While the “frivolous East” may have been happy to venerate men as though they were gods, the serious men of the Roman Republic would never have condoned such an outrage. Nevertheless, the apotheosis and deification of deceased Roman emperors became an essential element of Roman imperial ideology. Deifying your predecessor was a key step in justifying the power of the new princeps.
Consequently, dynasty-founding rulers such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Vespasian underwent apotheosis and found themselves numbered among the gods after death. But so too did ridiculed emperors such as Claudius, and minor imperial women, such as Drusilla and Domitia. Caligula and Nero may even have tried to have themselves deified while still alive.
How did something considered sacrilegious during the Roman Republic become standard practice under the Empire and how did the Romans decide who to deify?
Apotheosis in the Greek World
The word apotheosis comes from ancient Greek, and like so many other parts of Roman religion, the practice was adapted from Greek culture. Consequently, understanding apotheosis and the worship of men in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world forms an important background for understanding Roman deification.
The ancient Greeks long believed that individuals could move from mortality to divinity. Famously the hero Hercules was a son of the god Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, and while he had supernatural strength, he was mortal. Due to his heroic deeds, he became one of the gods of Mount Olympus when he died. Zeus gave ambrosia, the drink of the gods, to Psyche, making her a goddess. Asclepius was the mortal son of Apollo. Hades demanded that Zeus kill Asclepius when he used his healing abilities to bring others back to life. Zeus did, but as a favor to Apollo also immortalized Asclepius among the stars, a form of apotheosis. All three went on to be worshiped as gods.
These famous examples of posthumous apotheosis in Greek myth demonstrate the belief that mortality and divinity could be fluid and that great deeds could earn a person divinity. And it was not just those favored by the gods who could metamorphose. Important ancestral figures were also worshiped alongside the gods in individual Greek city-states.
In neighboring cultures, a man did not need to be dead to be treated like a god. The Persians treated their kings as divine, as did the ancient Egyptians. Cultural exchange soon saw the ancient Greeks following their example and dedicating temples to powerful living men. In 404 BCE, several Ionian cities dedicated temples to the Spartan general Lysander after his success in the Peloponnesian War, while Clearchus the tyrant of Heraclea, dressed up as Zeus and received sacrifices.
Following his definitive conquests in Greece, many cities established temples to Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BCE and he was often called Zeus Philippos. In Macedon itself, when Philip married his 6th wife, he included a cult image of himself dressed as a god in a procession of images of the Olympian gods. His son Alexander the Great and his successors, the Diadochi, received similar honors.
Therefore, by the time the Romans took power in Greece and Asia in the 2nd century BCE, the practice of honoring important living men in a similar way to the gods was well established. But Rome had no kings. The monarchy was overthrown in the 5th century BCE and replaced by an oligarchy with checks and balances to ensure that no one man gained too much power. Therefore, to make sense of Roman power within their established systems, the Greeks and Hellenistic Asians dedicated temples and similar honors to individual Roman generals active in the area.
For example, games, similar to those established for the gods, were introduced for the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus after he conquered Sicily during the Second Punic War. Titus Quinctius Flamininus had temples erected in several cities and was called isotheos (god-like) in a surviving inscription. But because these were short-term political appointments, these cults were also short-lived.
There is also evidence that the Romans were uncomfortable with these “decadent Eastern honors.” Cicero brags that he declined temples proposed for himself and his brother in Roman Asia, suggesting that declining such excessive honors was the “republican” thing to do. According to Polybius, a king of Bithynia prostrated himself in the Roman senate and referred to the senators as “savior gods.” The 1st century BCE author Livy suggested that this would have been a shocking act.
When Rome transitioned from a Republic to an Empire, it made sense that in the East, the emperor would become the new object of worship. Indeed, as early as 29 BCE, the Roman province of Asia requested permission to build a temple for Gaius Octavius Caesar and Roma (the divine personification of Rome).
Permission was granted, and the temple was eventually dedicated to Augustus—the name Octavian adopted in 27 BCE—and Roma. Thus, the Greeks were already worshiping the living emperor as a god while the Romans were still pretending that Augustus was just the princeps, the first among equals, and not a king in all but name.
Apotheosis in the Roman Republic
The idea of apotheosis, the dead becoming divine, also existed in the Roman world. In fact, everyone underwent a kind of apotheosis when they died as they joined the collective divine ancestors, known as the di manes or the penates. They were worshiped by families as part of their household cult and collectively in the public festival known as the Parentalia.
But just as all men were not equal in life, they were not equal in death, and there was a belief that more powerful men could achieve a more individual and concrete type of apotheosis. Notably, in the 50s BCE, Cicero described the Roman general Scipio Africanus ascending to heaven to become a star, a form of apotheosis, by virtue of his earthly deeds (De Re Publica 6.9-26). But Cicero, who denied a cult for himself, never suggested that Scipio Africanus should be worshiped by the Roman state alongside the gods.
