1 Earliest Rome

2.10 One god
12.6a), but it could involve much more philosophical ideas of divine power or
of a single divine spirit in which all the various gods and goddesses, even all living
things, shared. Modern scholars have called these ideas " benoiheism, from
the Greek heis tbeos, 'one god'. Henotheism was in some respects similar to
Jewish or Christian 'monotheism, but there was a crucial difference.
Heno theism merely implied particular devotion to one god or divine power,
without denying the existence of the others. Both Judaism and Christianity
insisted that their god was the only god; no others existed.
See further: Vol. 1, 255-9, 286-91; Nock (1933); Liebeschuetz (1979)
277-91; MacMullen (1984) 17-24; Lane Fox (1986) 34-5*; Versnel (1990).
2.10a 'What is god?'
These verses, written in Greek, were discovered inscribed high up on the atv
wall of Oenoanda (in modern Turkey). They date to the third century A.D. and
were apparently rhe words of an oracle (probably the oracle of Apollo at Claros
-also in Turkey) responding to the question: 'What is god?'. Despite their similarities
with Christian ways of conceptualizing god, these are the words of a
pagan deity and pagan priests.
See further: Robert (1971); Hall (1978); Lane Fox (1986) 168-71*.
G. E. Bean, 'Journeys in Northern Lycia', Denkschrifi Oesterr. Akad. der Wiss. Phil-Hist
KL 104 (1971), no. 37.
'Self-born, untaught, motherless, unshakeable,
Giving place to no name, many-named, dwelling in fire,
Such is god: we are a portion of god, his messengers.'
This, then, to the questioners about god's nature
The god replied, calling him all-seeing Ether: 1
And pray at dawn, looking out to the East.
to him then look
1. In Greek 'ether' was the pure air of the highest atmosphere, where the gods lived. In sev­
eral Greek accounts of the origins of the world, ether is also one of the elements out of
which the universe was formed.
2.1 Ob The ass-headed god
Some pagans ridiculed both Jewish and Christian notions of god, claiming (for
example) that the Christians worshipped the sun, an ass' head or the wooden
cross as thcit deity This graffito (height 0.39m., width 0.35m.) from part of
the imperial palace on the Palatine (probably third century A.D.) appears to
make fun of a Christian called Alexamenos —showing him worshipping a figure
with an ass' head on a cross. For Christians at the imperial court, see 12.7c(i).
See further: Dinkier (1967) 150-3; Clarke (1974) 216-18*.
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