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Deification and Julian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

Towards the close of the Epitaphios of Libanius on Julian we read:–

I have mentioned representations (of Julian); many cities have set him beside the images of the gods and honour him as they do the gods. Already a blessing has been besought of him in prayer, and it was not in vain. To such an extent has he literally ascended to the gods and received a share of their power from them themselves.

The statement that Julian was made synnaos theos, or something of the sort, has many precedents. On the other hand, the assertion that he had hearkened to prayer calls for special consideration.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright ©Arthur Darby Nock 1957. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 XVIII, 304. My attention was drawn to this passage by Martin Charlesworth, who would have been so happy to join in paying honour to Hugh Last. My thanks are due also to Professors Herbert Bloch, Morton Smith, C. Bradford Welles, and Dr. Georg Luck for kindly help.

P. Petit, Libanius et la vie municipale a Antioche (a notable contribution (see below, p. 236), as is his Les Etudiants de Libanius, to the study of religious as of social conditions in this time of transition), 336, dates the speech in 368: cf. his remarks in Historia V (1956), 479 ffGoogle Scholar.

2 cf. Harv. St. Cl. Phil., XLI (1930), 1 ff.Google Scholar The statement of Script, orig. Constantinop. I, p. 53 (Preger), is described by Bidez-Cumont, Iuliani epist. et leges, p. 215, as suspect; I think it certainly false.

3 So earlier Charlesworth, , CR XLVI (1932), 225.Google Scholar cf. Harv. Theol. Rev. XLV (1952), 239Google Scholar, on the analogy offered by the cult of standards.

4 Harv. St. XLI, 47 ff. cf. W. M. Calder, MAMA V, p. XXXVIII (to Zeus Bronton, euchen, and to a deified father), the double use of propitius (Weinstock, P-W, s. v.); Cels. ap. Orig. C.C. VIII, 63 (perhaps echoed by Euseb., Triak. II, 4p. 224, 18 ff.), saying in effect ‘propitiate daimones and human rulers’; Apul., Met. III, 29, with Charlesworth, , Harv. Theol. Rev. XXVIII (1935), 36 fGoogle Scholar.; Aristid. XXVI, 32, with Oliver, J. H., Trans. Am. Philosoph. Soc. XLIII, IV (1953). 918Google Scholar.

5 Rubensohn, O.. Arch. Pap. V, 156 f.Google Scholar (cf. U. Wilcken, id. 202, n. 1); P. Wendland, Hell-röm. Kultur (ed. 2) 406. Ruler-cult was still relatively new. So Suet., Div. lul. 85, says of the column erected to Julius: ‘apud earn longo tempore sacrificare, vota suscipere, controversias quasdam interposito per Caesarem iure iurando distrahere’; in this account of spontaneous demonstrativeness it is suggested, but not stated, that the vota were made to Divus Julius. MAMA 1, 23, gives an exvoto of A.D. 184; the erased first two lines may have addressed this to Commodus. CIL III, 5935, is an exvoto to [Caracalla, Geta], Julia, the Capitoline triad, and the Genius of a cohort, made by the commander; here the combination of deities with rulers alters things (cf. ILS 232, a vow undertaken and paid to deities followed by Divus Augustus; the text is preserved in two copies, one opening with Imp. Neroni, the other with Divae Poppaeae Augustae, both datives of honour). Beaulieu-Mouterde, , Mél. Beyrouth XXVII, 19471948, 6 ffGoogle Scholar.; cf. XXXII, 1955, 181, give what appears to be a votive to a Ptolemy and Aphrodite epekoos. Carm lat. epigr. 878, 12, ‘illic se solvit dis nisi vota litant’ seems verbiage.

6 ILS 545; cf. numini Augusti votum susceptum at Narbo in A.D. I I (ib. 112), where indeed the votum seems to be an unconditional promise.

7 cf. Harv. Theol. Rev. XLV, 240.

8 W. Henzen, Acta fratrum Arvalium 102 f.

9 CIL VIII, 8834; cf. J. Toutain, Cultes III, 39; Weinstock, P-W, s. v. ‘Mauretania (Religion)’, col. 2362.

10 Diod. Sic. XVIII, 60 f.; Plut., Eum. 13; cf. Herter, H., Rh. Mus. LXXIV (1925), 164 ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Wilamowitz, Glaube der Hellenen II, 263, but cf. Chr. Habicht, Gottesmenschentum d. griech. Städte (Zetemata XIV, 1956), 17 ff.

12 cf. H. P. L'Orange, Apotheosis in ancient Portraiture.

13 cf. A. Alföldi, Kontorniaten 39, 85 ff., 102.

