Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T02:36:59.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Late Antique Divi and Imperial Priests of the Late Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries

from Part II - The Construction of New Religious Identities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2015

By
Douglas Boin
Edited by
Michele Renee Salzman ,
Marianne Sághy  and
Rita Lizzi Testa
Douglas Boin
Affiliation:
professor of ancient and late antique Mediterranean history at Saint Louis University
Michele Renee Salzman
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
Marianne Sághy
Affiliation:
Central European University, Budapest
Rita Lizzi Testa
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italy
Get access

Summary

Now that new contributions have been made to the study of “the imperial cult” in the early Roman Empire, the time is ripe to broaden that conversation: by drawing attention to imperial cult practices in the late Roman world. This topic will provide an excellent illustration of how our modern categories, like “Roman/Christian” or “pagan/Christian,” fail to capture the nuances of social life in the late Roman world. Two recent studies – one focusing on divus Constantine, the other on the iconography of Christ as the heavenly emperor – have already begun to sketch out that picture.

This contribution expands on that work by examining the social and cultural context of one inscription from Rome (CIL 6.1783). This inscription has recently been used to characterize the late fourth and early fifth centuries as a period of “Christian triumph” and “pagan revival” although that narrative no longer withstands scrutiny. Traditional worship practices did not vanish with the conversion of Constantine; and abundant epigraphic, legal, numismatic, and textual sources, discussed here, attest to the continued practice of naming late antique emperors divi – including references to the diva memoria of the eastern Roman emperor Zeno (474–91 CE) and one reference to divus Anastasius (491–518 CE). Given this context, it is surprising, however, that no scholar to date has chosen to discuss the fact that the inscription from Rome names the emperor Theodosius as divus.

This chapter rereads that inscription in light of the resilience of traditional Roman worship practices in the fourth century, including imperial cult practices. In doing so, it suggests a model for understanding how the same social and cultural mechanisms by which individuals and communities drew the attention and patronage of the imperial house, as in earlier periods, remained an important “transactional” mechanism for brokering social relations in the late antique world. This chapter may challenge scholars who see “the imperial cult” as a phenomenon inherently in tension with early Christianity or as one whose outward “pagan” trappings were thrown off with the legalization of Christianity.

