2015a.

Late Antique Divi and Imperial Priests of the Late Fourth and Early
Fifth Centuries. In Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome: Conflict,
Competition and Coexistence in the Fourth Century, edited by M. Salzman,
R. L. Testa, and M. Sghy. New York: Cambridge University Press. [Peer
Reviewed]. Uncorrected proofs.

LATE ANTIQUE DIVI AND IMPERIAL

PRIESTS OF THE LATE FOURTH AND
EARLY FIFTH CENTURIES
Douglas Boin
Now that new contributions have been made to the study of the imperial
cult in the early Roman Empire, the time is ripe to broaden that conversation:by drawing attention to imperial cult practices in the late Roman
world.1 This topic will provide an excellent illustration of how our modern
categories, like Roman/Christian or pagan/Christian, fail to capture the
nuances of social life in the late Roman world. Two recent studies one
focusing on divus Constantine, the other on the iconography of Christ as the
heavenly emperor have already begun to sketch out that picture.2
This contribution expands on that work by examining the social and cultural context of one inscription from Rome (CIL 6.1783). This inscription
has recently been used to characterize the late fourth and early fifth centuries as a period of Christian triumph and pagan revival although that
1

For background, see now Brodd and Reed, Rome and Religion. Broadly relevant are
Arce, Imperatori; Bonamente, Apoteosis; Brent, Imperial Cultt; Fishwick, A Critical
Assessment; and Van Nuffelen, Rezeption. Because of space, this list is intended to be
suggestive, not exhaustive. Additional studies are engaged with later in this chapter. Amore
complete treatment of the topic is in progress.
See Jensen, The Emperor Cult and Bardill, Constantinee.

I would like to thank all three co-organizers for their feedback, which was invaluable for giving final shape to this contribution. All citations from ancient works follow abbreviations set
forth in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by S.Hornblower and A.Spawforth (Oxford,
1996). Translations are mine. The following are alsoused:
AE
= LAnne pigraphique. Paris, 1888.
= Dictionnaire latin-franais des auteurs chrtiens. Ed A.Blaise and H.Chirat.Turnhout.
BC
1954, reprinted 1997.
CIL
= Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin. 1863.
= Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores. Ed. G. B. De
ICUR
Rossi. Rome 18571915. Second ed. Ed. A.Silvagni etal., Rome. 1922.
= Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres. Ed. E.Diehl. Berlin, 192531.
ILCV
= Roman Imperial Coinage.
e Ten volumes. London, 198494.
RIC
RPC
= Roman Provincial Coinage.
e London,1992.

139

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narrative no longer withstands scrutiny. Traditional worship practices did

not vanish with the conversion of Constantine;3 and abundant epigraphic,
legal, numismatic, and textual sources, discussed here, attest to the continued
practice of naming late antique emperors divi including references to the
diva memoria of the eastern Roman emperor Zeno (47491 CE) and one
reference to divus Anastasius (491518 CE).4 Given this context, it is surprising, however, that no scholar to date has chosen to discuss the fact that the
inscription from Rome names the emperor Theodosius asdivus.
This chapter rereads that inscription in light of the resilience of traditional Roman worship practices in the fourth century, including imperial
cult practices.5 In doing so, it suggests a model for understanding how the
same social and cultural mechanisms by which individuals and communities
drew the attention and patronage of the imperial house, as in earlier periods,
remained an important transactional mechanism for brokering social relations in the late antique world.6 This chapter may challenge scholars who
see the imperial cult as a phenomenon inherently in tension with early
Christianity or as one whose outward pagan trappings were thrown off
with the legalization of Christianity.

Rome, circa431CE
Few inscriptions have merited their own monograph.7 CIL 6.1783 is privileged to count among this group. Discovered in Rome in 1849 in the
Forum of Trajan, the inscription dates to 431 CE and preserves a letter from
Flavius Theodosius II and Flavius Valentinian III to the Senate of Rome. It
also records the restoration of a statue dedicated to Nicomachus Flavianus
the elder. Because Flavianus is famous today for having allied himself with
3

See Boin, A Hall for Hercules, 2537, which, although nominally similar to Cameron, The
Last Pagans of Romee, differs in that it presents a view of the fourth century as a time of resilient, not empty, religious traditions. For additional studies supporting this view, see Salzman,
On Roman Time;
e Bjrnebye, Hic locus. Gwynn, The End of Senatorial Paganism focuses
on a model of religious competition over one of overt conflict, 155. For urban and rural
communities in Italy, in particular, see Christie, Constantine to Charlemagnee, 91121.
Hypatius, Pompeius et Probus genere consobrini, divique Anastasii nepotes, Marcellinus
L 51, col. 941D). For the diva memoria of Anastasius, see also Novv. 7.2
Comes, 532 CE (PL
and 43.praef.f For the memory of Zeno, see CJJ 7.37.3, 4.35.234, and 5.27.7.
Previous approaches include Bowersock and Meyer, The Imperial Cult; Bowersock,
Greek Intellectuals; and Turcan, Le culte imprial.
As pointed out in Gordon, Roman Imperial Cult, 423; see also Clauss, Kaiser und Gott;
t
and Price, Rituals andPower.
r
For other examples, see Eck, Caballos, and Fernndez, Das senatus consultum, as well as
Perri, Ill senatus consultum.

