one of them, the down-to-earth, no-nonsense ex-military
commander Vespasian, was highly scornful of this deification
rubbish. And when he became aware that his own death was
imminent, he’s reported to have brushed the thought of it aside
with the wonderfully cynical commentVae, puto deusfio:‘Oh dear,
I think I’m becoming a god.’What a great exit line!
Of course, there were many societies which conferred divinity
upon their rulers, like the ancient Egyptians, or whose rulers
assumed divinity for themselves, during their lifetimes; the Roman
emperor Caligula and the Macedonian general Alexander the Great
spring to mind. And indeed the question arises as to whether some
of the late Hittite kings, specifically those of the last century of the
empire, also claimed divine status during their lifetimes. This
question is prompted by a significant development in the Hittite
visual arts in this period. From the reign of Muwattalli II, which
began about 1295, to the end of the empire, Hittite kings had
images of themselves carved on large stone surfaces–either cliff-
or rock-faces or surfaces of built stone. In these public monuments,
the king and sometimes the queen are depicted in ceremonial
priestly garb paying homage to one or more of their gods.
Sometimes the king appears kitted out as an armed warrior.
In other cases, he wears a skullcap, in his priestly capacity, but
sometimes a high conical hat, like the ones worn by male deities.
As a rule, the god can easily be distinguished from his mortal
worshipper by horns attached to his hat, a symbol of his divine
status. The more horns, the more important the god. But
sometimes the king in these reliefs also wears a horned hat. This
probably does not mean, as sometimes supposed, that he has
assumed divine status during his lifetime or that he is the spirit of a
dead, deified king. Rather, it is intended to set the living priest-king
apart from other priests by depicting him in garb virtually identical
with that of his patron deity, thus indicating his close identification
and intimate contact with the god.
That said, the third last king Tudhaliya IVmayhave claimed
divine status for himself while he was still alive, not just by wearing
the emblems of divinity but also in one inscriptionapparently
referring to a libation made to him–if the fragmentary text has
102 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA