The Imperial Cult: A Cretan Perspective

Forty years after the publication of Sanders’ Roman Crete , a broader range of evidence for the imperial cult on Crete is available—temples and other structures, monumental architectural members, imperial altars, portraiture and statuary, coinage, statue and portrait bases, other inscriptions, priest and high priests, members and archons of the Panhellenion, and festivals—and far more places can now be identified as cities participating in the imperial cult. This evidence can be set into multiple Cretan contexts, beginning with the establishment and evolution of the imperial cult across Crete, before locating the imperial cult in the landscape of Roman Crete. The ultimate Cretan contexts are the role of emperor worship in the lives of the island’s population, as it was incorporated into Cretan religious and social systems.


I. Introduction
When Ian Sanders' seminal work on Roman Crete was published in 1982, his assessment of the imperial cult on the island was based on epigraphic, numismatic, and literary evidence from Gortyn, Kydonia, Knossos, Lyttos, and Arkades, as well as an inscription from Rhodes. 1 In his chapter on religion he focused on the cult of the deified Augustus, deifications of and dedications to emperors from Tiberius to Septimius Severus, and the likely organization of the cult. 2 In his chapter on art he gathered together examples of imperial sculpture in order to place the island in the context of the empire. 3orty years after the publication of Sanders' Roman Crete, a broader range of evidence can be considered, and far more places identified as cities participating in the imperial cult.This evidence, presented in Appendix I, is derived from four major fields of study: the archaeological record continues to reveal temples and other structures and monumental architectural members as well as imperial altars; art history explicates the portraiture and statuary found in excavations and otherwise; numismatics gathers and presents the coins; epigraphy makes available the greatest variety of elements of the imperial cult, from imperial altars and bases for portraiture and statuary to other inscriptions-whether discovered in excavation or otherwise-while the texts inscribed on them inform us about priests and high priests, members and archons of the Panhellenion, and festivals.Appendix I is arranged by location, from west to east so as to begin with Phoenix and Lissos on the southwest coast of the island (A-B) and end with Itanos on the northeastern coast and an unknown location in eastern Crete (P-Q), followed by the Cretan Koinon (R).Each location is assigned a letter of the alphabet, to be cited in bold in the discussion that follows.Within each location, elements of the imperial cult are presented in the categories given above; within each element, pieces of evidence are given an Arabic number (1-102), for ease of reference in the discussion that follows.
Even Sanders' statement that "no temple that can definitely be identified as of the imperial cult has yet been found" can be updated. 4At Gortyn Temple B, in the eastern reaches of the later Praetorium complex, can be identified as a temple of the imperial cult, one first built in the first century BCE to first century CE and dedicated to Augustus, and then entirely reconstructed in the Antonine period (26). 5Temple C ( 27), also at Gortyn, was probably located at a crossroads (compitum) dedicated to the imperial cult in the early second century.The Asklepieon at Lissos in southwestern Crete can also be identified in part as a temple of the imperial cult, on the basis of an inscribed doorjamb that records Tiberius' order that the decree of the Cretan Koinon and his reply to it be inscribed in temples of Augustus, as well as portraits of Tiberius and his son Drusus found therein (2-3). 6t is not, however, necessary to find an extant temple in order to trace elements of the imperial cult in Crete.In his exhaustive study of Roman imperial art in Greece and Asia Minor, Vermeule stressed the significance of coins and inscriptions as well as portraiture and statuary. 7For Asia Minor, Price documented the distribution of imperial altars, temples and priests, and took into account the archaeological and numismatic evidenceincluding statues and inscribed texts-for the imperial cult. 8Here we will assemble the evidence for the imperial cult on Crete throughout the first two centuries of the empire and into the third century. 9In order to focus on the religious aspect of the imperial cult, we will impose rather strict criteria for evidence thereof, 10 even though doing so entails omitting a great many examples of portraiture and statuary that are honorary rather than cultic or of unknown function, imperial images on coins, honorific statue bases and other inscriptions, and some evidence related to festivals.
The ultimate question is the role of emperor worship in the lives of the island's population.Sanders, like many modern scholars, wrote that the imperial cult was not so much a religious phenomenon as a political one. 11Such an assessment is characteristic of modern assumptions that identify emotion as the criterion for the religious significance of rituals, and consider politics and religion mutually exclusive categories. 12Camia argues persuasively for the double character-both religious and political-of the complex phenomenon modern scholars call the imperial cult. 13Here we will attempt to provide a regional, Cretan perspective, as Price did for Asia Minor, 14 by examining five aspects of the role of the imperial cult within Cretan urban culture: 15 (1) the degree to which Roman authorities and/or communities of Roman status may have played a role in establishing the imperial cult; 16 (2) the evolving forms of emperor worship Cretan subjects of the empire developed, in order to represent the ruling power to themselves; 17 (3) the landscape of the imperial cult in the island's capital, colony, and free cities as well as other organized, urban communities; (4) the relationship between the imperial cult and other Cretan cults, including the ways emperors were integrated into the local religious system; 18 and (5) interaction(s) between the imperial cult and Cretan social systems, i.e., the degree of involvement for elites and other social strata in this religious, social, and political phenomenon. 19

