Book Description

The religious nature of the Imperial Cult is apparent in Greece, where Roman emperors were worshipped during their lifetime as real gods, with priests, festivals and sanctuaries. The emperors were conceived by the Greeks in a more familiar way through their integration into the Greek religious and cultural system. The reigning princeps was the main focus of these cults, which from the middle of the first century AD were ‘subsumed’ in a new form of ‘collective’ cults addressed to the whole of the Sebastoi.

The present book provides a comprehensive analysis of the main aspects of the cults of the emperors in the Greek peninsula (province of Achaia) in the period from Trajan to Commodus. In order to show how the Theoi Sebastoi were worshipped in the Greek poleis and koina, imperial festivals and priesthoods as well as buildings for the imperial cult are presented and discussed in detail based on the epigraphic, literary and archaeological evidence. Special attention is paid to the cultic association between Roman emperors and Greek gods, but political and social implications of these cults are also addressed.