While Roman religion worshipped a number of gods, one kind in particular aroused the fury of early Christians and the wonder of scholars: the cult of Roman emperors alive or dead. Was the divinity of emperors a glue that held the Empire together? Were rulers such as Julius Caesar and Caligula simply mad to expect such worship of themselves? Or was it rather a phenomenon which has only been rendered incomprehensible by modern and monotheistic ideas of what religion is--or should be--all about?This book presents the first study of emperor worship among the Romans themselves, both in Rome and in its heartland Italy. It argues that emperor worship was indeed perfectly in keeping with Roman religious tradition, which has been generally misunderstood by a posterity imbued with radically different notions of the relationship between humans and the divine.
Author(s): Ittai Gradel
Series: Oxford Classical Monographs
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 428
Cover......Page 1
CONTENTS......Page 6
PREFACE......Page 8
LIST OF FIGURES......Page 10
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS......Page 12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 18
1
Introduction......Page 20
2
Before the Caesars......Page 46
3
Caesar’s Divine Honours......Page 73
4
Beyond Rome: ‘By Municipal
Deification’......Page 92
5
The Augustan Settlement......Page 128
6
The Augustan Heritage
and Mad Emperors......Page 159
7
The Emperor’s Genius in State Cult......Page 181
8
‘In Every House’? The Emperor in
the Roman Household......Page 217
9
Corporate Worship......Page 232
10
Numen Augustum......Page 253
11
A Parallel: C. Manlius, Caeretan
‘Caesar’......Page 270
12
‘Heavenly Honours Decreed by the
Senate’: From Emperor to Divus......Page 280
APPENDIX 1
DEDICATIONS FROM ITALY TO THE
GENIUS OF LIVING NON-IMPERIALS......Page 391
APPENDIX 2
DEDICATIONS FROM ITALY TO THE
GENIUS AUGUSTI UP TO 235......Page 393
APPENDIX 3
TITLES OF MUNICIPAL PRIESTS OF
EMPERORS IN ITALY FROM
INSCRIPTIONAL SOURCES......Page 395
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 399
GENERAL INDEX......Page 412