Rome, circa 431 CE

Few inscriptions have merited their own monograph. CIL 6.1783 is privileged to count among this group. Discovered in Rome in 1849 in the Forum of Trajan, the inscription dates to 431 CE and preserves a letter from Flavius Theodosius II and Flavius Valentinian III to the Senate of Rome.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome
Conflict, Competition, and Coexistence in the Fourth Century
 , pp. 139 - 161
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amici, A. “Divus Constantinus: Le testimonianze epigrafiche,” Rivista storica dell'antichità 30 (2000): 187–216.Google Scholar
Amici, A. “Imperatori divi nella decorazione musiva della chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista.” Ravenna: Studi e Ricerche 7 (2000): 13–55.Google Scholar
Ando, C. Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley, 2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arce, J. “Imperatori divinizzati,” in Aurea Roma: Dalla città pagana alla città cristiana, eds. Ensoli, S. and Rocca, E. La (Roma, 2001), 244–8.Google Scholar
Balch, D. and Osiek, C., eds. Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (Louisville, 1997).Google Scholar
Balch, D. and Osiek, C.. Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (Grand Rapids, 2003).Google Scholar
Bardill, J. Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age (New York, 2012).Google Scholar
Bassignano, M. Il flaminato nelle province romane dell'Africa (Rome, 1974).Google Scholar
Bellah, R. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Cambridge, MA, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beurlier, E. Le culte impérial: Son histoire et son organisation depuis Auguste jusqu’à Justinien (Paris, 1891).Google Scholar
Bjørnebye, J. “‘Hic locus est felix, sanctus, piusque benignus’: The Cult of Mithras in Fourth-Century Rome.” PhD. diss., University of Bergen (Norway, 2007).
Boin, D. “A Hall for Hercules at Ostia and a Farewell to the Late Antique ‘Pagan Revival.’” AJA 114 (2010): 253–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boin, D. Ostia in Late Antiquity (New York, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boin, D. “Hellenistic ‘Judaism’ and the Social Origins of the ‘Pagan–Christian’ Debate,” JECS 22 (2014).Google Scholar
Boin, D. Coming Out Christian in the Roman World (New York, 2015).Google Scholar
Bonamente, G. “Apoteosi e imperatori cristiani,” in G. Bonamente and A. Nestori, eds., I cristiani e l'impero nel IV secolo (Macerata, 1988), 107–42.Google Scholar
Bonamente, G. “Dall'imperatore divinizzato all'imperatore santo,” in P. Brown and R. Lizzi Testa, eds., Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire: The Breaking of a Dialogue (4th–6th Century A.D.) (Zürich, 2011), 339–70.Google Scholar
Bowersock, G. “Greek Intellectuals and the Imperial Cult in the Second Century A.D.,” in Le culte des souverains dans l'empire romain: Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique (Geneva, 1973), 179–206.Google Scholar
Bowersock, G. Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Ann Arbor, 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowersock, G. and Meyer, B.. “The Imperial Cult: Perceptions and Persistence,” in Jewish and Christian Self-Definition 3: Self-Definition in the Graeco-Roman World (London, 1982), 171–82.Google Scholar
Brent, A. The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order: Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity before the Age of Cyprian (Boston, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodd, J. and Reed, J., eds. Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult (Atlanta, 2011).Google Scholar
Brown, P. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD (Princeton, 2012).Google Scholar
Cameron, A. The Last Pagans of Rome (New York, 2011).Google Scholar
Christie, N. From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy, AD 300–800 (Aldershot, 2006).Google Scholar
Claridge, A. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford, 2010).Google Scholar
Clauss, M. Kaiser und Gott: Herrscherkult im römischen Reich (Stuttgart, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, H. Description historique des monnaies frappés sous l'empire romain (Paris, 1861).Google Scholar
Conant, J. Staying Roman: Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700 (Cambridge, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deliyannis, D. Ravenna in Late Antiquity (New York, 2010).Google Scholar
Dossey, L. Peasant and Empire in Roman North Africa (Berkeley, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupuis, X. “Pontifes et augures dans le cités d'Afrique: modèle romain et spécificités locales,” in H. Inglebert, ed., Idéologies et valeurs civique dans le monde romain: Hommage à Claude Lepelley (Paris, 2002), 215–30.Google Scholar
Eck, W., Caballos, A., and Fernández, F.. Das senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre (Munich, 1996).Google Scholar
Fishwick, D. The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire (Leiden, 1987–2005).Google Scholar
Fishwick, D. “A Critical Assessment: On the Imperial Cult in Religions of Rome,” in Cult, Ritual, Divinity and Belief in the Roman World (Farnham, 2012), 129–74.Google Scholar
Friesen, S. Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruin (Oxford, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinsky, K. “The Cult of the Roman Emperor: Uniter or Divider?” in J. Brodd and J. Reed, eds., Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult (Atlanta, 2011), 1–22.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973).Google Scholar
Gordon, R. “The Roman Imperial Cult and the Question of Power,” in J. North and S. Price, eds., The Religious History of the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews and Christians (Oxford, 2011), 37–70.Google Scholar
Gradel, I. Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford, 2002).Google Scholar
Grégoire, H. and Orgels, P.. “Paganus: Études de sémantique et d'histoire,” in Mélanges Georges Smets (Brussels, 1952), 363–400.Google Scholar
