In addition, these honors aimed also at the position of the emperor as a mediator
between the gods and the humans, and hopefully at the benefits that could be effected
by his future government for the whole empire and his population. In the concep-
tion of those people the emperor was still a mortal human being, but a very special
one, who had been endowed by the gods with important qualities and powers that
were only accessible to him and that were necessary for him to achieve his task on
earth. Many people probably even identified the emperor as a god who had revealed
himself only for a certain time before he returned from the earth to the rest of the
gods in heaven (theos epiphanes).The Emperor as Guarantee of Peace and
Security
How the beneficial work of the emperor was perceived by most members of the
population is nicely demonstrated by an episode from the last days of Augustus, in
ad 14. Near Naples the emperor’s ship met a ship from Alexandria. When the crew
and the passengers recognized the imperial vessel and the emperor, they changed
their clothes and put on their white garments destined for religious service, put wreaths
on their heads, offered sacrifices with incense to the emperor, and acclaimed him
with the words “Because of you we are living, because of you we can travel the seas,
because of you we enjoy liberty and wealth.”
Under those circumstances it comes as no surprise that in some parts of the empire
the emperors could appear as miracle-workers and heal sick people. Thus we have
the story that Vespasian (ad69–70), the founder of the Flavian dynasty, during a
visit to Alexandria healed sick people by only laying his hands on them. The inter-
ested public interpreted this immediately as a sure indication that he had been elected
to his office by the gods.
As a rule imperial cult did not mean presenting an individual declaration of faith;
such a perception is clearly influenced by the Christian tradition of religion. Imperial
cult meant the individual was expected to take part in collective religious acts.
Each human being under Roman rule was obliged to participate in such religious
activities not as an individual but as a member of the citizenship of his home town,
a soldier in a military unit, a member of a local city council, or a member of the
Roman senate.
The most illustrative examples come from the city of Rome. The imperial capital
was divided into 265 blocks (vici) (Plin. Nat.3.66f.), which constituted a kind of
collegiumwith its own magistrates, the so-called magistri vici, who were each year
elected from the local inhabitants. They were supposed to offer regular sacrifices to
the imperial Geniusand the guardian spirits (Lares) of the imperial household, which
were worshiped in a small chapel on their block, as well as to organize festivities and
represent their community within the city of Rome. The Geniusis best understood
as a personal guardian spirit each male human being owned. The female equivalent
was the Iuno.310 Peter Herz