14 Apart from the promise of posthumous deification and worship in Ps. Callisth. I, 33, 11, the story of Dio Cass. LXXIX, 18, of the appearance of a daimon having the semblance and claiming the name of Alexander is a sign foretelling the rule of Alexander Severus; cf. those in SHA Alex. Sev. 13.

15 apud Athen. VIII, 318 B (quoted after Callimach., Ep. 5); Page, D. L., Greek Literary Papyri I, 446 ffGoogle Scholar.; cf. Peek, P-W s. v. ‘Poseidippos’ (XXII, 434). The epithet Sozousa applied to Berenice II as worshipped on the shore suggests the ascription of similar powers (Zenob. III, 94; E. G. Turner on P. Ryl. 585, 27). Does the appearance of Berenice as a supposed author of magic literature (Tert., Anim. 57) imply a certain aura of the supernatural?

16 ILS 190; cf. A. v. Premerstein, Werden (Abh. Bayer. Ak. N F XV, 1937) 45 ff In IGR IV, 661, 22, theoi Sebastoi, theoi Patrioi, and specific deities are asked to guard and witness a funerary foundation

17 Alex 4, іλεωѕ εіη: cf Aristid. XLVI (ii, 324, Dind.) on Plato (a passage no more serious than is Cic., Off. III, 41, pace vel Quirini vel Romuli dixerim); Liban. XVIII, 178 (on Porphyry). Epinomis 975A (on the men of old) is more serious, and so is Sallustius 4 p. 10, 3 (the gods and the souls of those who wrote the myths). The invocation to Plato in the Royal Tombs to be propitious ‘here also’ (OGIS 721) sounds like real prayer; Plato was remembered by visitors to this part of Egypt (cf. A. Bataille, Les Memnonia 172). One may recall the jest of Babr. 15; Cic., ND III, 50. Charlesworth, (CR XLVI, 1932, 225Google Scholar) quoted ‘Divin Voltaire, ora pro nobis’ and remarked ‘he would be a bold man who claimed to understand exactly Frederick's feelings’.

18 cf. Rohde, , Psyche I, 232, 245Google Scholar.

19 Aegyptus XXXIII (1953), 283 ffGoogle Scholar., note the reservation of Fraser, P. M., JEA XLI (1955), 137Google Scholar, as to Preisigke 3448 and his remarks, ibid, XLII, 109. Hadrianic texts (Preisigke 6995 f.; Johnson, A. C. in Frank, T., Economic Survey II, 282Google Scholar) record the registration of home-born slaves and the payment of ‘the appropriate aparche for the 7th day solemnity in honour of the goddess Berenice Euergetis’. This has been taken as evidence of continued worship, yet it was possible for the cult to disappear but the tax to keep its traditional title; so S. L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt 277 (cf. Cl. Préaux, L'économie royale des Lagides 337, for an inheritance tax in the second century B.C. described as ‘the dues belonging to the goddess Berenice’).

20 cf. Baehrens, W. A., Philol. LXXXI (1926), 371 fGoogle Scholar. On Philo's invocation of Moses, , Somn. I, 164Google Scholar; cf. Belkin, S., J. Bibl. Lit. LX (1941), 67Google Scholar, and C. W. Larson, ib. LXV (1946), 194 f. There is a depth of feeling; but Moses was present in the Scripture to ‘hear’ (cf. Luke 16, 29; Polybius 1, 13, 6). So Philostrat. VIII, 7 (11, 302, Conybeare), makes Apollonius ask Pythagoras to defend him, since he was on trial for the principles of P. (the assistance of Vespasian, asserted earlier (p. 292), is simply the fact of their encounter in Egypt).

21 cf. H. Frère, Mél. P. Thomas, 300 ff. For special forms cf. Valgius ap. Pliny, NH XXV, 4; Quintil. IV, pr. 5.

Prudent., Symm. I, 245 ff., has been quoted as evidence for the ascription of effective divinity to emperors; 248 responsa poposcit shows this is unfounded. P. 's point is that emperor worship was but the continuation of the process of deification by which traditional gods had attained worship.

22 Stud. zu Martial 159, with most useful material.

23 Harv. Theol. Rev. XXIII (1930), 251 ffGoogle Scholar.

24 cf. Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great II, 357Google Scholar; Jacoby 124 F31 (with note).

