The eschatological portent of Nero-redivivus, however, was bound up with the pressing claim of the Roman emperors to be worshipped as divine, and it was the latter peril which formed at once the occasion and the theme of John’s Apocalypse.
§ 6. The Imperial Cultus.—Over two centuries earlier the great exemplar of apocalyptic literature had been issued in order to nerve the faithful who were persecuted for refusing to admit the pre- sumptuous divine claims of Antiochus Epiphanes. The Apocalypse of John is a latter-day pamphlet thrown up by a similar crisis. The prophet believed that the old conflict had now revived in its final form; Daniel’s predictions were on the way to be fulfilled at last in an age when the Roman emperor insisted upon being worshipped as the august lord and god of men!
Since the days of Augustus, the emperor had been viewed as the guardian and genius of the empire, responsible for its welfare and consequently worthy of its veneration. It was a convenient method of concentrating and expressing loyalty, to acknowledge him as entitled to the prestige of a certain sanctity, even during his life- time. There were no monarchical traditions available to strengthen the sense of imperial patriotism, and it was a politic step of the emperor {ο permit a certain adoration to gather round his official figure, an adoration which was generally the outcome of gratitude to the dead and deference to the living ruler for his εὐεργεσίαι (cf. Rushforth’s Latin Historical Inscriptions, pp. 46 f., and A. J. H. Greenidge’s Roman Public Life, pp. 440, 444, with Gwatkin’s article in Hasting’s D.B., iv., pp. 299-295). The imperial cultus in this aspect was instinctive rather than deliberate, developing out of certain germs within the ancient mind, such as the blend of religion and patriotism among the Persians, the custom of hero-worship ! (ἀφηρωίξαι, especially prevalent in the lonian islands, e.g., at Thera, cf. CIG, 2467—2473, Usener’s Gotternamen, 1896, pp. 249-250), and the worship of the Ptolemies which shocked the pious Plutarch. Its primary aim was to foster patriotism by presenting a symbol of
1 For the Latin germs of Caesar-worship, prior to Augustus, see Mr. E. Fiddes in Historical Essays (Manchester), 1902, pp. 1-16. Many heroes were πάρεδροι θεοί, associated with specific gods in a cult as σύνναοι or σύνθρονοι of the gods (cf. E. Kornemann’s essay ‘‘ Zur Gesch. der antiken Herrscherkulte” in Beitrdge zur alten Gesch., i. 51 f.); ¢.g., the later Attalidae at Pergamum had statues in the temple dedicated to them as divine (pp. 85 f.). The shrinking of the Christian conscience from this deification or apotheosis reveals the significance of the divine honours ‘paid to Jesus in the Apocalypse. The position assigned him by Christian faith was no result of apotheosis.