OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE,

The deification of the emperors 1 is the onlyinstance in which they departed from their ac-customed prudence and modesty. The AsiaticGreeks were the first inventors, the successors ofAlexander the first objects, of this servile andimpious mode of adulation. It was easily trans-ferred from the kings to the governors of Asia ;and the Roman magistrates very frequently wereadored as provincial deities, with the pomp ofaltars and temples, of festivals and sacrifices/It was natural that the emperors should not re-fuse what the proconsuls had accepted; and thedivine honours which both the one and the otherreceived from the provinces, attested rather thedespotism than the servitude of Rome . But theconquerors soon imitated the vanquished nationsin the arts of flattery; and the imperious spiritof the first Caesar too easily consented to assume,during his lifetime, a place among the tutelardeities of Rome . The milder temper of his suc-cessor declined so dangerous an ambition, whichwas never afterwards revived, except by themadness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus permitted indeed some of the provincial citiesto erect temples to his honour, on condition thatthey should associate the worship of Rome withthat of the sovereign; he tolerated private super-

* See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principum. It wouldbe easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the quotations ofthat learned Dutchman.

y See a dissertation of the Abb6 Mongault, in the first volume of theAcademy of Inscriptions