| Roman State Religion
Worship of the Roman emperor as a deity began when Julius Cæsar allowed the raising of a statue of himself in 44 BC, inscribed, Deo Invicto Latin for "to the unconquered god". While his son, Augustus, never claimed divinity, he was often referred to as divi filius, “son of a god.” During his lifetime, Augustus promoted ideals which strengthened society — morality, religious devotion and family-building, acting in the traditional role of priest-king to reinforce the pax romana. He was immediately deified by the Senate upon his death, and subsequent emperors took full advantage of emperor worship to consolidate their own position. Roman citizens and the military were expected to at least give lip service to the cult, thus demonstrating their absolute loyalty to the emperor. By the time of Nero, the sun god Sol was increasing in popularity, as was the similar cult of Mithras. Roman propaganda easily built an identification of the emperor with the sun god. The imperial cult of Sol Invictus and the followers of Mithras each celebrated the birth of the god on the winter solstice, December 25 on the calendar of the time. Of course, this date was appropriated later as the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The practice of using state religion as a unifying political force reached its apotheosis when Constantine recognized the growing force of Christianity and became involved with disputes between bishops (“When Jesus Became God,” the story of the Arian heresy makes for entertaining reading, including much cloak and dagger, murder and intrigue). He took it upon himself to convene bishops to settle issues dividing the young church, the most famous of these meetings being the First Council of Nicea, in 325 CE, at which the divinity of Jesus was established by vote of the members present. The fallacy that Constantine was a Christian emperor persists to this day. The reality was that Constantine understood the complexities of any public religious choice he might make. A Christian emperor ran the risk of alienating the many powerful pagan tribes (which eventually destroyed the empire). Constantine refused conversion throughout his life, and was baptised on his deathbed, perhaps not even conscious or able to speak his own intentions about the matter. The rest is history, the history of western civilization as driven and dominated by the “official” religion of the Holy Roman Empire. |
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