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Eugenius in the battle against Theodosius for control of the western empire
in 3924, a battle infamous for having once been associated with the last
pagan revival, Charles Hedrick dedicated his entire book to illuminating
the significance of the inscription.
Drawing attention to the pride with which it rehabilitates the memory
of the elder Flavianus while leaving the more scandalous details of his past
wordless, Hedrick believed that the elders religious identity a militant
paganism had so tarred his memory since the establishment of Nicene
Christianity as the official religion of the empire that no mention of it could
be made in the inscription. Paganism was a beast that dare not raise its
head, and the silence about it on the epigraph was testimony to dramatic
changes sweeping across late fourth-century and early fifth-centuryRome.8
There is one problem, observable twice on the face of the stone.
Theodosius I is called divus. The word appears first in the description of the
career of Nicomachus Flavianus,9 and it appears again in the portion of the
text that preserves an imperial letter.
bono nobiscum p(atres) c(onscripti) [faustoque] omine intellegitis profecto quidquid
inrestitutionem pr[...c.8...]inis inlustris et sanctissimae aput [sic] vos recor-|
dationis Flaviani Senio[ri]s adimus, divi avi nostri venerationemesse...
In this good and pleasurable time (the emperors write), you know indeed
that, whatever we accomplish by recalling an illustrious [pr(...c.8...)inis]
and the most revered memory among you of the elder Flavianus, there is
reverence for our own ancestor, divus [Theodosius]...10

Even though the word divus resonates strongly with the memory of divus
Iulius and divi filius, Hedrick translates it of blessed memory, an interpretation essential for his reading of the inscription. Privileging a model of
religious conflict, thereby building the case for a radical ideological change
from the late fourth century to 431 CE, Hedrick implies that Christianity
8

9
10

Hedrick, History and Silence,

e xii. For further discussion and bibliography on this word, see
also the section later in this chapter on Christian assimilation and accommodation.
quaest(ori) aulae | divi Theodosi, CIL
L 6.1783, lines12.
CIL
L 6.1783, lines 1315. Hedrick has offered, with much hesitation (History and Silence,
e
256), a reading of pr[
r aenomin]is for the damaged portion of line 13. Iwill return to this
issue in the conclusion to this chapter. Note that he translates restitutio as restoration.
That meaning is indisputable for the classical age.The word, however, does take on a slightly
different one in the postclassical period, when it comes to refer to the idea of a resurrection (Tert. Praescr. 7 and 13)and, more generally, to the notion of propagation (Ruf. HE
4.29.2); see BC
C restitutio 1 and 4. Ihave tried to capture the sense of those translations with
the word recalling.

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and traditional Roman religion were so diametrically incompatible that one

could never really have been a Roman and a Christian at the same time.11
Yet the very word divus and its meaning raise a nagging question:Is there
really a silent paganism here? Does the inscription really dance around the
embarrassing pagan past of the elder Flavianus, or is there nothing to be
embarrassed about at all not even for the imperial family?
The knots are difficult to untangle, and the final shape of what unwinds
may not be what we ourselves expect, but this contribution is offered as a
first step in that process. We need to address three assumptions, however,
before we turn to the details of the inscription and what theymean.

Two Preliminary MethodologicalPoints

1. Keeping Our Eye on the Nature of Ancient Religion,
the Meaning of Divus and How Christian Emperors UnderstoodIt

The first point is to address the communis opinio that all references to the
word divus in later Latin should be translated of blessed memory and that
the use of title evinces no continuity with the meaning of the word in the
earlier periods.12 This proposition has been put forth most succinctly by Ittai
Gradel, who located this semantic shift in the second quarter of the third
century.13 At that time, according to Herodian, Maximinus the Thracian is
reported to have confiscated the temple revenues for deified emperors and
repurposed them for an act of economic stimulus. The dedications in the
temples and the statues of the gods and the honors for heroes, any kind of
decoration on a public building, either an ornament of the city or material
suitable for making coins, all of it he melted down.14 Gradel interpreted
this act as the death knoll that signaled the end of the imperial cult. In this
way, with the temple treasuries confiscated and the system in tatters, one
top-down act of confiscation brought to a close the entire system. All subsequent evidence for divi, as Christian emperors understood the title, became,
in effect, honorary.15

11
12
13
14

15

Hedrick, History and Silence,

e xixxx.
See, for example, Bonamente, Imperatore divinizzato,3601.
Gradel, Emperor Worship, 30465.
,
, ,
Herodian7.3.5.
Bardill, Constantinee, 3804, is the most recent to suggest this interpretation.

