Imperial Cult under the Julio-Claudians: Conclusion

**THE EAGLE HAS LANDED:ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE

1. The Religion of Empire
   (iv) Imperial Cult under the Julio-Claudians: Conclusion**

For the purposes of a book on Paul, we need not take the story further. None of the three emperors who followed Nero in quick succession were divinized, nor did they have time to do much about organizing cult at home or abroad. The next one who restores the pattern is Vespasian, succeeded by his son Titus; both were divinized only after death. His other son, Domitian, who came next, Titus having not produced an alternative heir, followed the style of Caligula and Nero in wanting to be addressed as divine: it is he who demands to be called dominus et deus, ‘lord and god’, a phrase familiar to readers of John’s gospel.289 Attempts are made from time to time to explain that Domitian was not quite as bad an emperor as Tacitus and Suetonius make out, but such comparisons are relative. For our purposes, we note the construction of yet another imperial temple at Ephesus, where fragments of what must have been a positively enormous statue of Domitian have come to light.290 It is still possible to see the chisel-marks with which, after his death in 96 AD, the locals in Ephesus erased his name from the stone marking the temple’s dedication, and substituted that of Vespasian. A case of reverse supersessionism…