Honours and worship: Emperors, imperial cults and associations at Ephesus (first to third centuries C.E.)

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 319-334

  Harland, Philip A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84997995445     PISSN: 00084298     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/000842989602500306     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Generally speaking, there are four main types of associations attested in cities such as Ephesus: associations based on membership drawn either from a common occupation (guilds), from persons involved in common cultic interests, from persons of a common ethnic or geographic origin (e.g., Romans, Jews) or from networks associated with a particular household. However, no hard-and-fast distinctions can be made between these types, which sometimes overlapped; all such groups served interconnected social, religious/cultic, funerary and other purposes for their members. For a recent overview of associations and their activities see N. R. E. Fisher, “Greek Associations, Symposia, and Clubs,” in M. Grant and R. Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988), Vol. 2, p. 1167–97
2. also by Fisher in the same volume, “Roman Associations, Dinner Parties, and Clubs,” p. 1199–1225.
3. A. D. Nock, “Religious Developments from the Close of the Republic to the Death of Nero,” The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935), Vol. 10, p. 481–503
4. “The Roman Army and the Roman Religious Year,” in Z. Stewart, ed., Arthur Darby Nock: Essays on Religion and the Ancient World (Oxford: Clarendon Press), Vol. 2, p. 778–81
5. M. P. Nilsson, Greek Piety (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948), p. 177–78
6. Geschichte der griechischen Religion (München: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1961), Vol. 2, p. 384–94
7. K. Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte (München: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1960), p. 294–326, esp. p. 308
8. R. Mellor, The Worship of the Goddess Roma in the Greek World (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975), esp. p. 20–22, 21 n. 50
9. G. W. Bowersock, Augustus and the Greek World (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), p. 112–21
10. D. Ladage, “Sozial Aspekte des Kaiserkultes,” in W. Eck, H. Galsterer and H. Wolff, eds., Studien zur antiken. Sozialgeschichte: Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff (Köln and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1980), p. 377–88
11. Eleanor G. Huzar, “Emperor Worship in Julio-Claudian Egypt,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, ii. 18.5 (1995): 3092–3142, esp. p. 3102, 3104, 3110–11.
12. For the former quotation see Nilsson, Greek Piety, p. 178
13. for the latter see Nilsson, Geschichte, Vol. 2, p. 385 (translation mine).
14. Cf. Bowersock, Augustus, p. 112–13, 117.
15. F. Poland, Geschichte des griechischen Vereinswesens (Leipzig: Zentral-Antiquariat der deutschen demokratischen Republik, 1967 [1909]), p. 234, cf. p. 234–35, 532 (translation mine).
16. E. Will, “Autour du culte des souverains (à propos de deux livres récents),” Revue de philologie de littérature et d'histoire anciennes, 3rd series, 34 (1960): 76–85, esp. p. 79
17. H. W. Pleket, “An Aspect of the Emperor Cult: Imperial Mysteries,” Harvard Theological Review, 58 (1965): 331–47
18. F. Millar, “The Imperial Cult and the Persecutions,” in Le culte des souverains dans l'empire romain (Geneva: Olivier Reverdin, 1973), p. 145–75, esp. p. 146–48, 163–64; and
19. R. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1986), p. 39–41.
20. S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)
21. S. J. Friesen, Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993)
22. “The Cult of the Roman Emperors in Ephesos: Temple Wardens, City Titles, and the Interpretation of the Revelation of John,” in H. Koester, ed., Ephesos: Metropolis of Asia: An Interdisciplinary Approach to its Archaeology, Religion, and Culture (Valley Forge: Trinity Press, 1995), p. 229–50
23. Stephen Mitchell, Anatolia: Land, Men, and Gods in Asia Minor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), Vol. 1, p. 100–17.
24. For further discussion and criticism of how this ontological issue has affected past studies of imperial cults see Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 146–52
25. Both Price (Rituals, chap. 8, esp. p. 213, 233) and, following him
26. Mitchell (Anatolia, p. 117) continue to engage the issue of ontology in arguing that the emperors would have been placed somewhere between human and the divine (see below for further criticism of this position).
27. Cf. Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 147
28. Millar, “Imperial Cult,” esp. p. 163–64
29. J. R. Fears, “Ruler Worship,” in M. Grant and R. Kitzinger, eds., Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988), Vol. 2, p. 1011: “cult and ritual [connected with ruler worship] give no indication that the figure so worshipped was regarded as in any way distinct from what a modern commentator might deign to consider ‘real gods.’”
30. Cf. Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 153.
31. R. Mellor is quite representative of these scholars in his assertion that worship of the goddess Roma and emperors lacked “any religious dimension”; but he seems alone in admitting, in a small footnote, that he uses “religious” in “its modern sense,” i.e., with respect to the experiences and feelings of the individual (Goddess Roma, p. 21 n. 50).
32. Huzar, “Emperor Worship,” p. 3102, 3104, 3108, 3110.
33. Cf. A.-J. Festugière, Personal Religion among the Greeks (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1960), esp. chaps. 1–2.