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This statement can be challenged on two grounds. The first is sociohistorical. Specifically, it fails to take account of the ways both the center and
the periphery used the imperial cult system to negotiate power throughout Roman history. This long-standing system was one in which local, provincial, and imperial elites interfaced with and attracted the attention and
patronage of the imperial house with the potential for each set of actors
to receive social and political benefits. An appreciation for that complexity
turns Maximinuss act into something far less culturally catastrophic, and
this point is the one to which Iwill address the balance of my attention in
a moment.16
The argument that the Latin title divus became honorary can be challenged on a second ground, however:a theoretical one. Here, the need to
define the subject of our investigation becomes vital; for as biblical scholar
Brent Nongbri has observed, There is a surprising, and amusing similarity
in the way people talk about defining hard-core pornography and the way
the term religion is used in both popular and academic contexts today.17
Nongbris point is that the old adage, I know it when Isee it, presumes
too much namely, that all cultures at all times throughout history would have
recognized a concept that matches our own post-Enlightenment notion of
religion. Nongbris call for theoretical and methodological sophistication
on this point is entirely just. (Roman religio doesnt map onto modern ideas
of religion, for example.)18 Nongbri has thus joined a chorus of scholars
like Bruce Lincoln, Clifford Geertz, and Robert Bellah, among others, who
have proposed that, if historians are going to talk about religion in their
research, they clearly define what theyre talking about.19 If we take one
definition of religion Geertzs, for example and try to apply it to the
study of antiquity, for example, it should become immediately apparent why
the study of religion can be so beguiling. (I have picked Geertzs definition
because Ithink it is a flexible, generous one, with applicability to the past;
Bellah himself adapted it for his own research.) Geertz defined religionas:
(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2)establish powerful, pervasive and
long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions
16

17
18
19

See Galinsky, Uniter or Divider?; see also White, Capitalizing on the Imperial Cult.This
approach also builds on imperial ideology as studied in Ando, Imperial Ideology, 1948; see
also now Norea, Imperial Ideals, 190324; and Manders, Coining Images,1162.
Nongbri, Before Religion,15.
Ibid.,2634.
For Lincolns definition, see Lincoln, Holy Terrors, 57. For Geertz and Bellah, see later in this
chapter.

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with such an aura of factuality that (5)the moods and motivations seem
uniquely realistic.20

If we apply this definition to our study of the Roman imperial cult, the
problems with suggesting why the title divus evolved into an honorary, or
symbolic, title readily become obvious.21 Methodologically, the conclusion
is tautological, as are the claims that the imperial cult survived into late
antiquity because the system and its priests had lost their religious connotations and had become secular.22 Yet religion itself, if we follow Geertzs
definition, is a system of symbols. Scholars who work on Roman and late
Roman religion need to demonstrate much more savviness in recognizing the complexities and the limitations involved in applying conceptual
frameworks like religion and secular to a period in which neither of
these concepts existed.23 Imyself have eschewed the use of religion in this
chapter for that reason; as a modern term imposed on the study of antiquity,
it prevents us from seeing the past on its own terms.24
2. Acknowledging both the Rhetoric of Rejection and the Evidence for
Assimilation and Accommodation in Christianitys History with the
ImperialCult

Treatment of the cults longevity in the Christian Mediterranean also needs

proportion and balance. The rise of Christianity in late antique Rome
involved more than a transition from one religion to another;25 it involved
a significant debate among Christians about how or even whether to participate in the working of Romes empire. Ever since the text of Revelation,
the imperial cult and those Christians who had participated in it had been
presented to other Christians as a socially and morally bankrupt element of

20
21
22

23
24

25

Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures,90.

Bonamente, Imperatore divinizzato, 34658.
Leone, End of the Pagan City, 945 (symbolic), 92 (had become secular). Elsewhere,
the author describes the imperial cult as perhaps the most secular of cults, 100; see also
Conant, Staying Roman, who describes the (now secularized) cultic veneration that had
traditionally been dedicated to the Roman emperor, 46; and secularized late antique
emperor-worship, 156; and Cameron, The Last Pagans of Romee (the priesthoods survived
the loss of their religious functions, 171); Brown, Eye of the Needlee (The office was a title
of honor that had come to be held by Christians,353).
Nongbri, Before Religion, 1213,37.
See Nongbris discussion of the descriptive versus redescriptive uses of the word, Before
Religion,153.
Leone, End of the Pagan City,21.

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governance in the whore of Babylon.26 To characterize the late antique

imperial cult as a neutral civic sphere a mental space that Christians and
non-Christians alike shared naturally and eagerly thus not only creates a
false equivalency between Romes Christians and non-Christian communities, turning them into polar opposites; it also ignores the volume and the
resilience of an important sociohistorical debate that had been taking place
between Christians for centuries.27 The rise of the Latin word civilian (paganus) to disparage Christians who may have participated in Romes imperial
cult can now be seen as emerging as product of this intra-Christian debate.28
It becomes paramount, then, when treating the imperial cult in late antiquity to acknowledge and explore the diversity of ways all Christians, as
individuals and communities, navigated the social world of Romes empire.
Indeed, late antique cities were not bipolar.29 The fact that many Jews living in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds found ways to participate in them
should remind us that the growth of visibility of Christianity, too, was driven
as much by assimilation and accommodation as it was by resistance and its
social by-product, persecution.30 This point is the second one that needs
much greater attentiontoday.
Just within the past century, the field of New Testament studies has made
abundantly clear that members of the early Jesus movement could and did
find strategies for working within the Roman social world, including the
imperial cult system, to gain greater status as a community. Letters attributed
to the memory of Paul, written within two generations of Jesus death, teach
respect for the paterfamilias as head of the household. These letters encouraged wives to obey their husbands, children to obey their parents, and slaves
to maintain a dutiful stance to their masters, all of which instructions can
26

