private forms of cu l t - w o r ship. The p o l i t i cal significance of the cul t did, however, increase steadily, and, as Cyril Bailey has summed up
~ PLINY natural History IV /f 2 s p eaks of Augusta, a town belonging to the Bracae: «Bracarum oppidum Augusta.» cf. CIL II 6230 «Bracara Augusta», CIL II 4747 & 4749 «Bracaraug.», 4869 «... caraug», 2423 «Bracara August.» (Tarra-conensis), CIL XII 1385 «(brac)arum Augustanorum». PLtNx, Nat. Hist. I V 1 1 9 mentions a town at Cadiz whose population have Roman citizenship and are called Augustans: «Habet oppidum civium Romanorum qui appellantur
Augus-tani.>> The same author also mentions tributary towns named Augustobriga and
Caesarobriga (IV 118) and Caesarina (117). These are a few examples from the
West; there are countless examples in the Eastern provinces.
s o aptly, «there can be no d o ub t t h a t t h e w o r s hi p o f t h e i m p e r i a l house had given new life and reality to the state cult» '.
When one considers the tremendous upheavals and factions during t he last years of the Roman Republic, foll owed by th e G o l den E r a of Peace brought about by the administration and reorganization of t he provinces under A u g u s tus and th e d e v e l oping sense of u n i t y throughout the Empire, one is tempted to regret that there is so little i n the Gospels to tell us of Christ's attitude towards this new wo r l d power which ha d s w a l l o wed u p t h e E a s t er n M e d i t e r r anean soon after the rise of P o m p ey. Th e l a t ter ha d s o u gh t t o s e t tl e E a stern aff'airs by reorganization, and part of his work included the annexation
of Syria, which, with
Judaea, was organized as a province under the rule of the High Priests.In the Eastern provinces, the emperor was revered as a god even d uring his l i f e t ime, an d a l t h o ug h t h i s p o s i t io n w a s n o t o ff i c i a l l y encouraged, the attitude of Augustus and his successors was to allow t he Eastern mentality that m od e o f e x p r ession wit h r e g ard t o t h e w orship of t h ei r r u l e r w h i c h w a s m o s t a c c eptable to t h em . T h i s a ttitude was especially prevalent in A sia M i no r an d E g y pt , an d t h e inscriptions are often addressed directly to the emperor himself, and The person of the emperor was, naturally enough, the centre and l ife-force of the i m p e rial-cult; even T i b e r iu s a t t e mp t t o m i n i m i z e
direct worship was not wholly successful and he was obliged to make concessions in his seemingly rigid p o l i cy. Even f ro m th e First years of his reign, Tiberius made it clea,r that excessive worship was con-trary to his ta.stes, although he was willing to f o l lo w th e p r ecedents e stablished by A u g u stus d u r in g hi s r e i gn . N o t o n l y d i d T i b e r i u s remain adamant in his refusals to the many letters and petitions which were sent by cities and provinces, asking permission to confer divine honours on him ', but he also showed himself to be extremely reticent
n ot to his Genius or N u m e n .
' C. BAILEY, Phases in the Religion of Ancien/ Rome, California, 1932, p. 176.
TAc. A nn. I V 38 , 4 : < < Perstititque posthac secretis etiam sermonibus
aspernari talem sui cultum.» T a c itus maintains that T i b e r ius persisted in di
s-daining the honours overed to his person through his modesty, defiance and ignoble soull Cf. Dio I V II 8, 3 ' declares that he would not allow any particular f estivities in honour of h i s b i r t h d ay. For T i b e r iu s c o r r espondence with t h e
Gythiates, cf. L. R. TA YLQR, Tiherius' Refusal of Divine Honostrs T APhA L X .
