structure to which they were now accountable. Asia Minor was filled with dedica-
tions to the ruling emperor, and even as far east as Palmyra in Syria we can find a
Caesareumor Sebasteion.
Possibly our best example comes from the west coast of present-day Turkey, from
Ephesus. Here we see how the cult of the emperor is integrated within the civic and
religious structures of a city dominated by the famous temple of Artemis. A lengthy
inscription, recording substantial donations to the cult of this goddess by a local
benefactor named Salutaris, described among other things in meticulous detail how,
in addition to images of Artemis, imperial statues were to be carried in a religious
procession and to be set up in a central place (Rogers 1991). A ritual that included
both the cult of the local Artemis and that of the emperor provided the participants
and spectators with a double sense of identity: adherence both to the local com-
munity and to the structures of imperial power. Indeed, the coinage issued by Ephesus
confirms this, referring to the city’s special position as being twice neokoros(literally
“temple warden”), namely both of Artemis and of the emperor (Friesen 1993; Burrell
2004).
Thirdly, and potentially the strongest vehicle for spreading Roman religion to the
outposts of empire, all divisions of the imperial army participated in the worship of
those gods who had looked after Rome during its rise to world domination. Soldiers
both in the legions and in the auxiliary units (the latter not consisting of Roman
citizens, at least not under the early empire) were given guidelines on which sacrifice
to perform, on what day, and to whom. Our best piece of evidence of such institu-
tionalized adherence to Roman cults comes from the fortress town of Dura-Europos,
located on the Euphrates: the archives of the auxiliary cohort which was stationed
here in the third centuryad contained a ritual calendar written on papyrus, the
so-called Feriale Duranum(Welles et al. 1959: no. 54). The soldiers would sacrifice
on days of important festivals of the city of Rome, on birthdays of members of the
imperial family, and on other days commemorating imperial successes, to the gods
who formed part of the Roman state cult, such as Mars the Avenger and Mother
Vesta, or to the deified emperors themselves. In fact, the troops which used this
calendar at Dura-Europos came from Palmyra, situated c. 200 km to the west in the
Syrian steppe, a city whose religious life was not “Roman” at all; but if we had had
only their calendar to go by, we would never have guessed their place of origin.
Interaction between “Rome” and the Indigenous
Cults of the East
As it happens, we have more sources for the religious behavior of these same Palmyrene
soldiers who were recruited under the Roman flag and found themselves stationed
at the Euphrates. Unlike the official calendar, other evidence, in the form of inscrip-
tions and sculptures, shows their involvement in a variety of local cults, which is indeed
in accordance with the army’s behavior throughout the empire at large. There is an
abundance of material which shows how Roman soldiers, themselves of course seldom
Roman in an ethnical sense as the empire progressed, took part in the worship of448 Ted Kaizer