APOTHEOSIS (Greek Ἀποθέωσις, Latin Consecratio). - In Rome it is the deification of the emperor after death. The origin of the rite is to be sought in the Syrian East, where it is common to find on funerary monuments the soul of the deceased depicted as an eagle; and it is a consequence of the astrological belief widespread during the Hellenistic era that the soul, an emanation of the divine substance of the sun, returns after death to its fiery principle on the wings of the eagle, the solar bird par excellence. In Rome, Augustus was the first of the sovereigns to benefit from this ceremony, which became typical in the practice of his successors. His body was placed on a great pyramidal pyre in the Campus Martius. Once the flame was set to the pyre, an eagle detached itself from it and flew on high, almost to signify that the emperor's soul was ascending to heaven (Suetonius, Aug. 100).
The fullest description of this rite is given to us by Herodian, on the occasion of the funeral of Septimius Severus. He describes the pyre, formed of several cubes of wood placed one upon another and adorned with draperies: on the second is laid the body with offerings of perfumes, fruits, and aromatic herbs. Knights and chariots bearing the images of victorious emperors and generals perform a circumambulation around the pyre, to which the new emperor then set fire. "Then an eagle is released from the top of the pyre, which, rising into the air amid the flames and smoke, carries, as the people believe, the emperor's soul to heaven"
(Herodian, IV, 2). After the apotheosis, the image of the sovereign who had become divus was no longer carried in the funeral ceremonies of his family together with those of the other deceased, but was placed on a special chariot (tena) beside those of the gods in public ceremonies, for example in the circus procession.
Individual temples were also built for deified emperors, until the emperor Tacitus created a common temple for all deified emperors; a particular priesthood was also established, which took its name either from the sovereign (for example flamen Augustalis, Claudialis) or from his family (for example sodales Flaviales). Imperial apotheosis ceased in the Constantinian era.