Cicero did suggest that the Roman forefathers who helped establish the Republic were worthy of apotheosis and being ranked among the gods (Pro Sestio 143). This was not unheard of. The Romans believed that the Trojan hero Aeneas traveled to Italy and became the ancestor of the Romans. He was worshiped as Jupiter Indiges. His son Romulus founded Rome, underwent posthumous apotheosis, and was worshiped in the Roman pantheon as the god Quirinus.
But this kind of individualistic worship of heroes and ancestors was limited to these two legendary founders. No citizen, living or dead, was honored by the Roman state with god-like honors during the Roman Republic.
The Deification and Apotheosis of Julius Caesar
The fall of the Roman Republic was a long and drawn-out affair. For around a century, power became increasingly concentrated in the hands of generals who were awarded extraordinary powers that allowed them to lead armies for years, grow their wealth, and build a dedicated personal following. The evidence suggests that each received increasingly extravagant honors.
Sulla had games in his honor held in Rome, similar to those held for the gods. Marius may have received personal worship from his followers. Pompey was allowed to wear triumphal ornaments, modeled on the trappings of the main god of the Roman state, Jupiter, when he attended the games.
But the Roman Republic truly fell when Julius Caesar was made dictator for life in 44 BCE. He was also the first man in the history of the Roman Republic to truly be treated like a god of the Roman state.
While Julius Caesar rejected the title of king when it was offered to him in a grand show of humility, he did not mind hinting at his own divinity. Earlier in his life, Caesar often emphasized his membership of the Julian family, which claimed to be descended from Aeneas and his mother Venus. Caesar dedicated a temple to Venus Genetrix (Venus the founder of the family) in 46 BCE. On his mother’s side, he claimed to be descended from the Roman kings and the god Mars.
When he was declared dictator for life, the senate also awarded Caesar a temple, sacred image, and priest, giving him all the things that he would need to be considered a god of the Roman state: he received permission to include his image on coins, making him the first living man to appear on Roman coinage; he was awarded the title Parens Patriae (father of his country) which linked him to Aeneas and Romulus; legal oaths were taken by his Genius (personal tutelary deity); his birthday was made a public festival in similar fashion to the foundation dates of important temples; and the month of Quintilis was renamed July in his honor, just as the previous month was named June for the goddess Juno Regina.
With these decrees, regardless of what was believed about Caesar’s personal divinity, he was placed on a similar footing to the gods of the Roman state. However, Caesar was assassinated on the 15th of March 44 BCE, before these honors could be fully enacted. These honors probably contributed to the feeling among the conspirators that Caesar was too powerful and too dangerous to live.
But as we know, the assassination of Julius Caesar did not restore the Roman Republic, it just left behind a power vacuum that Caesar’s heirs, his second in command Marcus Antonius and his nephew and adopted grandson Gaius Octavius Caesar, were keen to occupy. While the senate was busy ignoring the divine honors that they had previously awarded Caesar, Marcus Antonius appealed to Caesar’s divinity when calling for vengeance against the assassins in his funeral oration.
When a comet was seen in the sky in 42 BCE, it was claimed to be evidence of Caesar’s soul ascending to heaven to be among the gods. Following this, Octavian led the charge for formal recognition of Caesar’s apotheosis in 42 BCE with the title Divus Julius.
Marcus Antonius benefited when he was named Caesar’s priest, a position he had previously been awarded in 44 BCE before Caesar’s death. But Octavian benefited more, earning the title divi filius (son of a god), which he would use for the rest of his life.
Trading on Caesar’s memory, Marcus Antonius and Octavian became the two powers in Rome and civil war would ensue as they vied for absolute power, ending with the defeat of Antonius at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. In 29 BCE, Octavian dedicated a temple to Divus Julius at the place where his body was cremated in Rome. That same year, Octavian accepted a temple in Asia dedicated to himself and Roma on the condition that the province also built a temple to Divus Julius and Roma.
In 27 BCE, Octavian adopted the title Augustus, which meant that he was sacred to Rome. However, he would masquerade as the “princeps,” the first among equals, and walk the fine line between accepting honors that consolidated his power in Rome and rejecting honors that were too extravagant and could lead to a fate like Caesar’s. This included denying worship of himself as a god in Rome during his lifetime.
The Apotheosis of Augustus
While Augustus refused direct worship from the Roman state during his lifetime, he accepted many honors that were previously considered excessively extravagant. His image was everywhere in Rome, both in secular buildings and on temples, and his image was ubiquitous on the coinage.
His birthday was made a holiday on which sacrifices were made to the gods, principally Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno Regina, and Minerva, on behalf of the state. Altars were dedicated to divine forces such as Pax Augusta (the Augustan Peace) and games were held every four years to ensure the health of Augustus. He accepted all these extravagant honors but stopped at personally receiving the kind of sacrifices and worship that the gods received.
But Augustus would also make himself the focal point of Roman religion, accepting the position of pontifex maximus (chief priest), which made him primarily responsible for the religiosity of the Roman people, like the king in ancient times. He also joined all the most important priestly colleges and was active in promoting Roman religion. He repaired almost 100 temples across the city and dedicated 14 new temples, all of which would have borne his name in the dedicatory inscription. This was a model followed by all his successors.
