Questions about Roman imperial cult
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What was the Roman imperial cult and what did it involve?
The Roman imperial cult, known formally as the cultus imperatorius, was a framework that identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman state. It was formulated during the early Principate of Augustus, building on Roman and Greek precedents, and involved official recognition of the emperor's rule as divinely approved through worship of his genius, posthumous deification by Senate vote, and the establishment of cult centers throughout the provinces.
How did Julius Caesar become involved in Roman emperor worship?
Julius Caesar was the first Roman to pursue godhood as part of an explicit reach for monarchy. By 44 BC, the Senate had placed his portrait on coinage, built him a house styled as a temple, paraded his image alongside the gods, and ordained a special priest (flamen) for him, with Mark Antony named as its first holder. He was killed in the Senate on the 15th of March 44 BC. Following his death, a comet was interpreted as his soul ascending to heaven, and in 42 BC, his heir Octavian held the formal ceremony of apotheosis, making him a divus of the Roman state.
How did Augustus manage the imperial cult without claiming to be a god?
Augustus allowed cult honors to be offered jointly to himself and the goddess Roma in Eastern provinces, particularly at Pergamum and Nicomedia, while directing Roman citizens in those provinces to worship only Roma and the divus Julius. In Rome, he presented himself as the dutiful son of the deified Julius Caesar, calling himself divi filius (son of the divinity), and arranged for cult to his own genius as a living emperor rather than claiming official divinity. He was voted the title Augustus in 27 BC.
What was apotheosis in the Roman imperial cult and who decided which emperors received it?
Apotheosis was the formal act by which a deceased emperor was declared a divus, an official state divinity, and elevated to a heavenly existence as a lesser being than the Olympian gods. The Senate voted on each case; emperors judged unworthy were denied the honor, and unpopular rulers could instead receive damnatio memoriae, the official erasure of their memory. Emperors like Vespasian and Septimius Severus used the granting of apotheosis to predecessors as a tool of political legitimacy for their own dynasties.
How did the Roman imperial cult spread to the western provinces?
The first known Western regional cult centers to Augustus were established around 19 BC in north-western Spain, named the arae sestianae after their founder L. Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis. The first provincial imperial cult center in the West was founded at Lugdunum by Drusus, either in 12 BC or 10 BC. Western concilia emerged as direct Roman creations recruiting local military, political, and religious traditions; the first priest of the Lugdunum altar was a Gaul, Caius Julius Vercondaridubnus, who received Roman citizenship and the right to participate in local government through his priestly office.
How did the rise of Christianity lead to the end of the Roman imperial cult?
As Christianity grew, the imperial cult became a flashpoint for theological and political conflict. Emperors including Decius and Diocletian legislated mandatory sacrifice to traditional gods and launched persecutions against Christians who refused. The emperor Julian failed to reverse the declining support for Rome's official religious practices. Theodosius I then adopted Christianity as the state religion, and Rome's traditional gods along with the imperial cult were officially abandoned.