The life and work of St. Paul

718 APPENDIX.
entreaties of the people of Pergamop and Nicomedia, but had expressly forbidden the
Romans to take any part in this new cult. The base example spread rapidly in the
provinces, and though it is probable that in secret Augustus was not displeased at so
astonishing a proof of his own power, he affected to smile at it aa a man of the world. '
In the frenzy of flattery, which is the disease of despotisms, it was but too likely that
this deification of a living man would creep from the provinces into Italy, and, in spite
of the assertion of Dion Cassius, that in Italy no one ventured to worship Augustus, it is
certain from the Corpus Inscriptionum that at his death there had sprung up, either by
his permission or without his interference, priests of Augustus at Pompeii, flamens at
Praeneste, an Augusteum at Pisa, and a Caesareum at Puteoli ; and this though it was
due far more to the religious degradation of the age than to the phrenetic pride of the
autocrat was made a source of bitter blame against him when he was dead. Even at
Rome, 2 though no temple rose to him till he was dead, yet we need go no further than
the poetry of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, 3 to show that he was commonly addressed as a
deity (numen) and a god, and that sacrifices were offered either to him or in his name ;
and, as appears from inscriptions, even at Rome, if they did not worship him directly,
they did so indirectly, by rearing altars to his virtues and his laws, and by inserting his
name among those of ancient deities in the songs of the Arval brothers. After his death
the worship was extended without limit. He was known universally as the Divine
Augustus, a phrase which became as common as feu le roi. 4
Tiberius, for political reasons, patronised, and even to a certain extent enforced, thia
new worship, but he also discouraged the extravagance which endeavoured to extend
divine honours to his living self, and by doing so he at once gratified his undisguised
cynicism and showed his strong good sense. But the tendency to apotheosis was in his
time firmly established. He was, as a matter of course, deified after his death, and his
panegyrist, Velleius Paterculus, tells us a story that when he was in the midst of a
campaign among the Chauci, a barbarian chief obtained permission to see him, and after
crossing the river in order to do so, gazed at him for a long time in silence, and
5
exclaiming that he had now seen the gods, asked to touch his hand, and then pushed
off his boat towards the opposite shore, gazing to the last on the living deity. So rapidly
did the disease of adulation grow that, according to Suetonius, Domitian actually used
to begin his letters with the words "Dominus et Deus noster sic fieri "
orders our Lord and 6
God, Domitian 1
jubet" "Thus
EXCURSUS XIII. (p. 185).
BURDENS LAID ON PBOSELYTES.
WE are told in the Talmud that if a Gentile wished to become a proselyte he was asked
his reasons for the wish, and informed that Israel is now afflicted, persecuted, and cast
down with all kinds of sufferings. If he replies that he knows it, and is not worthy to
share in their sufferings, he is admitted, but is told enough of the "light" and the
i Qidntil Instt. Orat.vL 3, 77.
Tac. Ann. L 10, " Nihil deorum honoribus relictum, cum so templis et efflgie numinum per
flat/lines et sacerdotes coli vellet;" Aurel. Viet de Coesctr. 1, "Huicque, uti Deo, Romae provinciisque
omnibus, per urbes celeberrimas vivo mortuoque tenipla sacerdotes et collegia sacravere."
This seems, however, to be a positive mistake, though Pliny, Nat. Hist. xii. 19, mentions a temple
which Livia erected to him after his death (Divo) on the Palatine. Suetonius, a very high authority
on such a subject, says that he most obstinately refused this honour at Rome when it was pressed
upon him (Aug. 52, " In urbe quidem pertinacissime abstinuit hoc honore ").
See Bentley's note on Hor. Epp. II. i. 10 ; Virg. Eccl. i. 7 ; Georg. i. 42 ; Hor. Od. 1. 2, ; ilL
I, 1 ; iv. 5, 16 ; Ov. Trist. ii. 8, 9 ; iv. 9, 111. (Boissier, L 153.)
* Tac. Ann. 1, 73, " Caelum decretum."
Veil Patera U. 107, " Quos ante audiebam hodie vtdj deos." .fiuet. Domtt. 18.