stivals and sacrifices. [22] It was
natural that the emperors should not refuse what the proconsuls had
accepted; and the divine honors which both the one and the other
received from the provinces, attested rather the despotism than the
servitude of Rome. But the conquerors soon imitated the vanquished
nations in the arts of flattery; and the imperious spirit of the first
Caesar too easily consented to assume, during his lifetime, a place
among the tutelar deities of Rome. The milder temper of his successor
declined so dangerous an ambition, which was never afterwards revived,
except by the madness of Caligula and Domitian. Augustus permitted
indeed some of the provincial cities to erect temples to his honor, on
condition that they should associate the worship of Rome with that of
the sovereign; he tolerated private superstition, of which he might be
the object; [23] but he contented himself with being revered by the
senate and the people in his human character, and wisely left to his
successor the care of his public deification. A regular custom was
introduced, that on the decease of every emperor who had neither lived
nor died like a tyrant, the senate by a solemn decree should place him
in the number of the gods: and the ceremonies of his apotheosis were
blended with those of his funeral. [231] This legal, and, as it should
seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles,
was received with a very faint murmur, [24] by the easy nature of
Polytheism; but it was received as an institution, not of religion, but
of policy. We should disgrace the virtues of the Antonines by comparing
them with the vices of Hercules or Jupiter. Even the characters of
Caesar or Augustus were far superior to those of the popular deities.
But it was the misfortune of the former to live in an enlightened age,
and their actions were too faithfully recorded to admit of such a
mixture of fable and mystery, as the devotion of the vulgar requires. As
soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into oblivion,
without contributing either to their own fame, or to the dignity of
succeeding princes.

[Footnote 21: See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principium.
It would be easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the
quotations of that learned Dutchman.]

[Footnote 211: This is inaccurate. The successors of Alexander were not
the first deified sovereigns; the Egyptians had deified and worshipped
many o