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Full Description
This book offers a novel approach to the study of the Roman imperial cult, disrupting the traditional, Eurocentric narrative and tendency to relativise the cult's religious dimension in favour of its political implications. Instead, this collection argues for understanding the imperial cult within diverse local contexts, where it evolved through intricate interactions with existing religious traditions and institutions. Consequently, this volume also contends that the often-promoted, singular narrative of the imperial cult fails to capture its complexity and multipolar nature, making it essential to speak of imperial cults in the plural.
This book examines the cult's flexibility and regional specificity through epigraphic numismatic, literary and archaeological evidence from Greece, Hispania (Baetica and Lusitania), Asia Minor, Italy, the Lower Danube region, Crete and Cyrene, Egypt and Germania, from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. These sources reveal that the imperial cult was deeply embedded in local religious and social fabrics, while also engaging with distinct socio-political conditions and impacting various religious discourses, including those of Christian authors. By focusing on the local adaptations and religious innovations that characterised the imperial cult, the book advocates for a more nuanced and context-sensitive analysis.
Contents
1 The Polyhedron of Power: Imperial Cults Between Universality and Locality.- 2 The Imperial Cult in Roman Attica: The Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous.- 3 Hadrianus Augustus Fecit: Emperor's Agency and Local Traditions in the Configuration of the Imperial Cult in Italica.- 4 Beyond Imposition-Spontaneity: The Establishment of the Imperial Cult in Roman Lusitania.- 5 Augustus, Tiberius, and the Concept of Sōtēr in the Asian Peninsula: An Epigraphic Survey.- 6 Genius, Numen, Divus: Preliminary Reflections on the So-Called Imperial Cult in the Piacenza Area.- 7 Imperial Cults in the Greek Communities of the West Pontic Koinon.- 8 The Representation of the Imperial Figure in the Province of Crete and Cyrene: One Administration and Two Different Realities.- 9 A Study of the Egyptian Kōmastērion and the Imperial Cult.- 10 Epigraphic Representation of the Imperial Figure in the Pass to the Third Century CE in Germania.- 11 Political Legitimacy Through Sacralisation in the Third Century CE.- 12 The Deification of Antinous: From the Imperial Cult to the Christian Apologetic Controversy.- 13 The Empire's Two Bodies: Some Thoughts on the Christian Emperor in Late Antiquity.
