'This day has given the earth an entirely new aspect. . . . Rightl}' does he judge who recognises in this birthday the beginning of lite and of all the powers of life, now is the time ended when men pitied themselves for being- born. . . . All- ruling Providence has filled this man with such gifts for the salvation of the world as designate him the Saviour for us and for the coming generations, of wars will he make an end, and establish all things worthily. By his appearing are the hopes of our forefathers fulfilled. . . . The birthday of God has brought to the world glad tidings. . . . From his birthday a new era begins.'
(For whole inscription see Mitteilungen Inst. Athen, xxiv. [1889] 275 If.)
Nor was it only in the Orient that Caesar ap- peared a being worthy of divine honour. The establishment of his power meant the restoration of tranquillity and security to Italy after a reign of terror. The last two centuries of the Republic were marked by a constant succession of revolu- tions, each of which drenched Rome with Roman blood, and none of Avhich coxild produce a just or stable government. The patience with which the tyrannies and cruelties of the bad Emperors were endured is eloquent testimony to the lasting im- pression of horror which the nightmare of the expiring Republic had produced. And tiie early years of the Empire seemed full of promise. A new era seemed begun in Italy no less tlian in the East. Vergil wrote his well-known ' Messianic ' fourth Eclogue predicting the birtli of a son who should ' put an end to the age of iron, and cause
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the- age of gold to arise for the whole world,' the reference being, according to the most probable view, to a son of Augustus whose birth was ex- pected A.D. 40. The Senate decreed that the birth- place of Augustus was a holy place (Suet. Ccesar Octav. Aug. o). Stories of portents and miracles at his birth grew with the years. The new name Augustus borne by Octavian and his successors connoted from the first something of superhuman dignity. Thus Rome was prepared for the deifica- tion of the reigning Ca?sar ; in fact, it was reluctance on the part of Augustus to accept it tliat somewhat retarded the process. He limited the worship of Romans to the dead Julius Caesar who had received apotheosis in 42 B.C. under the title Divus. As early as a.d. 14, however, Augustus accepted dei- fication from Beneventum.
Thus we see that deification was an honour spontaneously offered to Caesar by grateful, enthusi- astic, and devoted subjects. What was the attitude of the Roman Government towards it ? Not too much weight is to be laid on the rehictance with which Augustus accepted the dignity. Reluctance in accepting offices and honours offered was his settled policy. On the other hand, it may be that the practical mind of a Roman did honestly feel that there was something embarrassing, ludicrous, or even impious in his own deification. But the same practical mind, with its genius for govern- ment, soon perceived that in Ca'sar-worship the Empire would secure what it lacked — a bond of unity and a powerful safeguard of loyalty. In the East especially this was eminently desirable and conspicuously lacking. We must simply refer the reader to Ramsay's demonstration {op. cit. pp. 115, 127) of the place filled by Caesar-worship as the great bond of Empire in that region. It was because of this special need of the Eastern pro- vinces that Augustus accepted deification from them, while ostensibly refusing it from Italy. But the principle once adopted as part of Roman state- craft could not be limited spatially as matter of practice, still less as matter of theory. Caesar could not be a god in one province if he were mere man in another. Hence Caesar-worship rapidly became organized and highly developed as the State-religion of the Empire ; the Caesars so far conquered their reluctance to pose as gods that Domitian proudly designated himself as Dominies et Deus, 'Lord and God' (Suet., Domitian, 13). Caesar- worship was enforced by the whole might of the State ; refusal to worship the Emperor was high treason. The Jews alone were exempt. For details as to the organization of the new re- ligion, its priesthood, the pomp of its ritual, etc., we must refer the reader to Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire ; and Lightfoot, Apostol. Fathers, pt. ii. : ' Ignatius and Polycarp.'
2. Caesarism and paganism. — It is necessary to make a few remarks on the relation of the new religion to the old paganism, because in sermons and other popular treatments of the subject the facts are often mis-stated. In no sense was the worship of Caesar either enforced or adopted as a substitute for other religions. It did not displace or quarrel with any of them. The old gods did not leave the stage to make room for Caesar. Contrary to what is often asserted, the old religions were very far from having lost their power. The satirical strictures of Juvenal and Martial on Roman city-society are no proof that the old Roman religion was powerless. The fact that several of the Emperors acted munificently towards the temples of the old gods shows two things — that the old religion was still in force and far from negligible, and that the new religion was not at all a rival to it (cf. S. Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, London, 1904, bk. iv. ch. 3).