As soon as their divinity was established by law, it sunk into oblivion, without contributing either to their own fame, or to the dignity of succeeding princes.
[Footnote 21: See a treatise of Vandale de Consecratione Principium.
It would be easier for me to copy, than it has been to verify, the quotations of that learned Dutchman.] [Footnote 211: This is inaccurate.

The successors of Alexander were not the first deified sovereigns; the Egyptians had deified and worshipped many of their kings; the Olympus of the Greeks was peopled with divinities who had reigned on earth; finally, Romulus himself had received the honors of an apotheosis (Tit.Liv.i.

16) a long time before Alexander and his successors.

It is also an inaccuracy to confound the honors offered in the provinces to the Roman governors, by temples and altars, with the true apotheosis of the emperors; it was not a religious worship, for it had neither priests nor sacrifices.

Augustus was severely blamed for having permitted himself to be worshipped as a god in the provinces, (Tac.Ann.i.