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Hunc deum quis credet? Some Considerations on the Belief in the Divinity of Emperors

Publication date: 26.06.2023

ELECTRUM, 2023, Volume 30, pp. 339 - 352

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.23.012.17329

Authors

,
Carmen Alarcón Hernández
Pablo de Olavide University, Swilla, Spain
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4369-4500 Orcid
All publications →
Fernando Lozano Gómez
University of Seville, Spain
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-5800 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Hunc deum quis credet? Some Considerations on the Belief in the Divinity of Emperors

Abstract

There are abundant examples of negative assessments of cultic honors to Roman emperors by nineteenth- and twentieth-century researchers. In the minds of historians raised in modern societies, in which monotheistic Abrahamic religions usually reign supreme, this is a completely understandable a priori approach; nevertheless, it hinders a correct understanding of Roman society in antiquity. This paper examines the need to provide a complex answer to the question of whether the inhabitants of the Roman world really believed in the divinity of their rulers. A complex answer to the question can only emerge from a historical contextualization of the phenomenon under analysis, an examination of the imperial cult within the wider changes that were taking place in Roman religion at the time, and application of the necessary empathetic approach.

References

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Information

Information: ELECTRUM, 2023, Volume 30, pp. 339 - 352

Article type: Original article

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4369-4500

Carmen Alarcón Hernández
Pablo de Olavide University, Swilla, Spain
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4369-4500 Orcid
All publications →

Pablo de Olavide University, Swilla, Spain

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-5800

Fernando Lozano Gómez
University of Seville, Spain
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3850-5800 Orcid
All publications →

University of Seville, Spain

Published at: 26.06.2023

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Carmen Alarcón Hernández (Author) - 50%
Fernando Lozano Gómez (Author) - 50%

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Publication languages:

English

Suggested citations: Harvard

Hernández, C., Gómez, F., 2023. Hunc deum quis credet? Some Considerations on the Belief in the Divinity of Emperors. ELECTRUM, Volume 30 (2023), pp. 339-352