Gwynn, D. “The ‘End’ of Roman Senatorial Paganism,” in M. Mulyran and L. Luvan, eds., The Archaeology of Late Antique “Paganism” (Leiden, 2011), 135–61.Google Scholar
Hänlein-Schäfer, H. Veneratio Augusti: eine Studie zu den Tempeln des ersten römischen Kaisers (Roma, 1985).Google Scholar
Hedrick, C. History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in Late Antiquity (Austin, 2000).Google Scholar
Himmelfarb, M. “Judaism and Hellenism in 2 Maccabees.” Poetics Today 19 (1998): 19–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, R. “The Emperor Cult and Christian Iconography,” in J. Brodd and J. Reed, eds., Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult (Atlanta, 2011), 153–71.Google Scholar
Kahlos, M. Debate and Dialogue: Christian and Pagan Cultures, c.360–430 (Aldershot, 2007).Google Scholar
Leone, A. The End of the Pagan City: Religion, Economy, and Urbanism in Late Antique North Africa (Oxford, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepelley, C. “Le lieu des valeurs communes: la cité terrain neutre entre païens et chrétiens dans l'Afrique romaine tardive,” in H. Inglebert, ed., Idéologies et valeurs civique dans le monde romain: Hommage à Claude Lepelley (Paris, 2002), 271–85.Google Scholar
Lincoln, B. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magyar, Z. “Imperial Cult and Christianity: How and to What Extent Were the Imperial Cult and Emperor Worship Thought to Preserve the Stability of the Roman World?” Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae 60 (2002): 385–95.Google Scholar
Manders, E. Coining Images of Power: Patterns in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, AD 193–284 (Leiden, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, M. Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar
McLaren, J. “Jews and the Imperial Cult: From Augustus to Domitian.” JSNT 27 (2005): 257–78.Google Scholar
McLaren, J. “Searching for Rome and the Imperial Cult in Galilee: Reassessing Galilee-Rome Relations,” in J. Brodd and J. Reed, eds., Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult (Atlanta, 2011), 111–36.Google Scholar
Meyer, E. “Das senatus consultum de Cn. Pisone patre by Werner Eck, Antonio Caballos, and Fernando Fernández.” Classical Journal 93 (1998): 315–24.Google Scholar
Meyers, E., and Chancey, M.. Alexander to Constantine: Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (New Haven, 2012).Google Scholar
Millar, F. “The Imperial Cult and the Persecutions,” in Le culte des souverains dans l'empire romain: Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique (Geneva, 1973), 143–65.Google Scholar
Moss, C. Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions (Yale, 2012).Google Scholar
Nixon, C. and Rodgers, B.. In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini (Berkeley, 1994).Google Scholar
Nongbri, B. Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept (Yale, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noreña, C. Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power (Cambridge, 2011).Google Scholar
Orlandi, S. “Gli ultimi sacerdoti pagani di Roma: analisi della documentazione epigrafica,” in Brown, P. and Testa, R. Lizzi, eds., Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire: The Breaking of a Dialogue (4th–6th Century A.D.) (Zürich, 2011): 425–66.Google Scholar
Panagiotis, P. I., Chankowski, A., and Lorber, C., eds. More than Men, Less than Gods: Studies on Royal Cult and Imperial Worship, Proceedings of the International Colloquium Organized by the Belgian School at Athens, November 1–2, 2007 (Leuven, 2011).Google Scholar
Perri, B. Il “senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus,” in Livio e nell'epigrafe di Tiriolo (Soveria Mannelli, 2005).Google Scholar
Presicce, C. “Costantino come Giove: Proposta di rconstruzione grafica del colosso acrolitico dalla Basilica Costantiniana.” BullCom 107 (2006): 127–61.Google Scholar
Price, S. Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1984).Google Scholar
Salzman, M. “‘Superstitio’ in the Codex Theodosianus and the Persecution of Pagans.” Vigiliae Christianae 41 (1987): 172–88.Google Scholar
Salzman, M. On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1990).Google Scholar
Sandwell, I. “Outlawing ‘Magic’ or Outlawing ‘Religion’? Libanius and the Theodosian Code as Evidence for Legislation against Pagan Practices,” in W. Harris, ed., The Spread of Christianity in the First Four Centuries: Essays in Explanation (Leiden, 2005), 87–123.Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton, 2001).Google Scholar
Severy, B. Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (London, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sivan, H. Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress (New York, 2011).Google Scholar
Trombley, F. “The Imperial Cult in Late Roman Religion (ca. AD 244–395): Observations on the Epigraphy,” in Spätantiker Staat und religiöser Konflikt: Imperiale und lokale Verwaltung und die Gewalt gegen Heiligtümer (Berlin, 2011), 19–54.Google Scholar
Turcan, R. “Le culte impérial au IIIe siècle.” ANRW 2.16.2 (1978): 996–1084.Google Scholar
Van Dam, R. The Roman Revolution of Constantine (Cambridge, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Nuffelen, P. “Zur Rezeption des Kaiserkultes in der Spätantike.” Ancient Society 32 (2002): 263–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Nuffelen, P. “Eusebius of Caesarea and the Concept of Paganism,” in M. Mulyran and L. Luvan, eds., The Archaeology of Late Antique “Paganism” (Leiden, 2011), 89–110.Google Scholar
White, L. From Jesus to Christianity (San Francisco, 2004).Google Scholar
White, L. “Capitalizing on the Imperial Cult: Some Jewish Perspectives,” in J. Brodd and J. Reed, eds., Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult (Atlanta, 2011): 173–214.Google Scholar
Witschel, C. and Alföldi, G.. Epigraphic Databank Heidelberg. www.epigraphische-datenbank-heidelberg.de. October 25, 2012.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×