27

28

29
30

Rev. 14.911, 17.514; see also the so-called Fifth Sibylline Oraclee lines 1623. For overview
of the theme, see Friesen, Imperial Cults, 13840.
Leone, End of the Pagan City, 13; see also Lepelley, Les lieu des valeurs communes; and
Brown, Eye of the Needle,
e who presents an inscription from 347 CE, honoring an imperial
priest and replete with a chi-rho, as a characteristic product of the bipolar world ushered in
by Constantine,63.
See Boin, Hellenistic Judaism and the Social Origins of the Pagan-Christian Debate.
For bibliography, see also now Van Nuffelen, who suggests that the late antique concept
of paganism was not purely a polemical Christian construct; rather, it has roots in the
Middle-Platonic reflection of religion (Eusebius of Caesarea,106).
Boin, Ostia,163.
On the imperial cult and persecution, see Millar, The Imperial Cult, and now Trombley,
who writes, Christian theological writers had always expressed skepticism about the imperial cult (The Imperial Cult, 39). On Jews and the imperial cult, see now McLaren,
Jews; and McLaren, Searching forRome.

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be seen as textbook expressions of Roman pietas, upholding the values of

the Roman home.31 The writer of the letter known as 1 Peter expanded
on these ideas by exhorting one Christian community in Asia Minor to
honor the emperor so as not to draw attention to itself.32 Together, these
exhortations formed part of a multidimensional and complex social strategy
of accommodation by which members of the Jesus movement won greater
respect for their group.33 This evidence does not deny that others within
the same sect advocated for a more militant separation from and rejection
of Roman culture.34 These distinct aspects of Christian identity formation,
however, cannot be easily collapsed. Indeed, it is the latter strategies of
accommodation to Roman society, something that can be seen throughout
every generation of early Christian history that scholars working in later
periods have not often appreciated.
It should now be understandable why some scholars have chosen to look
for specific moments in late antique history, like the third century, as heralding such a dramatic break with Mediterranean mores intellectually,
politically, socially, and culturally that words like divus must have acquired
their symbolic meaning.This approach has been born from an assumption,
nothing more than that, that the triumph of Christianity was predicated
not only upon the collapse of traditional Roman religion.35 It has also been
based on the assumption that the Christians wouldnt have participated in
Romes imperial cult unless it had somehow been radically divested of its
original meaning.
In the end, then, can we really say how Christian emperors eventually
came to understand the meaning of the term divus as they applied it to
themselves in the later empire? Given the range of social strategies by which
Christians interfaced with Roman power throughout their complicated
social history, Idoubt we will find one consistent answer among the evidence.36 In fact, Isuggest that a more profitable historical approach might be
to look at the available evidence in a slightly differentway.
31

32

33
34

35
36

See Col 3.184.1 and Eph. 5.226.9. For overview of this household code, see White, From
Jesus to Christianity, 2746. For further study on Christian households, see now Balch and
Osiek, eds., Early Christian Families; and Balch and Osiek, eds., Families.
1 Peter 2.1117 (honoring the emperor), 2.1825 (slaves and masters), 3.16 (wives and
husbands).
Boin, Coming Out Christian.
See Moss, Ancient Christian Martyrdom, 5760 (martyrdom of Polycarp), 10216 (martyrs of
Vienne and Lyon), and 12244 (North Africa).
Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome,1689.
e
The title of divus survived the third century crisis ... but [it was] not as important as it was
before, Magyar, Imperial Cult and Christianity,386.

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Starting Over:Imperial Cult in the Third Century

With these caveats in place, we are poised to pick up traces of a much
more differentiated conversation about the relationship between Christians,
Christianity, and the late Romanworld.
To begin, pace Gradel, Herodian gives no indication that Maximinuss confiscation of temple properties affected the imperial cult system wholesale at
the imperial, provincial, or municipal levels. The role of the divi or the funds
associated with temples were not a prefabricated ideological imposition
from Rome, and signs and symbols were deployed, managed, negotiated, and
finessed on a highly individualized, local basis.37 Emperors and subjects alike
drew on them to establish the moods and motivations appropriate to the
expression of power, authority, and divine reverence.
That is why, after the confiscations of Maximinus, we find a chain of
evidence for the proliferation of divi. Upon the emperors death in 238, at
least two communities in the Mediterranean, one in the Greek East and
one in the territory of Latium, offered honors for his deified wife, Paulina.38
Later, the elder Gordians I and II were also each deified and given temples,
counted among the gods.39 At least seven inscriptions from North Africa
confirm the extent of the honors reported by later historians.40 Deification
also followed for the young Gordian III.41 Later in the century, the elder
and the younger Valerians received the same distinction.42 And Claudius II,
praised in a fourth-century imperial panegyric for being the divine ancestor of the new Flavian dynasty established by Constantine, was the recipient
of them too.43 Numismatic evidence for the Emperor Carus (Figure5.1)
commemorates him with the signs and symbols of consecratio; these aurei

37
38

39

40
41
42

43

The foundational studies are Fishwick, Imperial Cultt; and Price, Rituals andPowerr.
From Atina, Divae | Caeciliae | Paulinae | Piae Aug(ustae), CIL
L 10.5054. From Anazarbus
(modern Anavarza, southern Turkey), see the numismatic evidence, from 236 CE
, American Numismatic Society 1973.191.110.
omnes in Maximi et Balbini verba iurarunt, Gordianos priores divos appellantes, SHA The Two
Maximians 24.23; see also ibid. 26.2 and26.5.
CIL
L 8.848, 1218, 103301, 10431, 10452,10460.
For example, Amm. Marc. RG
G 23.5; see also Eutropius9.2.
For the elder (r. ca. 2537 CE), CIL
L 8.8473 and CIL
L 9.5682. For the younger, see CIL
9.1566.
A primo igitur incipiam originis tuae numinaee, Pan. Lat. 6(7).2; ab illo enim Divo Claudio
manat in te avita cognatio, id. 6(7).2. On the genealogy, see Nixon and Rodgers, Later Roman
Emperors, 21920, n.6. See also CIL
L 8.10373 and RIC
C 5.266 (copper alloy coin with radiate
bust on reverse with the legend Divo Claudio, on obverse,consecratio legend with eagle
on lightningbolt).

