Before Jerusalem Fell

266 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
temple of Quirinius, with the inscription ‘To the invincible God.’ “2 5
Suetonius records for us the actions of Lucius Antonius: “Some write
that three hundred men of both orders were selected from the prisoners
of war and sacrificed on the Ides of March like so many victims
at the altar raised to the Deified Julius.”26 Here in Suetonius we find
at least this one occurrence of the slaying of men as altar victims for
the deified Caesar.
Several men set up a twenty foot high marble column inscribed
with “To the Father of his Country. ” Suetonius notes that “at the
foot of this they continued for a long time to sacrifice, make vows,
and settle some of their disputes by an oath in the name of Caesar.”2 7
He was said to have been accepted as a god not only by a formal
decree of the Senate, “but also in the conviction of the common
people.”2 8
Clearly emperor worship was well under way in Julius
Caesar’s day.
Augwtu.s
Although Augustus forbade divine honors to himself in Rome,* g
Tacitus and Suetonius record the fact that he sanctioned his worship
and the erection of altars elsewhere. 30
As early as 29 B.C. he allowed the diets of Asia and Bithynia to erect
temples and shew divine honour to him at their places of assembly,
Pergamus and Nicomedia. The high priest of the new temple was
appointed year by year, and he was the most eminent dignitary in the
province.31
Beckwith notes that on his death the Senate voted Augustus
consecration and that a temple was erected in the Palatine area of Rome.
Furthermore, “his worship spread rapidly in both the Asian and
25. Ratton, A/mca@%e, p. 48. See Dio Cassius, Roman History 47:18:33.
26. Suetonius, Augwtw 15.
27. Suetonius, Julius 85.
28. Ibid. 88.
29. He disdained the title CCDorniniu/’ (“Lord”) because he preferred to be known as
the governor of free men rather than the master of slaves; Suetonius, Aug@u.s 53.
30. Suetonius, Augustus 52-53; Tacitus, Annals 1:10. Cp. BeckWith, A@alypse, p. 199.
Henderson, Five Roman Emperors, pp. 27iT Fnedrich Dusterdieck, Critical and Exegetical
Handbook to th Revelation of John, 3rd cd., trans. Henry E. Jacobs (New York Funk and
Wagnalls, 1886), p. 51. Ratton, Apocaly@e, p. 48.
31. Selwyn, Chri.rtian Prophets, pp. 122-123.