From emperor to god: applying statistical methods to the spread of the Roman imperial cult in the eastern Mediterranean (1st–3rd century CE)

Abstract The imperial cult is generally seen as a main instrument used by Roman emperors to ensure their subjects’ fidelity and, at the same time, as a central aspect in the public life of Eastern cities of the Empire that changed dramatically over time. Building on Hellenistic ruler cults that already framed the relationship between rulers and ruled in the Greek-speaking world, Roman emperor worship in the East developed as a polycentric and locally negotiated phenomenon rather than as a top-down imposition by Rome. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the establishment of Roman rule and the development of the imperial cult in the Greek cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, from 27 BCE to 235 CE. We focus on the Eastern Mediterranean, with particular emphasis on Asia Minor, where evidence for the imperial cult is densest and inter-city competition for imperial honors is most clearly attested. Methodologically, the relationship between emperors, the Greek cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and the sites where emperors were worshiped can be seen as a complex network data structure, and, as such, this paper applies a multimode network approach to chart the evolution of the imperial cult. Following a brief explanation of how the emperor was worshiped, and the political and religious implications of their worship, the paper addresses the dataset constructed and the methodology adopted, before dividing into a discussion of the results. The methodology section includes accessible explanations of key network measures, including betweenness centrality—which identifies nodes that serve as bridges between different parts of the network—and community detection, which reveals clusters of closely connected entities. The final section is devoted to some general conclusions. Considering the inherently incomplete and fragmented nature of evidence related to the ancient world, this approach allows for a more accurate and nuanced comprehension of intricate interactions and dynamics, and it indicates that the imperial cult is best understood as an adaptive, locally driven phenomenon rather than a uniformly imposed state religion.