But it is also clear that Augustus expected to undergo apotheosis and become a god of the Roman state like Caesar before him, after his death. Augustus’s famous resume of his deeds, his Res Gestae, was clearly designed to lay out the great acts that would earn Augustus his place among the gods. He also promoted the rumor that he was the son of Apollo and adopted the god as his patron deity.
Augustus died in 14 CE, and his stepson and adopted successor Tiberius ensured his apotheosis and deification. Following the precedent of Caesar’s posthumous deification, a senator came forward to say that he had witnessed the apotheosis of Augustus.
This allowed the senate to decree Honores Caelestes (Celestial Honors) that included the title Divus Augustus, mimicking Divus Julius, a temple, which was eventually finished and dedicated in 37 CE, with a cult image, and priests. His priests included a flamen, Tiberius’s adopted successor Germanicus (who would die before coming to power), a flaminica, Augustus’s widow Livia, and a college of 21 sodales Augustales drawn from Rome’s best men. Tiberius himself gained the title divi filius, further consolidating his position.
This deification of Rome’s most august citizen and first true emperor set the precedent for how emperors could be deified. While it is clear that Augustus orchestrated this process before his death, Tiberius should earn credit for seeing the plan through to fruition. He also committed to maintaining the prestige of deification by refusing similar celestial honors for Livia following her death and continuing to refuse worship of his own person in life as the new Augustus Caesar.
Expanding the Augustan Precedent
Throughout the Roman Empire, 74 people were defied from Julius Caesar in 44 BCE to Valentinian III in 455 CE. The way that they were deified, posthumously with the title divus and cult infrastructure, remained consistent over those five centuries, but there were some important innovations under the later Julio-Claudian emperors.
When Tiberius died in 37 CE, his successor Gaius, the son of Germanicus better known as Caligula, asked the senate to deify Tiberius. They seem to have just ignored the request for the man who was hated by the time he died. This means that Gaius had to settle for the title Caesar Augustus, without the addition of divi filius. But he did preside over an important innovation.
When Gaius’s beloved sister Drusilla died in 38 CE, she was awarded a public funeral, following the precedent of Livia. But not long after her death, a senator claimed to have witnessed her apotheosis, like that of Julius Caesar and Augustus. This opened the opportunity for Drusilla to receive celestial honors, which Gaius accepted. She was worshiped as a goddess in the temples of Venus and Augustus. This set a precedent for the deification of other members of the imperial family, by virtue of their bloodline.
Thus, when Claudius came to power following the assassination of Gaius, he could follow that precedent to have his grandmother Livia deified as “Diva Augusta.” This was an important move because while Claudius was the grandson of Livia, he was not a blood relative of Augustus.
Some sources suggest that Gaius also encouraged direct worship of himself as a god during his lifetime. It is unclear whether this is something that he really did, or something invented after his death to help justify his assassination. In either case, the story circulated and confirmed that worship of the living emperor was an unacceptable practice.
When Nero came to power following the death of Claudius, he also had his adopted father deified as Divus Claudius so that he could become divi filius. But as Claudius fell out of favor following his death, Nero’s teacher Seneca wrote his famous Apocolocyntosis (Pumpkinification) in which he compares the honor with which the gods received Augustus with the ridicule with which they accepted Claudius among their number. Nero also followed the precedent by having his wife and infant daughter deified. Like Gaius, he was accused of demanding worship of himself in the final years of his reign, but it is unclear whether this really happened or if it was a standard criticism of all “bad emperors.”
The death of Nero saw the end of the Julio-Claudian line, but not the end of the Empire. A year of civil war saw Vespasian rise to power and the start of the Flavian Dynasty. It was clear early on that Vespasian intended to continue to use the process of apotheosis to justify his new dynasty. He paid great honor to the cult of Divus Augustus and revived the cult of Divus Claudius, which had been neglected in the later years of Nero’s reign. With his son Titus set to succeed him, according to the biographer Suetonius, Vespasian cynically uttered, “oh dear, I think I am becoming a god” on his deathbed.
Titus reigned for only two years before his death and was succeeded by his brother, Domitian, who ensured the deification of Titus, making him both divi filius and the brother of a god. He also deified his niece Julia Flavia and his infant son when they died.
Like Gaius and Nero before him, Domitian was also assassinated, and therefore not deified. He was accused of wanting to be worshiped while alive, using the title dominus et deus (master and god). Again, it is unclear if this is true, or part of his damnatio memoriae (memory damnation).
Nevertheless, from this moment onward, the precedent was set. Emperors fortunate enough to be followed by their chosen successor were deified, and those that weren’t were accused of acts like demanding direct worship. Emperors also deified family members who died during their reign as a way of boosting the divine aura around the imperial family. Thus, Trajan deified Nerva and his wife Plotina. Hadrian deified Trajan, his wife Vibia Sabina, and his lover Antinous. This pattern continued until the 4th century CE.
That is how a practice once considered an extravagant decadence of the East became a core part of imperial ideology in Rome.