25 V. Sackville-West, Saint Joan of Arc (Penguin ed.) 184.

26 Weinreich, o.c.; K. Scott, Imperial Cult under the Flavians 118 ff.

27 For parallels cf. Weinreich, 157 ff.

28 Morenz, S., Würzb. Jahrb. IV (19491950), 370 ff.Google Scholar, suggests that V. was supposed to be acting in the capacity of a Pharaoh as the ‘living image’ of deity. The Pharaoh was in theory the channel of supernatural blessings, including the rise of the Nile. But is there any suggestion that a particular ruler could cause a specially good rise, such as happened for Vespasian, and is a Pharaoh ever credited with healing or other personal miracles ? His divinity was official and impersonal (apart from special instances; cf. below, n. 46).

On the other hand, Sarapis miracles were a commonplace at Alexandria; what more natural than that a couple should be produced for ‘(the new) Sarapis’ as V. had been acclaimed by the populace (H. Musurillo, Acts of the pagan Martyrs 31, where I propose ∑άρ[απιѕ ὁ νέοѕ])? Julian 311A suggests that the incident was remembered.

H. Gollancz, Julian the Apostate 247 ff., gives a story of a healing in which Jovian was the modestly reluctant instrument of Providence.

29 Stud. z. Gesch. d. alten Epeiros (Lunds U.Å., N.F. I, vi, 4, 1909) 70, n. I. O. Weinreich, Ant. Heilungswunder 68 ff., shows the appropriateness of the foot as the member employed.

30 Nepotianus (in Kempf's Val. Max. 608) 9, 24, says that the toe was kept in the temple of Zeus at Dodona. It was a curiosity, not credited with powers like the triens of the Servilii (Messalla ap. Pliny XXXIV, 137).

The Pyrrheion at Ambracia (Polyb. XXI, 27, 2) has been regarded as a heroon, but the separate disposal of the toe makes this unlikely; it may also have been a palace, conceivably acquiring the name in popular use after the king's death, for the reason that he was the first to make Ambracia the royal seat. There is no doubt that his remains were sent back to Epirus (Justin XXV, 5, 2; Val. Max. V, ext. 1, 4) and that the Argive story (Pausan. I, 13, 8; II, 21, 4) that they remained in a local precinct of Demeter is a pure invention.

31 cf. the supposed question of the oracle about the living Lycurgus (Hdt. I, 65).

32 Imp. Pomp. 41; Ad Q.fr. I, 1, 7.

33 e.g. Manil. I, 41 f.; Herm., Exc. XXIV; L. Delatte, Les Traités de la Royauté.

34 Suet. Div. Aug. 98; cf. Alföldi, , M. Helv. XI (1954). 134 ffGoogle Scholar.

35 Ad Q fr. I, 1, 6.

36 Leg. ad Gaium 151; cf. A. Calderini, Dizionario dei nomi …, I, 118. Note, as addressed to Theodosius I, Pan. lat. II (XII) 6, ‘a quo petit navigaturus serenum, peregrinaturus reditum, pugnaturus auspicium’.

37 Ap. Nilsson, Gesch. II, 133, n. 4. cf. The Joy of StudyF. C. Grant 134, n. 23.

38 Suet., Div. Claud. 4, 3. Citizens as well as natives in Paphlagonia swore loyalty ‘by Zeus, Earth, Helios, all the gods and goddesses, and Augustus himself’ (Cumont, Stud. Pont. III, no. 66; V. Premerstein, Werden, 47 ff.). This form presumably received Imperial approval.

39 Martin, R., BCH LXIV–V (19401941), 163 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Pouilloux, J., Rech. sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos I, 62 ff.Google Scholar (with Fraser, P. M., AJA LXI, 1957, 99 f.Google Scholar). Jacoby on F. Gr. Hist. 572B, 4, may well be right in supposing that the name of the slave leader Drimakos was attached to an earlier cult; it remains that such an individual could be credited with remarkable powers.

40 Erman, A., Abh. Berlin 1917, IV, 10 ffGoogle Scholar.; Dörner, F. K., Denkschr. Wien LXXV, i (1952), 40Google Scholar, no. 78 Νέωι θεῶ[ι] Ἀντινόωι εὐχὴν Σωσθένη[ς]).

41 cf. Eitrem, S., Symb. Oslo, VIII (1930), 1 ff.Google Scholar; F. Solmsen, P-W s. v. ‘Philostratos’ (XX, 156 ff.).

42 cf. Hierocl., in carm. aur. 70 f. (i483 Mullach), and the idea of divinization in Greek Christianity (J. Religion XXXI (1951), 214 f.Google Scholar). For Philo's application of theos to Moses and others, cf. Stauffer in Kittel, G., Theol. Wörterb. III, 91Google Scholar, n. 115.

43 cf. Rohde I, 246.