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5.1. Divo Caro Pio, RIC 4.135, an aureus of Carus (r. ca. 2823CE).
The Trustees of the British Museum.

5.2. Deus et Dominus, RIC 5.145, an aureus of Carus from 2823CE.

The Trustees of the British Museum.

bear the legend divus on their reverse, with a radiate bust of the emperor, and
were minted at Lyon.44
Others took a slightly different approach. Coins struck in Siscia (modern Sisak, Croatia) pair the radiate bust of Carus with the legend Deus et
Dominus (Figure5.2).45 Based on the change in language, we might be led
44
45

Divo Caro Pio, RIC

C 4.135, an aureus of Carus (r. ca. 2823CE).
Cohen, Description historique des monnaies frapps sous lempire romain, 5.318 (no.14); see also
RIC
C 5.145, an aureus of Carus from 2823CE.

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5.3. Deo Augusto, Tarragona. Copper alloy sestertius, struck 1537 CE, RPC
C 1.222/6.
The Trustees of the British Museum.

to conclude that the imperial cult had gradually been corrupted by the
megalomaniacal personality of the third-century ruler.46 Here, too, however,
we would do well to check our interpretation.The city of Tarragona in Spain,
in the very first decades of the first century CE, had struck coins for the deified Augustus with the exact same language:Deo Augusto (Figure5.3).47 These
depict Augustus on a throne, holding a globe in one hand, a scepter in the
other, perhaps in the guise of Jupiter, not unlike the very statue of Constantine
from the Basilica Nova.48 The use of deus, in the first century but also the third,

46

47

48

Quoting, as it does, Domitians request that he be called dominus et deus (Suet. Dom.
13.2). The question of who was responsible for coin issues is surveyed in Manders, Coining
Images, 2932.That coins were understood to communicate messages has been treated most
recently by Norea, Imperial Ideals,147.
A copper alloy sestertius, struck 1537 CE. On the reverse, an octastyle temple with the
legend aeternitatis Augustae; see RPC
C 1.222/6.
See Presicce, Costantino.

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speaks to the creativity inherent in the workings of municipal and provincial

religion.49
Spain was not Rome was not Lyon was not Croatia. Avariety of strategies
for honoring the imperial house and family bubbled up to the surface, leaving
visible traces.

Opening a New Window onto Imperial Cult

in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries
This same dynamic continued throughout the fourth and fifth centuries.50
Constantine presented himself as a companion of the gods, even continuing
to blur the lines between human and gods. He is also well known for having
responded to the request by the people of Hispellum (Spello), circa 3335, to
reestablish an imperial cult temple precinct there; it is called both an aedes and
a templum for the gens Flavia.51 The town itself was renamed Flavia Constans
to honor both the cognomen of Constantine, a name deserving of veneration
(nomenq(ue) | venerandum), and the memory of the gens Flavia, from which
Constantine traced his descent.52
This moment of reciprocity is an important demonstration of the imperial
cult in action, and we should not automatically assume it was unique to the
early fourth century. Attestations for divus Julian and divus Jovian are found in
epigraphic records,53 and attestations for divus Gratian and divusValentinian I are
found in textual sources.54 These are not isolated instances of cultural continuity
with the Roman past. The use of these titles is complemented by contemporary epigraphic evidence for provincial imperial cult priesthoods in Dacia, for
49

50
51

52

53
54

Ando, Imperial Ideology, 368, 415, 20614; see also Manders, Coining Images, 225302, for
case studies of Caracalla, Decius, and Gallienus.
Amici, Divus Constantinus; see also Trombley, The Imperial Cult,2439.
[[posceretis] ut civitati cui nunc Hispellum nomen | est quamque Flaminiae viae confinem adque
con-|tinuam esse memoratis de nostro cognomine | nomen daremus in qua templum Flaviae Gentis
| opere magnifico nimirum pro amplitudinem | nuncupationis exsurgere,
e CIL
L 11.5265, lines 2530;
aedem ... Flaviaee, id. line 43. On the inscription, see now Van Dam, Roman Revolution,
3637. The phrase ne aedis nostro nomini dedicata cuiusquam contagios(a)e superstitionis fraudibus polluatur
r (lines 457), with its reference to superstitio, has been discussed in Salzman,
Superstitio; see also Sandwell, Magic.
nam civi|tati Hispello aeternum vocabulum nomenq(ue) | venerandum de nostra nuncupatione
conces-|simus, scilicet ut in posterum praedicta urbs | Flavia Constans vocetur,
r CIL
L 11.5265,
lines3842.
divo Iuliano, ICUR
R 1.164; divo Ioviano, id.1.175.
divum atque inclytum Gratianum, Sym. Rel. 40.4, as well as id. 34.9 and 34.11; divi genitoris
vestri,
i addressed to Gratian, referencing Valentinian I, id. 27.4. For a list of other examples,
see Beurlier, Le culte imprial, 330, although the accuracy of his references should be checked
first-hand.

