Where did this idea come from that Roman citizens worshipped

>>2818751
They didn't, you idiot.

They worshipped *dead* *worthy* emperors, who are believed to undergo apotheosis once they die and become part of the Imperial Cult.

It's what happens when you have an Ancestor-Worshipping society like Rome: the Emperor becomes this state ancestor of sorts and gets venerated by his subjects. You see similar shit in ancestor-worship in China.

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>>2818775
Chill out, Mark. I know that they didn't. I'm simply wondering how this myth has been perpetuated. Your answer was good though.

>>2818789
Nero, I think, became a god whilst living. It was one of his outrageous acts.

>>2818811
Well yea, I reckon that's a pretty good exception. But that dude was a fucking psychopath. It's not like the people revered him.

>>2818844
I guess when people say "Romans worshipped their Emperors" they forget/leave out the fact that you have to be dead and voted by roman religious heads as ascended into divinity.

>>2818854
Yea, that juicy little tid bit was definitely left out of the history instruction I received as a youth.

>>2818844
>It's not like the people revered him.
They actually did, especially the commoners, and especially in the eastern parts of the Empire.
The senators hated him tho

>>2818874
Really? From what I could assertain everybody was just terrified of the guy. Do you know why he was so popular among the peons?

>>2818881
Enormous spending on infrastructure projects and charity, public relief efforts paid from his own personal funds after the burning of Rome, giant gladiatorial shows and festivals all the time, siding with freedmen against the Senate on the question of whether their freedom could be revoked, publicly playing the lyre for the people, etc.

Here's what Dio Chrysostom said about him:
>so far as the rest of his subjects were concerned, there was nothing to prevent his continuing to be Emperor for all time, seeing that even now everybody wishes he were still alive.

>>2818910
That's actually pretty dope. I didn't know any of that.

Generally the cultivation of the emperor was worship and devotion of the emperor's genius (the guardian angel of the royal family), and not worship of the emperor himself.

Usually Christians try to push this narrative that Rome was some ancient, North Korean totalitarian regime; where things such as humility and morality didn't exist yet.

>>2818751
>>2818789
Because Augusutus was worshiped as a god in the Eastern proviences while he was still alive. Roman citizens only worshiped him after his death, and even that was tied up heavily in his association with his patron god Apollo and divine ancestor Venus.
Source: Rubicon.

>>2818751
Isn't that how they found the Jews and montheists? Because they refused to worship the emperor?

>>2818975
They weren't looking for them, everyone but Nero and Caligula who thought it was funny to make the Jews have to worship them let them be Monotheists in peace.

>>2818811
Doesn't sound that outrageous.

>>2818989
It is kinda funny.