national divisions. The term which Strabo uses to represent in Greek the Latin Asia Provincia expressed the

true Roman point of view. He speaks of the Province as "the nation of Asia": i.e., the Roman Province took

the place of any national divisions: loyalty considered that there was only one nation in Asia, that the

Province was the nation.

As time went on and the past pre -Imperial miseries were forgotten, the fervour of loyalty, which had for a

time given some real strength to the Imperial religion, began to cool down; and there was no longer strength

in it to hold the Province together, while there was a growth in the strength of national feeling. Polemon the

Sophist of the time of Hadrian and Pius was called "the Phrygian," because he was born of a Laodicean

family; and when Ionians were using such a nickname, Phrygians naturally began to retort by assuming it as

a mark of pride. It was Hadrian probably who saw that the Roman ideal was not strong enough in itself

without support from local and old national feeling; and from his time onwards the Imperial policy ceased to

be so hostile to the old national distinctions. He did not try to break up the vast Roman Provinces; but there

are traces of an attempt to recognise national divisions: e.g., the new Province of the Tres Eparchiae was left

in fact and name a loose aggregate of three countries, Cilicia, Isauria, Lycaonia, which kept their national

names and had probably three distinct Communes or Councils. The union of Asia was already old; but he

tried to strengthen it in a way characteristic of ancient feeling, viz., by giving it a support in Anatolian

religion as well as in the Imperial religion.

During the first century the State religion was simply the worship of the Emperor or of Rome and the

Emperor. But that was only a sham religion, a matter of outward show and magnificent ceremonial. It was

almost devoid of power over the heart and will of man, when the first strong sense of relief from misery had

grown weak, because it was utterly unable to satisfy the religious needs and cravings of human nature.

From a very early time there seems to have existed in the Eastern Provinces a tendency to give more reality

to this Imperial religion by identifying the Divine Emperor with the local god, whatever form the latter had:

thus the religious fe elings and habits of the people in each district were associated to some extent with the

Imperial divinity and the State religion. Perhaps it was Domitian who first saw clearly that the Imperial

religion required to be reinforced by enlisting in its service the deep-seated reverence of men for their local

god. In the second century the custom of associating the Emperor with the local deity in a common religious

ritual seems to have spread much more widely, and the old tendency to make certain local gods into gods of

the Province became more marked. Under Hadrian a silver coinage for the whole of Asia was struck with the

types, not merely of the Pergamenian temple of Augustus, but also of the Ephesian Diana, the two

Smyrnaean goddesses Nemesis, the Sardian Persephone, etc., thus giving those deities a sort of Provincial

standing. This class of coins was struck under the authority of the Commune. But it was in the Flavian

persecution that this approximation between the native religions and the Imperial worship began first to be

important. This approximation put an end to the hope, which St. Paul had cherished, that the conquest of the

Empire by the new faith might be accomplished peacefully. It now became apparent that war was inevitable,

and its first stage was the Flavian persecution.

Figure 7: The Temple of Augustus at Pergamum. Coin of the Commune of Asia

In Asia the Ephesian religion of Artemis was the only native cultus which had by its own natural strength

spread widely through the Province. Before the Roman period the royal character of Pergamum had given

strength to its deities, especially Asklepios the Saviour and Dionysos the Guide (Kathegemon). The latter

was the royal god, and the royal family was regarded as sprung from him, and the reigning king was his

representative and incarnation. Asklepios, on the other hand, was the god of the city Pergamum. Hence in

several cities even in distant Phrygia the worship of those two deities was introduced; and after the Roman

period had begun, the respect felt for the capital of Asia was expressed by paying honour to its god. This is

very characteristic of ancient feeling. The patron god is the representative of his city, just as the angel in the

Seven Letters stands for his Church. Municipal patriotism was expressed by worshipping the god of the

city; and other parts of Asia recognised the superior rank of Pergamum by worshipping Asklepios the