著者

阪本 浩

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典学研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.35, pp.91-100, 1987

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Greek writers rarely mentioned about the imperial cult Our author Aelius Aristides, however, frequently attended at the meetings of the provincial assembly So we may expect his orations to tell us something about the Greek attitudes toward the Roman imperial cult The Cyzicus speech (Or 27 K), one of such orations, is delivered at Cyzicus on the occasion of the dedication of Hadrian Temple, a temple for the provincial imperial cult This panegyric consists of three parts the praise of the city of Cyzicus, the description of the Temple, the encomium of two emperors But, as G Bowersock pointed out, nowhere in this panegyric does he call an emperor as a god He explicitly distinguishes the emperor from the traditional gods Instead, he calls the Hadrian Temple as "a thank offering to the gods," and says as follows, "We should be grateful to the gods, but we should congratulate the emperors and join in prayer for them" The Greeks erected many temples and cult images of the emperors, nevertheless, they did not call the emperor as a god, and in practice did pray for the emperors Here at least we may see one aspect of the Greek attitudes toward the imperial cult Another feature of the Cyzicus Speech is its patriotic tone He speaks of the temple of the imperial cult in terms of the Greek mythology and the glory of the Greek past. He refers to the temple as the pride of a Greek city. It it true that praise of the city where the festival is located is conventional in the panegyrics And yet, at the same time, we ought to pay attention to some passages in his other orations, where Anstides suggested how the leading Greek cities engaged in strife because of the temples and festivals of the koinon. And, judging from other sources, the title of neokoros, "temple warden," was such a distinction for the Greek cities that it became a cause of the struggles among them. It seems that the temple of the provincial imperial cult was recognized as the pride of a Greek city. We may be justified in pointing out another aspect of the Greek attitudes toward the imperial cult.