What Ways Did Julio-Claudians Use Traditional And Foreign Religion As A Political Tool?

In what ways did the Julio-Claudians use traditional and foreign religion as a political tool?

In this essay I will investigate the ways in which the Julio-Claudian dynasty used traditional Roman religion alongside foreign cults as political tools to legitimise their imperial role by emphasising divine heritage and provide religious cohesion by conflating traditional religion with aspects of foreign cults. I will use both ancient authors and modern scholarship to analyse the ways in which the Julio-Claudians used traditional and foreign religion in a political way. Moreover, I shall analyse my evidence via the themes, imperial cult, literature as propaganda, and material evidence: coins, inscriptions and statues.

Imperial Cult

First, I shall

30/29 BCE) permitted worship of Dea Roma and Julius Caesar by Romans living in Ephesus and Nicomedia instead of directing worship towards himself, however, Octavian did allow non-Roman provincials to set aside precincts that would be consecrated to himself. Burton states that Octavian did this for political reasons as he had expressly ordered that he himself should not be worshipped. I agree that this move appeased the non-Roman provincials’ style of hero-worship without incurring the wrath of the Roman provincials who would have seen the deification of a living man as sacrilegious. Alston agrees with Dio regarding the idea that provincials would send a decree asking if the emperor wanted to be worshipped with the choice left to the emperor to accept or decline the offer. Here, the example of Octavian sets out the idea that a ruler needed to be careful when dealing with their worship, lest people should think them to be encouraging their own deification. The effect of worshipping Roma is that provincials feel more closely connected with the city and culture of Rome. This shows how Octavian used religion as a tool for integrating provincials into Roman religious

This suggests Tiberius was purposefully trying to avoid connecting himself with divine worship and that he was acutely aware of the pitfalls of accepting such worship. Furthermore, one can see that Tiberius avoided worship as it would have unbalanced his public appearance were he to endorse his own worship. Interestingly, this is a case of an emperor stopping religious worship from being directed towards himself as a safeguard against his political enemies who would seek to use such worship as the basis for criticising his reign. In contrast, Caligula wanted to be worshipped as a living god in the provinces and in Rome. If Dio is to be believed, then this may have contributed to the growing ire against Caligula which eventually led to his assassination as it was improper to worship a man as if he were a living god. Suetonius also tells tales of Caligula wishing to be a god when he says that the heads of many deities’ statues were removed and his own were fitted in their place. This may simply be the exaggeration of Suetonius, a biographer, trying to make the character of Caligula seem more unhinged than perhaps he actually