44 Carm. lat. epigr. 576.

45 Kaibel, Epigr. gr. 314; cf. Welles, C. B., Harv. Theol. Rev. XXXIV (1941), 90Google Scholar f.; F. Cumont, Rech. symb. 282; Seston, W., Coll. Latomus II, 313Google Scholar.

46 Harder, R., Abh. Berlin 1943, XIV, 9Google Scholar, n. 7; Nilsson II, 496. A dedication in the South market at Miletus (1, vii, 349, no. 285) Βασιλεῖ ἐπηκόῳ εὐχήν is late Imperial and can hardly be addressed to a ruler. Rehm notes various divine possibilities: cf. ‘to the Basileus of the Curetes and to the Curetes’ on Chios [Mitsos, M., Hesp. XVI, 1947, 87Google Scholar]; Βασιλεύѕ ὁ θεόѕ at Caunus (Bean, G. E., JHS LXXIV, 1954, 96Google Scholar); Βασιλεῦ δέστοτα, possibly solar (D. Sourdel, Les cultes du Hauran 55); βασιλεύѕ of Attis (Chadwick, H., JTS, ns III, 1952, 90 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

Ancient Egypt presents a different picture from Rome; in spite of the general impersonality of monarchic divinity, certain kings, like others, acquired the status of independent supernatural beings able to aid: cf. Harv. Stud. cl. Phil, XLI, 14; H. Bonnet, Reallexikon 385 ff.; J. St.F. Garnot, Bibliographie (1939–1943) 127.

Here after all it was an old idea that even great figures among the recognized gods had once been earthly rulers of the land.

47 It is in this sense that Labeo ap. August., Civ. D. II, 14, included Plato among the semidei. cf. Oliver, J. H., Harv. Theol. Rev. XLII (1949), 35 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on Trajan's physical father and others as having attained what might be called divinity of the second class. Minuc. Fel. 21, 9: ‘qui consecrantur non ad fidem numinis sed ad honorem emeritae potestatis,’ is just.

48 Recherches sur le paganisme de Libanius (Rec. trav. conf. Louvain LIII, 1914), 91.

49 XXIV, 39 f. –XIII, 47 (in 362), ‘the body of a man, but the soul of a god is on the throne’ need not mean too much, but note Ep. 1220, 3 (after the news of J.'s death), ‘concerning whom you think rightly in reckoning him in the company of the gods’ (cf. XVIII, 308). On the other side Greg. Naz., Or. IV, 94 (PG XXXV, 626C), speaks of ‘those who revere his actions and would to us make (of him) a new god’.

50 XVIII, 177. Professor Bloch reminds me of the story in which the Regenivunder is ascribed to the prayers of M. Aurelius; cf. Isocr. IX, 14, on Aeacus and Tod, M. N., JHS LXXIII (1953), 140Google Scholar (epitaph on man who had accomplished remarkable things by prayer). Libanius XV, 29 f.; XVII, 5, speaks of the gods as accompanying Julian; cf. JRS XXXVII (1947) 102 ffGoogle Scholar.

51 cf. F. Dvornik, Late classical and mediaeval Studies … A.M. Friend 71 ff.; Petit, o. c. 194, 282.

52 Cumont, Ét. syr. 104; cf. Julian 234 B/C Greg, V, 14 (col. 681A) asserts that he tried to throw his body into the river in order that he might be thought a god. cf. Asmus, R., Zeitschr. für Kirchengesch. XXXI (1910), 365Google Scholar, on this as adapted from an Alexander legend (with E. Mederer, Die Alexanderlegenden 159 f.).

53 Philostr. VIII, 31. cf. Alföldi, Kontorniaten 75, and, on the Aurelian story, Fisher, W. H., JRS XIX, 1929, 147Google Scholar. Euseb, Adv. Hierocl. 7, challenges his adversary, ‘Show me the operation of his divinity enduring to this day.’ Hierocles appears to have claimed only that Apollonius was worshipped at Ephesus as Heracles Alexikakos (Lactant. Div. Inst. V, 3).

54 cf. J. Bidez, Vie de julien 298; C. Galil. 335 C (Ps. Apul. Ascl. 24 [Hermès p. 327 12N. –F.], may, in spite of Scott IV, 187, mean the same things by its reference to the land of temples becoming full of tombs; this follows immediately on the prophecy of the persecution of paganism, which is certainly an insertion); Misop. 344A; the Cyril fragment in Neumann, Iul. c. Chr. 85; possibly c. Galil. 224E (cf. Wright ad loc. III, 385, n. 1).

55 P. 45, Boissonade (1822); p. 424, Wright (L.C.L.).