34. E. R. Dodds defines true religion in a “Jamesian sense” as relating to the feelings and “personal experience of individuals” (Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965], esp. p. 2–3).
35. For another criticism of such a limited definition of religiosity see Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, p. 40.
36. Cf. Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass, book 11.
37. Cf. W. Burkert, Greek Religion, translated by J. Raffan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 272–75.
38. Cf. Burkert, Greek Religion, p. 275: From a Christian standpoint one is “inclined to dismiss a piety without faith, love, and hope as extrinsic and superficial, not attaining the essence of religion. Yet it would be mistaken to return a verdict of not genuine just because Greek religion is turned to the outward realities.”
39. The term Sebastos or Sebastoi (pl.), the Greek equivalent for the Latin augustus, was frequently employed in Ephesus and Asia Minor in reference to the emperors and the imperial family, the revered ones, particularly in connection with imperial cults. I preserve the use of this terminology to draw attention to the Greek character of imperial cults as practised in Asia Minor (see Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 2–3, for further discussion).
40. Price does mention or briefly discuss specific associations in connection with the themes he covers (cf. Price, Rituals, p. 50 n. 122, 85, 88, 90, 105, 118, 190–91).
41. For a general introduction to epigraphy and inscriptions see F. Millar, “Epigraphy,” in M. Crawford, ed., Sources for Ancient History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 80–136, and
42. B. F. Cook, Greek Inscriptions (London: British Museum Publications, 1987).
43. Cf. R. MacMullen, “The Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire,” American Journal of Philology, 103 (1982): 233–46.
44. Epigraphical abbreviations follow those outlined as a new standard in G. H. R. Horsley and John A. L. Lee, “A Preliminary Checklist of Abbreviations of Greek Epigraphic Volumes,” Epigraphica, 56 (1994): 129–69. IEph 22, 213, 215, 275, 293, 295, 425, 586, 719, 859a, 1213, 1503, 1506, 1600, 2037, 2061–63, 3329, 3817, 4337.
45. For further discussion of the social-economic status of membership in this association see S. M. Baugh, “Paul and Ephesus: The Apostle among his Contemporaries,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1990, p. 67–70, 222–25
46. G. H. R. Horsley, “The Inscriptions of Ephesos and the New Testament,” Novum Testammtum, 34 (1992): 127–30.
47. For further discussion see J. Keil, “Zur Geschichte der Hymnoden in der Provinz Asia,” Jahreshefte des österreichischen archäologischen Instituts, 11 (1908) Beiblatt: 101–10
48. Poland, Geschichte, p. 46–49
49. Price, Rituals, p. 85, 88, 90, 105, 118.
50. Similar connections between associations and high priests are attested in other cities in the province of Asia: cf. ISmyrna 639 (ii c.e.)
51. IGR iv 907 (Cibyra; c. 114–120 c.e.)
52. ILydiaKP i 42 (Philadelphia; ii c.e.)
53. ILydiaKP ii 74 (Thyatira; i c.e.).
54. The first official provincial imperial cult temple in Ephesus was introduced under Domitian (see Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 29–49).
55. D. Knibbe and B. Iplikcioglu, Jahreshefte des österreichischen archäologischen Instituts, 55 (1984) Hauptblatt: 130–31
56. cf. IEph 22.40–45.
57. On the Dionysiac Artists see A. Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), p. 279–321
58. for the Artists in Asia Minor see D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor to the End of the Third Century after Christ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), Vols. 1–2, p. 617–19, 899–900, 940–41, 1477–78.
59. On athletic associations see H. W. Pleket, “Some Aspects of the History of Athletic Guilds,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 10 (1973): 197–227.
60. such thing as extra-local connections among associations is in need of revision. See W. A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983), p. 77–80, esp. p. 80
61. R. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 34–35.
62. For an excellent discussion of associations of performers or athletes and their diplomatic relations with emperors, involving embassies and correspondence, see F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (London: Duckworth, 1977), p. 456–63.
63. Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 149.
64. Here he argues against Price, who, though opposing the stark distinction made by scholars in the past, nonetheless continues to emphasize some distinction with regard to sacrifice (Rituals, esp. chap. 8).
65. See Friesen (p. 147–49) for a convincing critique of this aspect of Price's otherwise very useful study.
66. For further examples from Asia Minor where an emperor or members of the imperial family were identified with particular deities see Magie, Roman Rule, Vol. 1, p. 471 (Augustus as Zeus and as Apollo), 512 (Gaius' sister as Aphrodite), 544 (Claudius as Zeus) and 618–19 (Hadrian as Zeus).
67. There is probably a connection between this group and the Demetriasts who wrote to the proconsul in 89–90 c.e. requesting reacknowledgment of the performance of their mysteries to both Demeter Karpophoros and to the Sebastoi (IEph 213; see below).
68. See J.S. Kloppenborg, “Philadelphia, Theodidaktos, and the Dioscuri: Rhetorical Engagement in 1 Thessalonians 4.9–12,” New Testament Studies, 39 (1993): 265–89, esp. p. 281–89.
