Before Jerusalem Fell - EntreWave

270 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
Now, one of these ambassadors from the people of Alexandria was
Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against the Jews; and, among
other things that he said, he charged them with neglecting the honours
that belonged to Caesar; for that while all who were subject to the
Roman empire built altars and temples to Caius, and in other regards
universally received him as they received the gods, these Jews alone
thought it a dishonourable thing for them to erect statues in honour
of him, as well as to swear by his name. 45
His notorious plan to have his image erected in the Temple at
Jerusalem and the providential prevention of it is well-known, thanks
to Josephus.%
Claudius
Suetonius and Tacitus both record the up and down position of
Claudius as a god: he was voted a god upon his death only to have
his enrollment among the gods annulled by Nero but later restored
by Vespasian.47 Even during his life a temple was erected to him at
Colchester.48
Clearly then, the emperor cult had a prominent role in the
political and social life of the Roman empire from at least the times
of Augustus – well before Domitian, and even before Nero.49 In fact,
“the student of the struggle of contending religions in the early
Roman Empire cannot neglect the history of the State cult, even if
he feels disposed to slight it as no true example of religion. The seer
of Patmos did not so misapprehend its force.”5° Even late date
advocates note that “the blasphemous title of dizw.s, assumed by the
emperors since Octavian (Augustus = seh-dm) as a semi-sacred title,
implied superhuman claims that shocked the pious feelings of Jews
and Christians alike. So did t9sog and 6EOti vi6g that, as the inscriptions
prove, were freely applied to the emperors, from Augustus
45, Antiquities 18:8:1. See also Eusebius, Ecdaia.sttil Hirtoty 2:5-6.
46. Antiquities 18:82.
47. Suetonius, Claudius 45; Ntm 9; 33; Tacitus, Annals 12:69.
48. Workman, Persecution, p. 40.
49. Helpful in pointing out the existence of emperor worship and the role of emperors
in various cults during the reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero is E. Mary Smallwood,
cd., Documents Illu.stratmg ttu Priru-i>ates of Gaius Claaduis amd Nero (Cambridge: University
Press, 1967), entries #124-163, pp. 48-53.
50. B. W. Henderson, 77u Stu@ ofbnan Hirtog+ 2nd ed. (London: Duckworth, 1921),
p. 102.