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example, and also in North Africa, where one recent study by Anna Leone has
documented more than 160 officeholders.55 Ihave now been able to add eight
more priests to this database (Appendix).These date between 336 CE (Number
5 from Ammaedara) to circa 4028 (Number 6 from Aradi). Taken alongside
our previously existing evidence, these inscriptions testify the resilience of a
social network binding the periphery to the center in ways that demonstrate
a connection with, not a disruption from, earlier Roman practices throughout
(Figure5.4). At least ten of these also date to the fifth or early sixth century.56
How might we transform this bare-bones catalog into evidence for a
richer social history of the late Roman empire? Epigraphic evidence from
a neighboring province offers an encouraging way forward. The efforts of
individuals like those at Leges Maiores (modern Henchir Gousset, Algeria;
Number 8, in the Appendix) a town that as late as 276 CE was known as
a village, or locus, in the province of Numidia suggest that local participation in the Roman imperial cult system could pay important dividends for
a community as a whole.57 By the mid-fourth century, the city itself had not
only acquired a provincial priest of the imperial cult; it self-identified as a
res publica by that time and is known to have been replete with a local town
council, or curia, as well as decurions.58
In this same way, Iwould propose that each of the priests from late antique
North Africa might attest to an unexplored geography of late antique imperial cult practices, whereby a greater attention to their local details, including
prosopography, might allow us to map out the ways fourth-century Romans
from specific regions negotiated their relationship to imperial power. That
is, each of the priests in the system may have capitalized on a mechanism
55

56

57

58

Space prevents from me addressing every region. For priests in Dacia, by way of illustration,
see CIL
L 3.14468, AE
E 1998.1079, and AE
E 2003.1418. For the priests in North Africa, both
flamines and sacerdotales, see now appendix 1 in Leone, End of the Pagan City, 24554. On
priests in late fourth-century Rome, see now Orlandi, Gli ultimi sacerdoti.
Some dates are debatable, but among the most secure examples are CIL
L 8.450 (sixth century
from Ammaedara; Leone, End of the Pagan City, 2013, 245); CIL
L 8.10516 (5256 CE from
Ammaedara; Leone, 245); CIL
L 8.24101 (40832 CE from Mesguida; Leone, 246); CIL
L 8.969
(4001 CE from Nabeul; Leone, 249); AE
E 1912, 178 (383408 CE from Pupput; Leone, 250);
AE
E 1912, 164 (fifth century from Schuhud el Batel; Leone, 251); AE
E 1930, 88 and AE
E 1952,
209 (4934 CE from Theveste; Leone, 252); CIL
L 8.23045 (end of the fourth century, fifth
century or later from Uppenna; Leone, 254); and CIL
L 8.1283 (40823 CE from Vallis; Leone,
254); see also Bassignano, Il flaminato, 16, 623, 96, 163, 232, 1801,313.
Pro felicitate temporum beatorum | Quintus Cassius Taurus fl(amen) p(er)p(etuus) Legalis | ob
honorem flamoni paterni con-|sensu splendidissimi ordinis sibi con-|locati cenitatem curiam sum(p)tu
proprio | repparavit (sic), AE
E 1982, 961, dated 371400CE.
For the transformation of communities across late antique North Africa, see Dossey, Peasant
and Empiree, 10124, with discussion of Leges Maiores at 115. On local elites in the imperial
cult during the early imperial period, see Gordon, Roman Imperial Cult,4750.

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152

9781107110304_pi-408.indd 152

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5.4. Locations of imperial cult priests in North Africa, fourth through sixth centuryCE.
Authors map adapted from data provided the Ancient World Mapping Center (Antiquity -la-carte). Printed with
permission.

Late Antique D IVI and Imperial Priests

153

of traditional statecraft to attract the patronage of the imperial house to

win greater benefits and social standing for their communities.59 Many of
these actors no doubt could and did self-identify as Christian,60 just as the
last-known flamen perpetuus of Africa Proconsularis seems to have done in
the early sixth century; his relatives erected a funerary inscription for him
with the phrase fl(amen) p(er)p(etuus) Cristianus [sic].61 That identity claim
may have vexed his more militant Christian peers; but just as the issue of
assimilation and accommodation to the dominant culture of the day had
been a source of concern for Jewish culture and practices in the late Second
Temple and remained a source of concern for Christians throughout the
first, second, and third centuries CE, so, too, with the legalization and later
establishment of Christianity, we should not be surprised to see that the
fourth, fifth, and perhaps even sixth century had opened up a new phase in
the social debate and definition of what it meant to be Christian and what
it meant to be Roman and stay Roman.62
That dynamism helps explain why even deified emperors were still at
home in a sacred context well into the early fifth century in identifiably
Christian contexts. The church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna,
vowed by Galla Placidia, brings that picture into greater relief. Today, almost
nothing of the fifth-century church remains.63 The interior of the building
itself, however, was drawn in the Renaissance, leaving us a good visual record of its original mosaic program. Images of ten emperors appeared in the
apse, which depicted the family of Flavius Constantius III, Gallas husband.
Portraits of Constantine, Theodosius I, Arcadius, Honorius, Theodosius II,
Valentinian I, and Gratian, all of whom were related to Galla, figured prominently in the program, along with her husband. Three younger princes,

