Cult of the Roman Emperor

This was a Greek Tradition introduced by Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE) to mark a break from the traditional values of the Roman Republic.
The Emperor would be voted as a God, a State Divinity, after his death.

The Cult of the Ruler was a Greek tradition, imported to the western Roman Empire.
‘Divus’: After he died, Emperor would be voted a Divus (Divinity) by the Roman Senate, and joined the other State Divinities.
‘Apotheosis’: This was the Decree by the Roman Senate where the Emperor was considered to have risen to Heaven and recognised to have become a God. This formed part of the Worship of the Imperial Cult of the Roman Emperor.
The Emperors were then positioned within the State Religion and Loyalty sworn to the Emperor was part of Religious practice.
However, the Roman Senate could reverse the ‘Apotheosis’ and condemn the Emperor with a Damnatio Memoriae at a later date.
The rise of Christianity, which didn’t accept the State Gods nor therefore, the Emperor as Divine, posed a threat to the Roman State when soldiers refused to take the Oath of Loyalty.
Eventually this was resolved when the Emperors themselves became Christian. In 313 CE Constantine I made the worship of Christianity legal.

An unpopular Emperor was not made a God, but instead condemned by the Roman Senate.
The ‘Damnatio Memoriae’ was the Decree where the Emperor’s name was ordered to be erased from inscriptions on Monuments.
This permitted the next Emperor, to remain popular by disassociating himself with his unworthy predecessor.
Damnatio Memoriae was used by Vespasian against Nero in 68 CE, and by the Roman Senate against Commodus in 192 CE, although he was later deified by Septimius Severus.

Every City in each Province had an Altar in the city centre dedicated to the Emperor either in a specially built Temple or within an existing Temple.
Provincial Assemblies had Festivals celebrating the Imperial Cult often accompanied by Games, with the effect of combining Provincial Government with loyalty to the Emperor and the City of Rome.
The Provincial Elite were made part of the Provincial Cursus Honorum (Roman Civil Service) swearing oaths of loyalty to the Emperor each year.
A good example is the Council of the Three Gauls at Lugdunum (Lyon), Capital of Gallia Lugdunensis.
Another is the Temple of Claudius in Colchester, Britannia.

Every Roman Legion held an image of the Roman Emperor, carried in front of the Legion by the Imaginifer, along with the Eagle of the Legion.
Each year, the legionaries swore an oath of allegiance to the Emperor at a dedicated altar in the fort. The Roman Fort at Maryport in the Lake District, England, has a collection of military Altars used for this purpose.

Introduced by Augustus, the National Anthem of Ancient Rome was called the Carmen saeculare meaning ‘Secular Hymn’.
It was a celebration of the greatness of Rome and of the Emperor, and was a prayer to the Gods that Rome would remain an eternal city.