This Jupiter, who begat so many sons, was the supreme god of the Pagans. In the words of _Orpheus_:
"Jupiter is omnipotent; the first and the last, the head and the midst; Jupiter, the giver of all things, the foundation of the earth, and the starry heavens."[125:11]
The ancient Romans were in the habit of deifying their living and departed emperors, and gave to them the title of DIVUS, or the Divine One. It was required throughout the whole empire that divine honors should be paid to the emperors.[125:12] They had a ceremony called _Apotheosis_, or deification. After this ceremony, temples, altars, and images, with attributes of divinity, were erected to the new deity. It is related by Eusebius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom, that Tiberius proposed to the Roman Senate the Apotheosis or deification of Jesus Christ.[126:1] Ælius Lampridius, in his Life of Alexander Severus (who reigned A. D. 222-235), says:
"This emperor had two private chapels, one more honorable than the other; and in the former were placed the deified emperors, and also some _eminent good men_, among them Abraham, Christ, and Orpheus."[126:2]
_Romulus_, who is said to have been the founder of Rome, was believed to have been the son of God by a pure virgin, Rhea-Sylvia.[126:3] One Julius Proculus took a solemn oath, that Romulus himself appeared to him and ordered him to inform the Senate of his being called up to the assembly of the gods, under the name of Quirinus.[126:4]
_Julius Cæsar_ was supposed to have had a god for a father.[126:5]
_Augustus Cæsar_ was also believed to have been of celestial origin, and had all the honors paid to him as to a divine person.[126:6] His divinity is expressed by Virgil, in the following lines:
"----Turn, turn thine eyes, see here thy race divine, Behold thy own imperial Roman Sine: Cæsar, with all the Julian name survey; See where the glorious ranks ascend to-day!-- This--this is he--_the chief so long foretold_, To bless the land where Saturn ruled of old, And give the Learnean realms a second eye of gold! The promised prince, _Augustus the divine_, Of Cæsar's race, and Jove's immortal line."[126:7]
"The honors due to the gods," says Tacitus, "were no longer sacred: _Augustus_ claimed equal worship. Temples were built, and statues were erected, to him; a mortal man was adored, and priests and pontiffs were appointed to pay him impious homage."[126:8]
