he _Romans_ the belief in the divinity of
living men and women was of a vague character. In Homer the epithet
_dios_ when applied to human beings (individuals or peoples) means
little more, if any more, than 'of exalted character' (except in the
case of mythical heroes, like Achilles, who were of actual divine
parentage). At a later time such divinization was sometimes treated
jestingly. If Plutarch may be accepted as authority,[638] Alexander did
not take his own godhead seriously, did not believe in it, but allowed
it merely for its effect on others. It was little more than a farce
when the Syrian-Greek Antiochus II, for services rendered to a city, was
called "Theos" by the grateful citizens;[639] it was the baldest
flattery when Herod's oration[640] was greeted by a tumultuous assembly
as the "voice of a god." Augustus, though he allowed temples and altars
to be consecrated to him in the provinces, did not permit it in Rome,
being, apparently, ashamed of such procedures.[641] The most infamous of
the early emperors, Caligula, received divine honors in his lifetime by
his own decree.[642] Apart from these particular cases, however, the
general conception of the possibility of a man's being divine had a
notable effect on the religious development in the Roman Empire.[643]
The custom, for example, of burning incense before the Emperor's statue
(which faithful Christians refused to do), while it strengthened the
idea of the presence of the divine in human life, doubtless debased it.

+348+. Deification of living men is not found in the great national
religions of _India_ and _Persia_. Mazdaism, like Hebraism, kept the
human distinctly apart from the divine: Ahura Mazda is virtually
absolute, and Zoroaster and the succeeding prophets, including the
savior Caoshyanc, are men chosen and appointed by him.[644] Vedism
developed the nature-gods, and in Brahmanism the goal of the worshiper
was union with the divine, but not independent divinity; the muni by
ascetic observances might attain a power equal or superior to that of
the gods and feared by them,[645] but he remained (like the old
magician) a powerful man and did not receive divine worship.[646] In
recent times the followers of the Brahma-Samaj leader Sen are said to
have worshiped him as a god[647]--apparently an isolated phenomenon, the
origin of which is not clear. Buddha was purely human to himself and
his contemporaries. The ascription of divinity to the Tibetan Gr