Roman imperial cult

Roman imperial cult comprised religious rites and honors directed toward emperors and their families. It included posthumous deification and, in some settings, divine honors for living rulers.

Imperial cult in the Roman provinces: Provincial rites and institutions that honored Roman emperors and their families. Provincial assemblies and local communities organized worship in forms adapted to regional traditions.
Augustus: The first Roman emperor, who ruled from 27 BCE to 14 CE. His settlement shaped how living rulers could receive honors while Rome avoided calling him a god.
Livia: Wife of Augustus and a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian imperial family, later deified as Diva Augusta. Her posthumous honors extended imperial worship beyond emperors to women of the ruling house.
Roman citizenship: A legal status granting rights and obligations within the Roman state. Imperial rites offered provincial communities a public language for expressing belonging to Roman rule.
Imperial cult in the Roman Republic: Honors and religious practices directed toward Roman leaders before the establishment of the principate. Republican precedents illuminate both the roots of imperial honors and Roman suspicion of personal monarchy.
Imperial cult in Roman Asia: The especially prominent emperor-honoring institutions and rites of the Roman province of Asia. Cities competed for temples and titles that publicly marked their loyalty to the emperors.
Julius Caesar: Roman general and statesman whose posthumous deification established a precedent for imperial apotheosis. His deification helped provide the model for honoring emperors as gods after death.
Vespasian: Roman emperor from 69 to 79 CE and founder of the Flavian dynasty. His deification after death reinforced the succession of divine honors across imperial dynasties.
Imperial cult in Roman Britain: Religious institutions and practices honoring Roman emperors in the province of Britain. Its temples and civic rites show how provincial imperial worship worked at the empire’s northwestern edge.
Greek ruler cult: Religious honors for rulers in Greek communities, especially during the Hellenistic period. Its civic traditions resemble provincial imperial worship but developed in different political settings.

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