The Buildings and the Images of
the Imperial Cult
I. Beginnings
What is the imperial cult?
The beginnings:
a) Initial phase of heterogenity
b) Regional differences and peculiarities
5 points to remember:
1. Rome and the East1. Rome and the East
2. A ruler needs
3. Greeks and Jewish/Christians
4. „human“ and „divine“
5. Today´s idea of separating cultural-religious sphere and political sphere
the end of republic and beginning of the principate
Phenomena:
1. Building and consecrating altars and temples
The temple of Vespasian and Titus, Forum
Romanum
Ara Pacis, Rome
2. Establishing of priests
3. Emphassising the characteristic feautres and
achievements
4. Setting public holidays
5. Rituals and traditions previously reserved for deities
Fasti capitolini, The Capitoline Museum, Rome
6. Likening emperors to dieties
Claudius as Jupiter, marble, Vatican
Museums, Rome
Commodus as Hercules, marble, The Capitoline
Museum, Rome
Preliminary steps to the imperial cult:
1. Egypt
2. Hellenistic world
3. Greek cities
4. Roman republic
Coronation of King Ptolemy VIII
conducted by the goddess
Nechbet,right,and the goddess Uto
or Wadjet,left,Temple of
Horus,Edfu,Luxor,Nile Valley,Egypt
1. EGYPT
- the ruler cult
- the „divine essence“ of the ruler
- difference: divinity was a public matter for centuries
- Starting point – a close relationship between Ptolemaic monarchy and Egyptian
cults
- from the cult of the deceased
Gold octodrachm – reverse capita iugata of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe –
legend “of the siblings – άδελφῶν”, obverse – capita iugata of Ptolemy I
Soter and his wife Berenice I – “of the gods - θεῶν”
Temple of Isis on the isle of Philae
- the cult centre of Isis during the Ptolemaic Period
- dedicated to Isis and Osiris
- reliefs and inscriptions
Temple of Isis, the island of Philae
Ptolemy II in Pharaonic costume
offering to Isis (also Augustus depicted in
the Pharaonic costume in front of Isis and
Harpocrates).
- Octavian-Augustus and Ptolemic predecessors names
2. HELLENISTIC WORLD
- hellenistic cults
- religion
- politics
- ruler cult
Hellenistic rulers – cults of benefactors, saviours from dangers and
founders of cities
- heroic honours
- switch to divine honours
Crucial conditions: AUTOCRATIC RULE
EXTERNAL TO THE POLISEXTERNAL TO THE POLIS
AT LEAST A BIT GREEK
Why not earlier?
Examples of cult:
Macedonia – cults of Macedonians before
and after Alexander – rare
Macedonian towns
Philip
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great, Alexandria, Egypt, 2nd /
1st century BC
Antigonus I Monophtalmus (Antigonus the One-eyed) and his
son Demetrius Poliorcetes (the Besieger)
- the end of the 4th century BC , by Athens
a) power to offer protection to Athens
b) vengeance against those who had attacked them
Essential feature of divinity for Greeks
The hellenistic ruler never declared himself divine
Marble bust of Demetrius I
Poliorcetes. Roman copy from 1st
century AD of a Greek original from
3rd century BC
Antiochus III, Syria
-liberation of Iasos 197 BC
- Laodice III
Teos
Kings are gods not heroes
Distinction: funeralDistinction: funeral
thysia
enhagisma
„heroic honours“ – Alexander the Great
Heroes
Ruler cult
Antiochus III, Louvre
3. GREEK CITIES
Lysander – Spartan general, 5th /4th century BC
- cult on Samos
a) altar
b) sacrifices
c) cultic songs
d) the festival of Hera the Lysandreaia
- no reference to a cult statue or to a shrine.
