ions. Thus the Roman empire was
founded.

FOOTNOTES:

[140] The Lex Clodia of 58 B.C. made these distributions legal.--ED.

[141] At a very low price.--ED.

[142] 1600, according to Mommsen, "History of Rome," Bk. IV, ch. x.--ED.

[143] Grandson.--ED.

[144] Grand-nephew.--ED.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE EMPIRE AT ITS HEIGHT

THE TWELVE CAESARS

=The Emperor.=--In the new regime absolute authority was lodged in a
single man; he was called the emperor (imperator--the commander). In
himself alone he exercised all those functions which the ancient
magistrates distributed among themselves: he presided over the Senate;
he levied and commanded all the armies; he drew up the lists of
senators, knights, and people; he levied taxes; he was supreme judge;
he was pontifex maximus; he had the power of the tribunes. And to
indicate that this authority made him a superhuman being, it was
decreed that he should bear a religious surname: Augustus (the
venerable).

The empire was not established by a radical revolution. The name of
the republic was not suppressed and for more than three centuries the
standards of the soldiers continued to bear the initials S.P.Q.R.
(senate and people of Rome). The emperor's power was granted to him
for life instead of for one year, as with the old magistrates. The
emperor was the only and lifelong magistrate of the republic. In him
the Roman people was incarnate; this is why he was absolute.

=Apotheosis of the Emperor.=--As long as the emperor lived he was sole
master of the empire, since the Roman people had conveyed all its
power to him. But at his death the Senate in the name of the people
reviewed his life and passed judgment upon it. If he were condemned,
all the acts which he had made were nullified, his statues thrown
down, and his name effaced from the monuments.[145] If, on the
contrary, his acts were ratified (which almost always occurred), the
Senate at the same time decreed that the deceased emperor should be
elevated to the rank of the gods. The majority of the emperors,
therefore, became gods after their death. Temples were raised to them
and priests appointed to render them worship. Throughout the empire
there were temples dedicated to the god Augustus and to the goddess
Roma, and persons are known who performed the functions of flamen
(priest) of the divine Claudius, or of the divine Vespasian. This
practice of deifying the dead emperor was called Apotheosis. The word