sacral phrase in Livy (“ .. di quibus est….”):

taken from his History of Rome (written between 27 and 9 BC).  The full quote is:

                 “iane Iuppiter Mars pater Quirine Bellona Lares Divi Novensiles Di Indigetes Divi quorum est potestas nostrorum hostiumque Dique                                    Manes,…”

The translation is:

                   ‘Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, ye Novensiles and Indigetes, deities to whom belongs the power over us and over our                       foes, and ye, too, Divine Manes, I pray to you, I do you reverence, 

 

Urbs Roma:

Latin, the city of Rome

 

Great Mother of Pessinus (2nd Punic War):

Pessinus was a city in Asia Minor, centrally located in Anatolia, principal cult centre of Cybele.  This religion was rooted in the old Anatolian goddess Kubaba, which had spread over Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BC.  Tradition dates the erection of her first "costly" Cybele temple in the 8th century BC.  By the 3rd century BC Pessinus had become a temple state ruled by a clerical oligarchy consisting of eunuch priests of the Mother Goddess.  Rome became involved in Pessinus in  205 BC.  Alarmed by meteor showers during the 2nd Punic War, the Romans consulted the Sibylline Books & decided to introduce the cult (Great Mother of Ida).  With the aid of the ruler of Pergamum they went to Pessinus & removed the goddess' most important image, a large black stone said to have fallen from the sky.  They took it to Rome.  The Romans reinvented her as a Trojan goddess & thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas.

 

Roman emperor worship:

Augustus (63 BC-14 AD) appeared to reject Imperial status; he called himself Princeps Civitatis or "First Citizen".  Nonetheless the cult of the leader became increasingly prominent.  It identified emperors with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State.  This personality cult was similar to apotheosis; Roman religion accepted the concept of the divus, a mortal who became divine; temples & columns were erected to provide a space for worship of the divus.  At its height the practice included the emperor's deceased loved ones, heirs, empresses, or lovers (e.g. Hadrian's Antinous).

 

genius:

Latin, an inborn nature or innate character, especially as endowed by a personal spirit or deity.

 

divi (of the dead prince):

the plural of divus, an adjective, translated as "divine"; refers to a "deified" mortal,  people who become divine, gods who once were men.  However Vergil, uses deus (a perpetual god) and divus interchangeably.  A deceased emperor held worthy of the “divus” honour could be elevated by a vote in the Senate (an act of apotheosis).  This served religious, political & moral judgment on Imperial rulers.  It allowed living Emperors to associate themselves with a well-regarded lineage of Imperial divi from which unpopular or unworthy predecessors were excluded.

 

Caliph-deification:

Spengler regards the Tetrarchy (293-313 AD) as the first appearance of a Magian political model, which would alter emerge in the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 AD).

and see Chapter II page 72 Chapter VI page 212

 

Diocletian (deification):

(244-311 AD) Emperor 284 to 305 AD; he introduced a new ruling style, that emphasized the distinction of the emperor from all other persons.  Traditional republican ideals of Augustus (primus inter pares) was abandoned; Diocletian began wearing a gold crown & jewels & forbade the use of purple cloth by others; the cities where emperors lived were treated as imperial seats, excluding the Roman elite & senate.  The adjective sacrum for all things pertaining to the imperial person was adopted.  Subjects were required to prostrate themselves; the most favoured were allowed to kiss the hem of his robe.  The imperial face was prominently displayed in circuses and basilicas.  He became a figure of transcendent authority, beyond the grip of the masses.  All appearances were stage-managed.

 

Constantine (deification):

The deification of emperors was gradually abandoned with the rise of Constantine I (272-337 AD); he officially ended blood sacrifices to the genius of living emperors.  Nonetheless his Imperial iconography & court ceremonial elevated him to superhuman status.  He gave permission for the building of a new cult temple to himself & family in Umbria but stipulated that it "should not be polluted by the deception of any contagious superstition".   At the First Council of Nicaea he united & re-founded the empire under an absolute head of state by divine dispensation.  He was honoured as the first Christian Imperial divus & on his death venerated & held to have ascended to heaven.  And according to the church historian Philostorgius (368-439 AD) Christians continued to offer sacrifice to the statues of the divus Constantine.

 

Sophocles (as a god):

(497-406 BC ) in 420 BC the cult of Asclepius was introduced to Athens.  Asclepius (son of Apollo & Coronis) was a hero & god of medicine in Greek religion.  The city at that time had no proper place for Asclepius.  Sophocles was chosen to receive the image of Asclepius in his own house.  In recognition for these services as the so-called ‘Receiver’ of Asclepius he was made a hero, and given the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver) by the Athenians.

 

Lysander (as a god):

(died 305 BC) Spartan admiral who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami (405 BC).  In 404 BC he forced the Athenians to capitulate, ending the Peloponnesian War.  He went onto to play a key role in Sparta's domination of Greece for the next decade until his death.  According to Duris of Samos, Lysander was the first Greek to whom the cities erected altars to & sacrificed to, as a god.  The Samians voted to call their festival of Hera after him (Lysandreia).  He was the first Greek who had songs of triumph written about him.

 

Alexander (as a god):

(356-323 BC) Alexander’s first taste of deification came in Egypt (332 BC) where he was pronounced son of the deity Amun at the Oracle of Siwa Oasis (Libyan desert).  Henceforth he often referred to Zeus-Ammon as his true father.  During his Persian campaign (331-329 BC) he adopted the Persian custom of proskynesis (either a symbolic kissing of the hand or full prostration).  This did not go down well as the Greeks regarded the gesture as the province of deities & believed Alexander meant to deify himself.  In the face of such disapproval it was abandoned.  However in the last year of his life he demanded all (including his Greek subjects) treat him as a living god (apotheōsis).  While sacred kingship was common in eastern nations, it was unheard-of in Greece & accepted only reluctantly (sometimes rejected) by the Greek cities.  However Alexander's prolific building of new cities secured his divine status as Greek cities traditionally rendered their founder divine honours.  After 323 BC Ptolemy I Soter (367-282 BC) established the imperial cult of Alexander, giving him a prominent place in the Greek pantheon.  He  began construction of the Tomb of Alexander in Alexandria & appointed a priest to conduct religious rites there; this office became the highest priesthood in the Ptolemaic Kingdom.  Under Ptolemy II (ruled 282–246 BC), Alexander's body was transferred to the tomb & instead of traditional cremation, it was placed in a magnificent golden sarcophagus.  Eventually this was replaced by a glass coffin to display his preserved body; it became a big attraction & pilgrimage site, to include Roman emperors.