Lysander
Divine cult of individual citizens – the end of the 2nd
century BC
Diodorus Pasparos at Pergamum
-city lost its freedom – Mithridatic War against Rome
(88-85 BC)
-Diodorus – went to Rome
-series of divine honours
- isotheoi timai
Diodoros Pasparos – the cult statue
from his sanctuary
- isotheoi timai
Heroon of Diadoros Pasparos – the cult room and odeon, Pergamon
Heroon of Diadoros Pasparos – the cult room and
odeon, Pergamon – marble panels
4. ROME
I Public sphere
The regal period
e.g. Romulus
Servius Tullius
Army leaders – triumph
A triumph – in the regal pariod awarded to: Romulus (?), Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius
Tullius, Tarquinius Superbus and some generals (Fasti triumphales)
the cult of important individuals (imperatores):
a) Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
Apotheosis
b) Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus
- statues
- sacrifices
c) Marius Gratidianus
The republican period
c) Marius Gratidianus
85 BC - statues
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, bronze,
Naples, National Archaeological Museum
d) Pompey
-honours - the Greek cities in Asia Minor
- Miletopolis
- his dominion is „universal“
- Ilion
- in the East
Pompey the Great, marble bust, Carlsberg
Glyptotek, Copenhagen
e) Julius Caesar
- divine honours
three main phases of the Senate´s honours:
1. after the battle of Thapsus
2. the battle of Munda “
3. the last months of Caesar´s life
Julius Caesar, bronze, Altes Museum,
Berlin
Cassius Dio, Roman History, book XLIV (the list of honours granted to Julius Caesar by the Senate)
The privileges that were granted him, in addition to all those mentioned, were as follows in number and nature; for I shall
name them all together, even if they were not all proposed or passed at one time. 2 First, then, they voted that he should
always ride, even in the city itself, wearing the triumphal dress, and should sit in his chair of state everywhere except at
the games; for at those he received the privilege of watching the contests from the tribunes' benches in company with
those who were tribunes at the time. 3 And they gave him the right to offer spolia opima, as they are called, at the temple
of Jupiter Feretrius, as if he had slain some hostile general with his own hand, and to have lictors who always carried laurel,
and after the Feriae Latinae to ride from the Alban Mount into the city on horseback. 4 In addition to these remarkable
privileges they named him father of his country, stamped this title on the coinage, voted to celebrate his birthday by
public sacrifice, ordered that he should have a statue in the cities and in all the temples of Rome, 5 and they set up two
also on the rostra, one representing him as the saviour of the citizens and the other as the deliverer of the city from siege,
and wearing the crowns customary for such achievements. They also resolved to build a temple of Concordia Nova, on the
ground that it was through his efforts that they enjoyed peace, and to celebrate an annual festival in her honour. 5 When he
had accepted these, they assigned to him the charge of filling the Pontine marshes, cutting a canal through the
Peloponnesian isthmus, and constructing a new senate-house, since that of Hostilius, although repaired, had beenPeloponnesian isthmus, and constructing a new senate-house, since that of Hostilius, although repaired, had been
demolished. 2 The reason assigned for its destruction was that a temple of Felicitas was to be built there, which Lepidus,
indeed, brought to completion while master of the horse; but their real purpose was that the name of Sulla should not be
preserved on it, and that another senate-house, newly constructed, might be named the Julian, even as they had called the
month in which he was born July, and one of the tribes, selected by lot, the Julian. 3 And they voted that Caesar should be
sole censor for life and should enjoy the immunities granted to the tribunes, so that if any one insulted him by deed or
word, that man should be an outlaw and accursed, and further that Caesar's son, should he beget or even adopt one,
should be appointed high priest. 61 As he seemed to like all this, a gilded chair was granted him, and a garb that the kings
had once used, and body-guard of knights and senators; furthermore they decided that prayers should be offered for him
publicly every year, that they should swear by Caesar's Fortune, and should regard as valid all his future acts. 2 Next they
bestowed upon him a quadrennial festival, as to a hero, and a third priestly college, which they called the Julian, as
overseers of the Lupercalia, and one special day of his own each time in connection with all gladiatorial combats both in
Rome and the rest of Italy. 3 When he showed himself pleased with these honours also, they accordingly voted that his
golden chair and his crown set with precious gems and overlaid with gold should be carried into the theatres in the same
manner as those of the gods, and that on the occasion of the games in the Circus his chariot should be brought in. And
finally they addressed him outright as Jupiter Julius and ordered a temple to be consecrated to him and to his Clemency,
electing Antony as their priest like some flamen Dialis.
The death of Julius Caesar and the process of his deification:
March 44 BC
a) The corpse
b) Marc Anthony
c) Caesar’s wounds
d) Cremated
The Temple of Divus Iulius
- dedicated: August 18th , 29 BC - erected by Augustus
- podium (opus cementicum)
-ionic, composite or corinthian style?
- destroyed
The events after Caesar’s death:
July 44 BC
September 44 BC
Beginning 42 BC
40 BC
Marcus Antonius, marble, Vatican Museums,
Rome
II Private sphere
Divine honours – in the private sphere - „paterfamilias“
„paterfamilias“
Sources
Lararium, Pompeii
The object of worship: Genius (paterfamilias), Juno (the life force of women)
Genius
earliest sources
rituals
representation
House of the Vetii: decoration
Lararium
Lares
14-12 BC - the worship of the Genius14-12 BC - the worship of the Genius
formally declared
Lararia, Pompeii
Lararium of the House of Menander, Pompeii
Lararium from Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples
The emperor cult is the practice of assimilating emperor and deity
In the Hellenistic world in 307 BC the
hymn sung in honour of Demetrius
Poliroctes is the earliest attestation
of the rules as a “present god”.
The great leap from the cult of the
deceased ancestors to the
veneration of living men takes
place in Egypt, where the ruler cult
is the strongest in the 14th year of
the reign of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, when the living
siblings Ptolemy II and his
sister/wife Arsinoe II were deified.
In the Greek cities the divine cult
of individual citizens can be
found towards the end of the 2nd
century BC, one of the earliest
cases is the cult of Diodorus
Pasparos at Pergamon.
Also in the Roman world, in
private/public relations, it hadprivate/public relations, it had
been usual for a long time to
address a man with emphatic
epithets and to honour him:
this is the case of the relation
patronus/cliens, the patron is
the benefactor of his clients
The object of worship in the
household was the Genius of
the paterfamilias. The
worshippers were freedmen
and slaves.
The development of
intersections between the
ideology of patronage and
of Hellenistic kingship.