Honours and worship: Emperors, imperial cults and associations at Ephesus (first to third centuries C.E.)

Abstract

Scholars have frequently underplayed the significance of the emperors within actual social and religious life in cities of the Roman empire and have portrayed imperial cults as predominantly political, lacking in religious dimensions. However, this view of imperial cults is misguided and acts as an obstacle to understanding the nature and significance of these cults at the local level. A fresh study of associations (local social-religious groups) in Ephesus helps to clarify the significance of emperors with respect to social, political and religious facets of life. There were two main interconnected ways in which emperors played a role in social and religious life within associations: in regard to networks of benefaction and with respect to cultic activities. Résumé : Les chercheurs ont souvent négligé l'influence des empereurs dans la vie sociale et religieuse des villes l'empire romain. Ils ont décrit les cultes impériaux comme étant surtout politiques, sans dimensions religieuses. Cependant cette façon de voir est mal fondée et nous cache la véritable nature de ces cultes au niveau local. Une nouvelle étude des associations (groupes locaux socio-religieux) & a g r a v e ; Éphèse aide & a g r a v e ; clarifier l'importance des empereurs dans les dimensions sociales, politiques et religieuses de la vie. Il y a eu deux façons principales interreliées qui montrent que les empereurs ont joué un rôle dans la vie sociale et religieuse des associations: dans les réseaux d'assistance et dans les activités du culte.

Festivals, cultural intertextuality, and the Gospel of John’s rhetoric of distance

“…Price (1984) comments that these priesthoods 'like priests of traditional cults, were not specialists' (p. 63); the duration could vary from single occasions (p. 103) to lifelong and hereditary offices (p. 63). (Harland 1996(Harland :328-334, 2000Kraybill 1996:110-135;Kloppenborg and Wilson 1996), crucial for the socioeconomic activity of artisans and merchants (Broughton 1938: 841-846;Meijer & Nijk 1992:42, 75-78, 201), provided non-elites (citizens and non-citizens, free and slave, males and females) with opportunities to honour sponsoring deities and the emperor (MacMullen 1980: 210-212;Barton 1981:9;Joshel 1992:141-145). Harland (1996:324) notes that of the 'about 100 inscriptions relating to associations and guilds in Ephesus (I-III CE) … over 20 pertain … either to worshipping or honouring the emperor …' Associations of hymn-singers and other performers and athletes were active in festivals (Harland 1996:326-328;Millar 1977:456-463).…”

“…Associations also honoured patron gods and the emperor (and/or previous emperors, the Sebastoi or 'revered ones') in mysteries, prayers, sacrifices and meals that included food offered to the gods (Harland 1996(Harland :332-333, 2000Pleket 1965).…”

Assessing representations of the imperial cult in New Testament studies

“…To my mind the recognition that the imperial cult expressed genuine religious content must be the starting point of a serious discussion -a point stressed by several studies (Pleket 1965;Bickerman 1973;Hopkins 1978;Price 1980Price , 1984aHarland 1996;Phillips 1986Phillips :2752Phillips -2757. The "cult of the ruler was a central element of ancient religious life" (Alföldy 1996:255).…”

Decorating Overlapping Buildings: A Domus and Palmyrene Temple at Colonia Dacica Sarmizegetusa

“…This led to the assumption that in regards to the religious life, the emperor was situated between people and gods. Harland, in his conclusions, regarding at first only the societies attested in Efes but later extending his study to Asia Minor (Harland 1996;2003) considered that "emperors functioned as gods" (Harland 1996: 23) and that "emperors could function as gods within social and the religious life at the local level" (Harland 1996: 330). 19 Pliny also discusses about marble, its use and provenance, connecting parts of the world with a specific kind of marble (Bradley 2006: 32).…”