59

60

61

62

63

The title and theme are thus adapted from the model set forth in White, Capitalizing on
the Imperial Cult, to whom Iowe my thanks for his guidance on these and other matters.
People could, it must be remembered, identify as Christian who held priesthoods ((flamines)
in this system, as the text from the early fourth-century council at Elvira attests (see canons
nos. 24); see also Dupuis, Les pontifices, and the evidence at Leone, End of the Pagan
City,8590.
Astius Muste-|{te}lus fl(amen) p(er)p(etuus) C(h)risti-|anus vixit an-|nis LXXII quievit VIII
| Id(us) Decem/bres anno | IIII d(omini) n(ostri) regis | [Ch]ildirix(sicc), CIL
L 8.10516, from
Ammaedara, Africa Pronconsularis (modern Hadra, Tunisia). Exact find spot unknown; see
also Leone, End of the Pagan City,245.
Conant, Staying Roman, 46, 156, mentions the priesthoods, but much more work is needed
to integrate this evidence into the model of Roman identity maintenance and management
he describes.
See Deliyannis, Ravenna, 6370. Much of the interior was removed in 1568, and the church
itself was pummeled during World WarII.

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DouglasBoin

Gratian, Johannes, and Theodosius III, were also included;64 but it is the
seven deceased emperors who were labeled d(ivus) underneath their portrait medallions.65
The importance of binding fifth-century Ravenna to the seat of the eastern imperial house in Constantinople cannot be overlooked in the execution of this extraordinary program, the first church anywhere to contain
imperial portraits as part of its decoration.66 Acting from Constantinople,
it was Theodosius II who in 425 CE had conferred the title Augustus upon
the young Valentinian III and in one swift stroke resurrected the Theodosian
dynasty to rule both halves of the empire.67 In San Giovanni Evangelista the
authority of that unified imperial house was inscribed in the landscape of
Ravenna, where it was advertised to the towns residents and worshippers
wrapped up in the familiar flair of a centuries-old system that had propagated imperial power in similarways.
Thus, in this brief survey spanning several centuries, a broader picture
should be emerging. Although the balance of this evidence legal, epigraphic, and art historical may be disparate and spotty, we should not
expect uniformity among it. Such uniformity, whether chronologically, geographically, or even denominationally, had never been an inherent feature
of the imperial cult system. That fact alone attests to the flexibility inherent
within it.68 It also should prompt us to consider its lasting spell, even in cases
where we have convinced ourselves that imperial cult transactions cannot
possibly be present. In this way, a greater attention to the workings of the
imperial cult, a consistently important actor in the foreground of the ancient
Roman city, may begin to help us reorient our understanding of the late
antique cultural landscape.69

Conclusion:Rome, circa431CE
That brings us full circle to the inscription from Rome. Iwould like to close
by exploring whether Charles Hedricks restoration of the damaged section,
pr[aenomin]is, might not be the right one after all.70 Hedrick wanted to interpret
64

65

66
67
68
69
70

Theodosius III was Gallas son, who died as a child; Gratian and Johannes were likely her
brothers, who died in infancy (Sivan, Galla Placidia,164).
See Amici, Imperatori divi. Neither this work nor the topic is discussed in Deliyannis,
Ravenna.
Deliyannis, Ravenna,68.
Sivan, Galla Placidia, 913, 14269, who also does not discuss the significance of thedivii.
Trombley, The Imperial Cult,4951.
Boin, Ostia,116.
Hedrick, History and Silence,256.
e

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155

the phrase as referring to the restoration of [Flavianus the elders] praenomen,

inferring that its loss had been a result of damnatio memoriae.71 Unfortunately,
he admits,this restoration [was] vulnerable to serious objections not because
it was impossible quite the contrary, the restoration is entirely elegant in
the way it accounts for the spaces, the letters, and the case of the word but
because there is no evidence for any ban on praenomina after Tiberius.72
I think there is a simpler interpretation. Given the fact that Constantine
honored Hispellum by invoking his own cognomen and by invoking the gens
Flavia to which he belonged,73 what could have been more natural for the
heirs of the Flavian dynasty,Theodosius II and Valentinian III, to demonstrate
their own reverence (veneratio) for the family line by acknowledging their
illustrious praenomen? That the imperial family and its deified ancestors were
deserving of veneratio is an ideology expressed as early as the Tiberian age.74
By attracting the attention of the emperor, professing a renewed loyalty to
the rulers, or honoring the memory of his family members long gone the
invocation of a divus was a well-worn coin that helped to demonstrate ones
reverence for the imperial house and a willingness to work within its power
system. In Rome, one could even speculate that the Templum of the Gens
Flavia on the Quirinal, a building restored as recently as Claudius II, the
ancestor from whom Constantine traced his descent, not only loomed over
this late antique transaction in the Forum of Trajan but figured in it in some
way.75 An invocation of divus Theodosius on the part of Appius Nicomachus
Dexter, the dedicator of the statue base whose name is appended at the end
of the text of the imperial letter,76 may have been the very thing that led to
the permission to erect the display in the firstplace.
71
72
73

