Søren Lund Sørensen

Cassius Dio and the Foreigners

In his account of the introduction of the imperial cult in Asia Minor Cassius Dio implies that Octavian distinguished between Roman citizens and foreigners. While the Romans had to worship Julius Caesar and Dea Roma, the foreigners are said by Cassius Dio to have been entrusted with the worship of the ruler of the Romans. Cassius Dio’s description of these foreigners is somewhat nebulous, and this paper undertakes an investigation into their identity, arguing that Cassius Dio can only have been referring to the provincial assemblies, the so-called koina. Reviewing recent epigraphic material does, however, lead to the conclusion that Cassius Dio’s account of the genesis of the imperial cult is a gross distortion of historical facts, since no division between Romans and foreigners ever seems to have existed with regards to the imperial cult in Asia Minor. Rather, Roman citizens appear to have been involved in the cult from the outset.

5 Maccabees 13 and the missing ambassador

This article traces the impact of Eupolemos, the Jewish historian and ambassador, on Jewish tradition. Eupolemos plays an important role in 1 and 2 Maccabees as one of the ambassadors sent to Rome by Judas Maccabaeus. Josephus elaborates the role of Eupolemos and associates him closer to Judas Maccabaeus than was the case with the accounts found in the first two books of the Maccabees. A much-overlooked Jewish work extant in Arabic, 5 Maccabees , commemorates the pact made between the Romans and Judas Maccabaeus, but fails to mention the Jewish ambassador Eupolemos. 5 Maccabees , as well as Sefer Josippon , appears to exalt Judas Maccabaeus. The increased status of Judas is, however, to the detriment of Eupolemos, who is written out of Jewish tradition in the medieval period.