| And Augustus set the tone for the emperors who came after him. During his life, he was the sole religious authority in Rome. And on his death, by vote of the Senate, he too was declared a god. The Forum is a living testament to Augustus's precedent. Temples to deified emperors would soon dominate this sacred space. So here is the temple to the emperor Antoninus Pius. And here, these columns were the temple to the emperors Vespasian and Titus. Now, Vespasian, who was a bluff soldier, kept a sense of humour about divinity. When he lay on his deathbed, he joked, "I think I'm about to become a god." But other emperors lacked his sense of detachment. The demented emperor Caligula cavorted as the goddess Venus in a gorgeous bejewelled dress. The emperor Hadrian took all of it a step further when he deified his young gay lover. And as for Nero, he built a 120-foot statue of himself as the sun god, right here in the centre of Rome. |
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