Reading this thread allowed me to remember a lecture by my former Professor of Roman History, Richard Turk, a Professor of History at Allegheny College. To paraphrase his eloquent message:
"Lo, the great emperors of Rome, who deigned themselves and fashioned themselves as living God-Emperors. Seated on the golden throne of the Imperial Captilloline, in whose name the legions of Rome marched to overseas frontiers, conquering and sacking capitals, and enslaving entire populations to fuel the ever-hungry economy and machine that was the Roman Empire.
In life the God-Emperors were enrobed with the violet Imperial Regalia and crowned with golden Laurentius, their very hands were decorated with Imperial sages. From the moment they awakened in the morning, they were offered divine praises, upon visitng the Altars of the Roman pantheon of deities, they, too, were offered divine praises by the priests and by the senatorial class.
But in the end, the Emperor dies.
Who would have thought that such a regal persona such as the Imperial Eagle himself, the God-Emperor, who sits on the golden throne of Rome, upon the high altar of the Capitolline steps, would suffer a mortal fate?
A man who was washed with perfume, and massaged in olive oil, nails kept clean, foot covered in the finest silk, and whose body was covered by the most expensive armour when upon the field of battle. Whose noses were used to the smell of incense burning, and whose ears were used to hearing the praises of the governed.
Would be, in the end, destined to the Pyre. To be burned, to be reduced to ashes.
A god-emperor does die."
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