Beginning with Aeneas’ mythological story of escaping ancient Troy, Roman religion has always been shrouded in mythology, tradition, and ritualistic practices that were performed for centuries. After many centuries of religious-political balance within Roman society, the late Republic underwent a series of bloody civil wars, ending in the first century B.C., resulting in consul and dictator Julius Caesar, and later his heir Octavian, emerging as undisputed military victors. However, military success was not sufficient to maintain power, and religion played in integral role in the consolidation of that hard-fought power. Religion had always been engrained in Roman society since Rome’s founding in 753 B.C., and continued to foster through the centuries. Throughout the Republican era, religion was further intertwined with politics, and played a critical role in the societal hierarchy between the “divinity descended” patricians and gods’ worshipping plebeians. Toward the late Republic, and especially beginning in the early Roman Empire, the Caesars masterfully established undisputed imperial authority, and cultivated strong relationships between their patriarchal dynasty and the religious state institutions, thereby legitimizing their absolute rule and cultivating the worshiping imperial cult that accompanied it.
Before discussing “Emperor Worship” that formed during the early Roman Empire, understanding religion’s role within the Republic era must first be examined. The Roman Republic, lasting from 509 – 27 B.C., worshipped a pantheon of gods and bestowed divine honours to those deities, although some men of extraordinary valor were given Senatorial honours during life, and sometimes deification after death. As far as emperor worship during their lifetimes, it did not exist during most of the Republic, due in part because the “Roman republic in the very nature of this term had no ruler” and that deities received sole divine honours until Julius Caesar altered the traditions. Throughout the Roman Republic, religion “was a part of the political struggles and disagreements in the city…against patrician monopoly of religious knowledge and of access to the divine.” Beard and Price’s analysis corroborates with the theory that religion was utilized by the patrician elites to establish a divine connection between their noble houses and the gods. This established a divine lineage, and this connection allowed them to retain their hierarchical roles within society to rule the equestrian and plebeian classes. Religious authority eventually became a highly-sought commodity amongst the ruling elite, and would be effectively used when “a man could demonstrate the correctness of his own political stance by showing that he, rather than his political opponent, was acting in accordance with divine will.” With the foundational collaboration between Rome’s religious institutions and the patrician class, this repertoire of power was opportunely utilized by Julius and Augustus Caesar to further their political ambitions, while fostering “emperor worship” throughout the provinces to solidify their claims to absolute power.
Furthermore, a section of analysis must be considered to understand how the Romans viewed Senatorially decreed “deified” honours, and if the additional honours granted to these few men provides evidence for a rigid or loose boundary between gods and mortals. Objectively, the Romans did not maintain rigid distinctions between godly deities and mortal men at all times, in the sense that some men were able to receive forms of honour that would resemble those given to gods. Modernly, there exists contradictory scholarly opinion regarding Caesar’s categorization in the Roman religious world, whether he was still considered mortal amongst his contemporaries and bestowed great honours worthy of his accomplishments, or truly elevated to the status of a god. Two schools of thought emerge regarding this issue: that the Roman patricians acted outside the political and religious authority granted onto them over the years due to Caesar’s immense popularity and the gradual introduction of foreign traditions from the East, or whether the granted honours continued Roman tradition between the gods and patrician elites. Foreign Greek tradition evidenced similar glorification of great men, which follows “cult repertoire of the Hellenistic kings…and have clear precedents in the honours paid to certain Hellenistic monarchs,” however Roman society was by every right a religious culture of its own and even celebrated a “ritual of triumph involving the impersonation of a god by the successful general; and in the Roman cult of the dead, past members of the community shared in some degree of divinity.” A moderate opinion might state that a combination of both schools of thought would be safely accurate, in that the senators exercised their traditional powers but pushed them to their furthest extent due to the introduction of eastern religions and practices, such as Egyptian deification of the Pharaohs.
As a result, the beginning of emperor worship began with the honours accorded to Julius Caesar, which resembled similar honours bestowed upon deities in the previous centuries, immediately before his assassination during the Ides of March in 42 B.C. Evidence of excessive honours are recorded in Suetonius’s writings of his life, where Caesar accepted annual consulships, dictator for life appointment, the title Imperator to be added to his formal title, statues of his likeness to be placed around other divine images, and the renaming of an entire month of the calendar after him. Renaming portions of the calendar was an enormous step toward imperial worship in a religious sense, since during the Republic calendars were heavily used by augurs and flamines during their religious ceremonies. Shortly following his untimely demise, Caesar was bestowed numerous “altars, sacrifices, a temple, and in 42 B.C. a formal decree of deification, making him Divus Julius.” Religious proceedings that were traditionally reserved for gods, were utilized by his friends and heirs after his death to legitimize his rule and connection to the gods.
Under those circumstances, Mark Antony continued his friend’s religious displays when he “dispensed with a formal eulogy; instead, he instructed a herald to read…Caesar all divine and human honours, and then the oath by which the entire Senate had pledged themselves to watch over his safety.” Here, Suetonius makes a distinction between Caesar receiving suitable human honours, which were normally bestowed to successful generals in the form of triumphs, and those that were reserved for the divine. By receiving divine honours, Caesar was elevated to similar status as the mythological Roman founder Romulus, who was deified upon death and flew into heaven to join the pantheon of gods. Livy’s writings on the deification and intertwining of this religious phenomenon with the political state of Rome, is evidenced in his writings within History of Rome: “Then, when a few men gave the lead, they all decided that Romulus should be hailed a god, son of a god, king, and father of the Roman state. And in prayers they begged his grace, beseeching him to be favorable and propitious towards them and ever to protect his descendants.” Shortly following his death, Plutarch remarks a strange event that occurred in the sky: “And of supernatural events there was, first, the great comet, which shone very brightly for seven nights after Caesar’s murder and then disappeared…” This event, whether it truly occurred or not, was interpreted by the patricians as a supernatural event and that Julius Caesar’s soul had manifested himself into a comet that flew into the heavens, thereby supporting the claim of his Divus Julius status. This proved to be the critical point when Roman society allowed for men to be deified and elevated to similar status of a god, and approached the realm of divinity during their lifetime, and not merely after death. These flattering compliments eventually transformed the public’s perspective of Julius Caesar, and due to his immense popularity was then regarded as truly being deified, thereby leading to the creation of an emperor cult.
