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8.6 Priests of the imperial cult<br />

statue of Victory — to which each senator makes an offering of incense and pours a<br />

libation of wine on entering the senate house. And he commanded that all Roman<br />

magistrates and anyone else conducting public sacrifice should invoke the new god<br />

Elagabalus before the other gods whom they called upon in their rites. And, when he<br />

arrived at <strong>Rome</strong> in the garb already described, the Romans - who had become used to<br />

it in the picture - looked on it as nothing unusual.<br />

ILS 9250<br />

1. Grandmother of Elagabalus.<br />

2. That is, when she noticed Elagabalus' continued habit of wearing extravagant eastern<br />

clothes, not traditional Roman dress. Elagabalus had been hailed emperor at Emesa in<br />

Syria; at this point he is on his way from the East to <strong>Rome</strong>.<br />

8.6 Priests of the imperial cult<br />

The new cults associated with the worship of the Roman emperors brought<br />

with them a new range of priestly offices. Some of these priesthoods were filled<br />

in the traditional way by members of the Roman elite; but others involved men<br />

of much lower social status.<br />

See further: Vol. 1, 357-9; Nock (1933-4); Duthoy (1978); Fishwick<br />

(1987-) II.1.609-16*; Ostrow (1985)*; for regulations concerning the priest­<br />

hood of a provincial cult of the emperor, see 10.4e.<br />

8.6a Priests of the wards of <strong>Rome</strong><br />

To the Augustan Lares<br />

In the city of <strong>Rome</strong> Augustus transformed the old neighbourhood cults of the<br />

crossroads (Lares Compitales) into a focus of loyalty to his own rule - by intro­<br />

ducing in 7 B.C. the worship of his own household gods (Lares August!) and his<br />

genius {genius Augusti). The officials of these local cults were almost exclusively<br />

slaves and ex-slaves, as in this altar dedicated in 2 B.C.<br />

See further: for full publication and photographs, Gatti (1906); and, on<br />

such altars more generally, Hano (1986); for the transformation of the neigh­<br />

bourhood cults, Vol. 1, 184-6; Ryberg (1955) 53-6; Niebling (1956);<br />

Liebeschuetz (1979) 70-1*; for the idea of the genius and its cult, Warde<br />

Fowler (1914) 17-22; Fishwick (1969).<br />

the officials of year six 1<br />

Felix slave of Lucius Crautanius<br />

Florus slave of Sextus Avienus<br />

Eudoxsus slave of Gams Caesius<br />

Polyclitus slave of Sextus Ancharius 2<br />

207

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