Emperor cult: Eagle ascending
The emperor held so much power that the only beings with whom comparison could be made were gods, and the only adequate homage seemed to be the honors given to deities. The power of emperors, although it seemed almost supernatural, did not mean people expected them to act supernaturally; nor were prayers and votive offerings given to them.

Nevertheless, in gratitude for favors bestowed or in anticipation of future blessings, honors equal to those given to the gods seemed appropriate: so people dedicated temples to them, set up their statues with the attributes of deities, offered sacrifices in their honor, and ascribed divine titles to them. For such practices, the imperial cult was born.

Typically, the new ruler directed the Senate to deify (apotheosis) his predecessor, although some emperors (Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and Commodus) demanded divine honors in their lifetime. In art an eagle ascending to the sky (carrying the soul of the deceased emperor) often symbolized deification. A relief from Ephesus depicts Trajan rising to heaven in the chariot of the sun.

Christianity did not enter a religious vacuum. People were not sitting around waiting for a new religion to burst on the scene.. Often cities anticipated official policy and instituted divine honors for the living emperor. Cities in Asia Minor promoted the imperial cult aggressively because the empire brought them great prosperity.

Ephesus provides a good illustration: it declared Julius Caesar a manifest god and set up a shrine to Augustus within the great temple area dedicated to Artemis. Worship was also given to Nero in connection with Artemis, and a temple to the Flavian emperors was dedicated under Domitian. A new temple to Hadrian as Zeus Olympius was also built, and a festival (Hadrianeia Olympia) was instituted.

A plethora of paganism
In the end, the strongest rival of Christianity proved to be traditional paganism, with its multiplicity of divine powers, rituals of sacrifice, temples, statues of deities, votive offerings, and periodic festivals. There is no neat way to sum up the variety, yet perhaps a few quotations from ancient sources can give a flavor of the devotion and superstition that held hope for so many (see "From Black Magic to Mystical Awe," p. 36).

Philosophy served for many people in the ancient world the functions we expect of a religion—providing a moral code and giving spiritual guidance. In the late third and fourth centuries, under such thinkers as Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Sallustius, Neoplatonism allied itself with traditional paganism. The last creative form of Greek philosophy, it defended sacrifices, magic, and astrology as part of its own spiritual vision of reality.

Traditional religions, then, were deeply entrenched in the ancient world, and in a variety of forms. It is no wonder that historians continue to probe this era to discover how exactly Christianity eventually uprooted them.

Everett Ferguson is professor of history at Abilene State University and editor of the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2nd edition: Garland, 1997).