69. On the Dioscuri generally see Burkert, Greek Religion, p. 212–13.
70. See Hicks, IBM iii 600.
71. See also IEph 293, where another group of mystai refer to Commodus as “new Dionysos” (cf. ISardBR 13, 14).
72. It was customary to have a meal using the remains from the sacrifice in the Greek part of the Roman empire (Fox, Pagans and Christians, p. 79–81).
73. The text has been re-edited since the completion of IEph. For the updated text see H. Engelmann, “Ephesische Inschriften,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 84 (1990): 89–94.
74. See Price, Rituals, p. 207–33. Price asserts that “language sometimes assimilated the emperor to a god, but ritual held back” (p. 213)
75. which is part of his contention that “the emperor stood at the focal point between human and divine” (p. 233). Price's other suggestion that when imperial images appeared in temples of other gods they were always subordinate is also somewhat misleading since even gods did not share fully in the temples of other gods. Hence, both of Price's reasons for suggesting that the emperors were not perceived as divine but somewhere between human and divine are unconvincing. See the similar criticisms of Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 73–75.
76. Mitchell (Anatolia, p. 117) also readily accepts this aspect of Price's thesis.
77. Friesen, Twice Neokoros, p. 149, 146–53.
78. SEG vi 59
79. W. H. Buckler and J. Keil, “Two Resolutions of the Dionysiac Artists from Angora,” Journal of Roman Studies, 16 (1926): 245–52.
80. Cf. Pleket, “Imperial Mysteries,” p. 336–37.
81. Nilsson, “Royal Mysteries in Egypt,” Opuscula Selecta (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1960), Vol. 3, p. 326–28
82. Nilsson, “Kleinasiatische Pseudo-Mysterien,” Bulgarska akademiia na naukite, sofia arkheologicheski institut, 16 (1959): 17–20
83. Nilsson, Geschichte, Vol. 2, 370–71
84. Nock, “Synnaos Theos,” in Arthur Darby Nock: Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, p. 247–48. Nock briefly mentions IEph 213 (see below) and 1506 (discussed above) before lightly disregarding, without argument, the possibility of actual mysteries connected with the emperors as gods.
85. See Pleket, “Imperial Mysteries,” for further discussion and criticism of Nilsson's views.
86. Translation mine. Cf. NewDocs iv 22.
87. Also see the brief but helpful discussion of the Demetriasts at Ephesus by R. E. Oster, “Ephesus as a Religious Center under the Princi-pate, i. Paganism before Constantine,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, ii.18.3 (1990): 1671–73.
88. Cf. Oster, “Religious Center,” p. 1671–73.
89. IGR iv 643; re-edited by W. M. Ramsay, The Social Basis of Roman Power in Asia Minor (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1967), p. 33.
90. For further discussion of this man and his family see Ramsay, Social Basis, p. 33–35
91. R. A. Kearsley, “A Leading Family of Cibyra and Some Asiarchs of the First Century,” Anatolian Studies, 38 (1988): 43–46.
92. Inscriptions where the position of sebastophant is mentioned include: IGR iii 22 (Cius, Bithynia-Pontus); 63, 69 (Cierus Prusias, Bithynia-Pontus); 162, 173, 194, 204 (Ancyra, Galatia); 225 (Sivri-Hissar, Galatia); 232 (Pessinus, Galatia); IGR iv 521 (Dorylaeum, Asia); and 1410 (Smyrna, Asia).
93. Pieket, “Imperial Mysteries,” p. 338–41.
94. Pieket does not mention the former examples from Ephesus. In a similar vein, there is also mention of a sebastologos in a Milesian inscription, who most likely delivered a eulogy on the Sebastoi (see L. Robert, “Le culte de Caligula à Milet et la province d'Asie,” in Hellenica: Recueil d'épigraphie de numismatique et d'antiquités grecques [Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1949], Vol. 7, p. 206–8).
95. Pleket, “Imperial Mysteries,” p. 341–46.
96. See Nilsson, Geschichte, Vol. 2, p. 370–71
97. Nilsson, “Kleinasiatische Pseudo-Mysterien.”
98. Pleket, “Imperial Mysteries,” p. 346
99. cf. Price, Rituals, p. 191.
100. Nilsson, Geschichte, Vol. 2, p. 370 (translation mine)
101. cf. Nilsson, “Kleinasiatische Pseudo-Mysterien,” p. 17–20. He is correct to note, however, that the term “mysteries” came to be used in a far less limited sense in the Roman period than in earlier times.
102. R. Meiggs discusses the prominence of imperial cults in guilds at Ostia, for example (Roman Ostia [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960], esp. p. 325–27).
103. F. M. Ausbüttel notes the imprint of imperial cults on associations in the western provinces (Untersuchungen zu den Vereinen im Westen des römischen Reiches [Kallmünz: Verlag Michael Lassleben, 1982], p. 54–55).
104. There is considerable evidence from Egypt for the importance of rulers and emperors in the social and religious life of associations there (cf. P.Lond. 2710; M. San Nicolo, Ägyptisches Vereinswesen zur Zeit der Ptolemäer und Römer [Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1972 (1912)], Vol. 1, p. 26–29, 46–61).