DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0080
54 II. LAODICEIA : THE GRAECO-ROMAN CITY.
fieviica kv AaoSiKeia dyevdcov irvyfi\^v]1. The transformation was
necessarily coincident with the reception of the imperial worship in
the temple of Zeus Laodicenus. This event is an example of a custom
which was widely spread in the cities of Asia Minor. The Emperors
or some individual Emperor were worshipped in one, or more than
one, of the temples in each city ; and they were, as a rule, named in
the dedicatory inscriptions before the original deity in each case. In
this way the imperial cultus worked itself into the existing religious
system of the country. The Emperor and the native deity entered
into intimate association; in many cases the two were actually
identified, and the Emperor was represented as the deity incarnate in
human form. As examples of the identification of an individual
Emperor with a native Anatolian deity, we may quote (i) the worship
of the Hero Caesar at Nikaia Bithyniae2, where in 29 B. c. a temenos
was dedicated to him, and he was represented as Men or Sabazios,
wearing a Phrygian cap, and riding on a horse which raises its right
forefoot (the regular attitude of sepulchral hero-statues or reliefs) : the
right forefoot of the horse was a human hand, the left a human foot 'i.
(2) After Julia, wife of Agrippa, was in Lesbos 23-1 B.C., we find her
identified with Aphrodite Geneteira (perhaps invented on the analogy
of Venus Genitrix) at Eresos4; and at Ira-Hiera 'lovXia 'AcppoSirr]
took the place of an old-established cult of Aphrodite5. (3) Livia
and Tiberius seem to have been identified with the divine Mother-
goddess and her Son (Ch. Ill) at Tiberiopolis of Phrygia (Hist. Geogr.
p. 147). (4) Agrippina appears in Lesbos as 6ed AloXh Kapjro(p6posa.
(5) Caracalla appears as Men at Juliopolis7. (6) Many more famous
identifications occur, e.g. Domitian and Hadrian as Zeus.
Besides taking its place within the previously existing foundations
of the native religion, the imperial cultus appeared in several other
forms in the cities of Asia; (1) sporadic institutions, (2) foundations
made by the Council of the whole Province (Koivbv 'Aaiass Commune
Asiae), (3) the Neokorate § 1 o.
1 B.M. DCV, dating about 130-50 a.d. Caesar's horse humanis similes pedes
(by a slip Mr. Hicks, who puts DCV under ptiores habuisse; also Solinus p. 193,22,
Hadrian, dates DCIV about 150-200, ed. Mommsen, and Cedrenus I p. 300.
though it belongs to the same year as * Ath. Mitth. 1889 p. 260.
DCV or is even earlier). In B.M. DCXV, 5 Tumpel in Philologus 1S90 p. 735,
which dates near the end of the second 1S91 p. 566; Conze Reise auf Lesbos
century, the title 2e/3aaTa is omitted XVII 2; Collitz Dialelrtinsclir. 1, 90,
iv AoSiKfia avhpav Afia. 220.
2 Roscher mos fipoTonavs in Berichte c Ath. Mitth. 1888 p. 63; 6ea /3oXX<ia
Verhancll. Leipzig 1892 p. 96 f. hi. Knp7r. 'Aypimrtiva ib. 1886 p. 282.
3 Roscher quotes Pliny VIII 155, that ' Roscher I.e. p. 147.
fieviica kv AaoSiKeia dyevdcov irvyfi\^v]1. The transformation was
necessarily coincident with the reception of the imperial worship in
the temple of Zeus Laodicenus. This event is an example of a custom
which was widely spread in the cities of Asia Minor. The Emperors
or some individual Emperor were worshipped in one, or more than
one, of the temples in each city ; and they were, as a rule, named in
the dedicatory inscriptions before the original deity in each case. In
this way the imperial cultus worked itself into the existing religious
system of the country. The Emperor and the native deity entered
into intimate association; in many cases the two were actually
identified, and the Emperor was represented as the deity incarnate in
human form. As examples of the identification of an individual
Emperor with a native Anatolian deity, we may quote (i) the worship
of the Hero Caesar at Nikaia Bithyniae2, where in 29 B. c. a temenos
was dedicated to him, and he was represented as Men or Sabazios,
wearing a Phrygian cap, and riding on a horse which raises its right
forefoot (the regular attitude of sepulchral hero-statues or reliefs) : the
right forefoot of the horse was a human hand, the left a human foot 'i.
(2) After Julia, wife of Agrippa, was in Lesbos 23-1 B.C., we find her
identified with Aphrodite Geneteira (perhaps invented on the analogy
of Venus Genitrix) at Eresos4; and at Ira-Hiera 'lovXia 'AcppoSirr]
took the place of an old-established cult of Aphrodite5. (3) Livia
and Tiberius seem to have been identified with the divine Mother-
goddess and her Son (Ch. Ill) at Tiberiopolis of Phrygia (Hist. Geogr.
p. 147). (4) Agrippina appears in Lesbos as 6ed AloXh Kapjro(p6posa.
(5) Caracalla appears as Men at Juliopolis7. (6) Many more famous
identifications occur, e.g. Domitian and Hadrian as Zeus.
Besides taking its place within the previously existing foundations
of the native religion, the imperial cultus appeared in several other
forms in the cities of Asia; (1) sporadic institutions, (2) foundations
made by the Council of the whole Province (Koivbv 'Aaiass Commune
Asiae), (3) the Neokorate § 1 o.
1 B.M. DCV, dating about 130-50 a.d. Caesar's horse humanis similes pedes
(by a slip Mr. Hicks, who puts DCV under ptiores habuisse; also Solinus p. 193,22,
Hadrian, dates DCIV about 150-200, ed. Mommsen, and Cedrenus I p. 300.
though it belongs to the same year as * Ath. Mitth. 1889 p. 260.
DCV or is even earlier). In B.M. DCXV, 5 Tumpel in Philologus 1S90 p. 735,
which dates near the end of the second 1S91 p. 566; Conze Reise auf Lesbos
century, the title 2e/3aaTa is omitted XVII 2; Collitz Dialelrtinsclir. 1, 90,
iv AoSiKfia avhpav Afia. 220.
2 Roscher mos fipoTonavs in Berichte c Ath. Mitth. 1888 p. 63; 6ea /3oXX<ia
Verhancll. Leipzig 1892 p. 96 f. hi. Knp7r. 'Aypimrtiva ib. 1886 p. 282.
3 Roscher quotes Pliny VIII 155, that ' Roscher I.e. p. 147.