Following Julius Caesar’s assassination, there occurred another series of civil wars between the supporters of Caesar and senatorial elites who wanted to restore the Republic, and finally by Octavian confronting Mark Antony for political and military dominance. The climactic Battle of Actium in 31 B.C. concluded with Octavian emerging as the victor, and ushering in an age of Pax Romana, or Roman peace. His reign founded the Roman Empire and the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which utilized religion to root his absolute authority in religious law. However, Octavian treaded carefully as to not perform the same mistakes that Julius Caesar had committed, which led to the senatorial class conspiring against him. In this way, the intertwining of politics and religion was engrained, allowing for the new princeps to maintain his popularity amongst the people and legions, thereby ensuring his auctoritas and security from any future plots. “Augustus encouraged or accepted measures that went to the very limit, though never beyond it: thus his title, or name, of Augustus, granted him by the Senate in 27 B.C….smacked of Roman origins; the educated observer would remember the line of Ennius, in which Rome was founded ‘by august augury’ (augusto augurio); and the word was used of votive offerings, temples, and sites dedicated to the gods.” Here, Gradel establishes that Augustus carefully ensured that all his actions utilized the religious institutions and customs available to him during the time in order to further establish his political rule, and imperial cult that accompanied it.
Once Augustus was firmly established as the undisputed authority in Rome, holding the office of Pontifex Maximus, princeps, and imperator, he began the restoration of Rome’s religious buildings to “restore the res publica…rebuilding the temples…filling the priesthoods that were vacant.” One important alteration that Augustus envisioned during this time, was the introduction and development of rituals “focused more directly on the emperor himself, especially after his death” that would transform into Rome’s imperial cult, or emperor worship. Evidence of emperor worship survived in the provinces throughout the empire in the form of epigraphical inscriptions, which detailed many of the regulations, payments, and decrees of the Augustan administration. “The ritual performances are rarely described, but it seems clear from the evidence that does survive that a rich variety of processions, festivals and celebrations in all parts of the empire brought Rome and the emperor into religious and civic life.” A wonderful example of a festival inscription is evidenced in a Greek inscription from Gytheum, near Sparta, where the regulations for a festival is spoken by the local agoranomos, magistrate, in relation to the imperial cult that presides over the empire, and in their province of Greece.
“The agoranomos shall celebrate the first day for the god Caesar Augustus, son of the god Caesar, our Savior and Deliverer, the second day for the emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus, father of the fatherland; the third day for Julia Augusta, the Fortune of our nation and city; the fourth day (of Victory) for Germanicus Caesar…the agoranomos shall be responsible for the good order of the contestants…when the process reaches the Caesarion, the ephors shall sacrifice a bull on behalf of the safety of our rulers and gods and the eternal continuance of their rule…if they fail to hold the procession…they shall pay two thousand sacred drachmae to the gods…as priest of the god Augustus Caesar, the ephors, the colleagues of Terentius Biades, shall deliver three painted images of the god Augustus and of Julia Augusta and of Tiberius Caesar Augustus…up a stone column with this sacred law inscribed on it and they shall deposit a copy of this sacred law in the public archives…displayed for all to see in a public place and in the open air, prove the gratitude of the People of Gytheum towards the rulers for all men.”
This inscription demonstrates that emperor worship extended throughout the empire, and was so engrained within the religious culture that 1) Julius Caesar was considered a god, 2) Augustus himself was also considered a living god and established a divine lineage of succession, and 3) that this imperial cult spread from religious institutions within Rome to civic life throughout the empire’s provinces. Furthermore, Augustus increased the power and prominence of the imperial cult by ensuring “triumphs and the appellation of ‘imperator’ ceased in general for senators under Augustus, who also, in A.D. 11, banned honours for governors in their provinces…Roman officials were no longer the autonomous figures they had been in the Republic. The emperor alone was supreme.” The significance of this action by Augustus marks a critical “point of no return” because his ideological emperor worship not only infiltrated religious institutions, administrative customs, and civic life, but also legally empowered itself for future Caesarian successors to exercise the same rights.
All things considered, Augustus’ rise to political power through military conquests, re-establishing law and order after a series of civil wars, and being bestowed honours by the Senate contributed to his imperial success and emperor worship cult. It is important to note that religion allowed him the opportunity to fully legitimize his rule and authority over the Roman people, thereby connecting his newfound power to his people’s traditional connections with their religious beliefs. Vergil’s Aeneid attempts to explain his military and political successes because it established both were grounded “in an authoritative source deep within the mythic and divine origins or Rome and the Roman people…the ultimate sources for Augustus’ authority, as opposed to his power, were his relationship to the divine and the legitimizing trace of Augustus to the mythico-historical origins of Rome and the Roman people.” By utilizing every repertoire of power to his advantage, they complimented each other perfectly and established an imperial cult that would pave the way for succession within the family dynasty. Ultimately, emperor worship flourished within the Roman Empire over the coming centuries, and became so engrained in the public psyche that future emperors cast off previous veils of humility and assumed their role as the heads of state; politically, militarily, and religiously.