74

75

76

Ibid.,1016.
Gn. Calpurnius Piso, Tac. Ann.3.17.
On this point, see Van Dam, Roman Revolution, 88129, who suggests that the reply to
Hispellum, and the appropriation of the Flavian name in general, helped Constantine lend
a more Italian identity to his Balkan family. Ilike this point because it suggests that imperial cult transactions did not always have to work in one direction; they could benefit the
emperortoo.
oblitus non | tantum venerationis caritatisq(ue), quae principis filio debebantur,
r senatus consultum
against Cn. Calpurnius Piso, lines 5960 (Latin text in Eck, Caballos, and Fernndez, Das
senatus consultum, 3850, with translation in Meyer, Das senatus consultum, 31824. On
the imperial family in the workings of the imperial cult, see Severy, Augustus. Thus, propter
ve<n>erationem domus [Augustae],
] AE
E 1984, 507 (Spain), as well as the study of the theme by
Hnlein-Schfer, Veneratio.
For the term divus as one of the nomina veneranda in the late antique eastern empire, see
the reference in Ennodiuss sixth-century panegyric for Theoderic (MGH.AA 7, Panegyric,
17), discussed by McCormick, Eternal Victory,2768.
Appius Nicomachus Dexter, v(ir) c(larissimus), ex praef(ecto) urb(i), avo optim[o] | statuendam
curavii, CIL
L 6.1783, lines 367. On Dexter, see Hedrick, History and Silence,
e 171213.

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DouglasBoin

In short, is it right to assume that the word divus necessarily meant

blessed by the beginning of the fifth century? While its true that Latin
words could often acquire a new meaning,77 the silence of the stone is deafening, as Hedrick himself observed. As Ihave tried to describe it here, however, the world behind the inscription is much louder and crowded with
many more voices than we might care to admit. For that reason, theres no
necessary basis to assume that the word divus meant anything other than
what it traditionally meant throughout Roman history, either.

Appendix
Priests of the Imperial Cult in Late Antique NorthAfrica

Leone, The End of the Pagan City, 24554, assembled an epigraphic collection of
more than sixty priests of the imperial cult in late antique North Africa. These eight
inscriptions can also be added to thatlist.

(A Supplement)
1.4. AE 1991, 1641. From Abthungi, Africa Proconsularis (modern Henchir
Es-Souar, Tunisia). Found at the large temple, reused in a late antique wall.
Dated 3758 CE. See also the similar inscriptions AE 1991, 16424, all with
similar language.

10

conpellentetemporum felicitate
ddd(ominorum) nnn(ostrorum) Valentis
Gratiani ac Valenti(nia-)
ni Invictissimorum
semper Auggg(ustorum) Publicius Felix Hortensius fl(amen) cur(ator) r(ei) p(ublicae)rostra
ad ornatumpatriae in melioremstatum redducxi (sic)itemque dedicavi.

5. AE 1992, 1767. From Ammaedara, Africa Pronconsularis (modern Hadra,

Tunisia). Found at the bath complex. Dated 336CE.
77

Boin, Hellenistic Judaism, on paganus.

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157

Nepotia[no et Facund]o co(n)s(ulibus)

P(ublius) Rutilius V[ flam(en)]
perp(etuus) curator [r(ei) p(ublicae)]
absidam a solo [in ther]mis
hiemalibus sua pecunia addidit.
6. AE 2004, 1798. From Aradi, Africa Proconsularis (modern Sidi Jdidi,
Tunisia). Found in a secondary context. Dated 4028CE.
beatissimis
florentissimisq(ue)
[temp]orib(us)
ddd(ominorum)
nnn(ostrorum) Arcadi Honori et Theodosi
ppp(erpetuorum) Auggg(ustorum) administrante M[an]lio Crepereio
Scipione Vincentio v(iro) c(larissimo)
consulare p(rovinciae) Fl(aviae) Valeriae Byz(acenae) plateam quae
splendori est civitati et huic natura loci denecabat ornatum aegestis ruderib(us) inaequalitate silicib(us) coequa5

tam (sic) additis quoq(ue) columnis arcib(us) circumclusis in

melioremfaciem
T(itus) F(lavius) Dyscolius
Therapius ex t(ribuno) fl(amen) p(er)p(etuus) c(urator) r(ei)
p(ublicae)
liberalitatem ob amorem civicum patriae inpendens proprio
sumptu excoluit perfecit et ludos scenicos praemiales edidit et cum
splendidissimo ordine feliciter dedicavit

7. CIL 8.25810 [= ILCV 1110; AE 1982, 934]. Found in Furnos Minus,

Africa Proconsularis (modern Henchir el Msaadine, Tunisia). Found at the
Christian basilica. Dated 371400CE.
Fl(avius) Vitalis
fl(amen) p(erpetuus) vis (sic) cur[at(or)]
r(ei) p(ublicae) vixit[]
8. AE 1982, 961. Found in Leges Maiores, Numidia (modern Henchir
Gousset, Algeria). Exact find spot unknown. Dated 371400CE.
Pro felicitate temporum beatorum
Quintus Cassius Taurus fl(amen) p(er)p(etuus) Legalis
ob honorem flamoni paterniconsensu splendidissimi ordinis sibicon

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5

DouglasBoin
locati cenitatem curiam sum(p)tu proprio
repparavit(sic)

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