II.1. Temples and other structures, monumental architectural members
Temples and sanctuaries were one way to evoke divinity in the Roman empire; stoas and their long architraves were favorite places for Greek cities and sanctuaries like Gortyn to honor the imperial family. 20On Crete as in Greece we should look not only for temples dedicated to the emperor(s) alone but for temples of Roma and Augustus or older Greek temples altered to accommodate imperial portraits. 21Temples and other structures can be identified not only at Gortyn (26-27) and Lissos (2) but also at Sybrita (18), Chersonesos (89), and Arkades (92).
Structures other than temples or stoas could be transformed into temples of the imperial family by placing images inside them or surrounding them with statues. 22In the Greek East-from the mainland to Asia Minor, Cyrene, and Egypt-there was no one defined building type associated with the imperial cult, which could be accommodated by a sanctuary without a temple, an altar, a single suite of rooms or spaces attached to a portico, or even a complete structure not in temple form. 23Imperial temples and shrines could assume a wide range of forms, from special rooms in porticoes and gymnasia to freestanding buildings in their own sanctuaries. 24Theaters were transformed, with dedicatory inscriptions or statues on large bases that turned them into sites for the imperial cult. 25On Crete there is evidence for an athletic-festival complex at Gortyn that included a temple (26), stadium, and gymnasium of Augustan-Tiberian date, all connected to the celebration of the imperial cult (see fig. 4 below), as well as a theater at Gortyn (34) and a bath complex at the free city of Lappa (11).For other buildings that served the imperial cult, we have monumental architectural members: inscribed epistyles, architraves, lintels and such, at Gortyn (28-33), Lebena (73-74), Aptera (10), Eleutherna (12-13), Knossos (20), and Lyttos (77); the epistyle found at Heraklion (19) may well have come from Knossos by way of Venetian or Turkish quarrying and looting.
In addition to temples and other extant structures, as well as monumental architectural members, there is contextual evidence for places where the imperial cult might have been celebrated at Gortyn.The archaeological record there offers far the greatest range of structures associated with the imperial cult (see fig. 4 below).Varied forms of the imperial cult from Augustus onward were probably practiced in different contexts. 26The Agora appears to have been the location for one or more structures relevant to the imperial cult: a building dedicated to divus Augustus, possibly on the north side of the Agora and east of the Odeion; 27 another feature on the south side of an area south of the skene of the Odeion; 28 and the Odeion itself. 29Crossroads (compita) like that near the so-called Praetorium were a recognizably Italian feature introduced by negotiatores, attested at Gortyn from the first century BCE to the end of the second century CE. 30 Evangelides draws attention to the discovery of a pair of podium temples-another recognizably Italian feature-east of the Megali Porta bath complex, in a prominent position overlooking the possible mercantile agora of the city; they appear to be dated to the second quarter of the second century. 31

II.2. Imperial altars
Imperial altars-evidence derived from both the archaeological record and epigraphyare one source for knowing about sacrifices on behalf of or less commonly to the emperor, another way to evoke divinity for a figure situated between human and divine. 32In assessing the religious character of emperor worship, it is important to note when the emperor is named on an altar or represented in a cult statue. 33Sacrifices and libations are mostly evinced by altars dedicated to specific emperors, the theoi Sebastoi, or an emperor assimilated to a god, especially when the dative or genitive case is used. 34In Roman Greece in general, Hadrian is the emperor most often named on imperial altars. 35Our knowledge of this and any type of inscription is dependent upon discovery by chance or in excavation.On Crete, the extant altars have been found at Eleutherna (14, to divus Augustus), Knossos (21-22, to Caesar Augustus), Gortyn (34, to Domitian), Lyttos (78-80, to Trajan),  Chersonesos (90, to Trajan), and Hierapytna (94, to the divine Caesar). 36

II.3. Portraiture and statuary
Cult statues and images set up in a temple or other sacred structure are a third way to evoke divinity for the emperor. 37No aspect of the imperial cult on Crete has been as comprehensively studied as the portraiture and statuary, to which we can now add major studies for Gortyn and the prefecture of Heraklion. 38Again, the current focus on the cultic aspects of the imperial cult means that a great many portraits and statues are not included in this study.
Greek cities but in small and relatively undistinguished centers. 41Almost every city must have had one or more places for worship of emperors and their families. 42n Greece and Asia Minor, Vermeule estimated that few statues and somewhat less than a few portrait heads survive. 43Busts served to evoke in those who saw them the presence of the emperor and imperial house and might be among the portable images displayed in processions. 44Thus far, Gortyn provides the only reference to a cult statue of the emperor (35); a pair of portraits from Lissos (3) can also be considered here, as they were displayed inside the temple of Asklepios.
Particular attention should be paid to the simulacrum divi Augusti at Gortyn (35), for which the Cretan Koinon requested that the privilege of asylia be reconfirmed in 22/23.This privilege was apparently confirmed, provided a bronze tablet be set up as a sacred memorial and as a reminder not to use religion for self-promotion. 45Rigsby reasons that (1) a statue of Augustus ought to have offered asylum without permission; and (2) that the policy decreed in 22/23 was that what was then traditional be allowed to persist but not expanded or multiplied thereafter. 46The cult statue itself does not survive but Cigaina compares three statue types represented on coinage of Gortyn and the Cretan Koinonseated (36-37, 98-99; see also 101), standing (102), and a detail of the head (38, 100)and argues that the statue referred to in Tacitus is the seated one. 47The type that shows the seated statue placed on a wagon drawn by elephants (36, 98) just may represent a procession celebrated as part of the imperial cult.This cult statue was certainly located in the imperial cult temple of Gortyn, which Cigaina would place in the Agora, perhaps on the north side east of the Odeion. 48Another possible location is the temple (26) in the athletic-festival quarter east of the Pythion, a temple constructed in the Augustan-Tiberian period. 49Cigaina ultimately suggests that there were in fact two cult statues, one in the Agora and one in Temple B (26), east of the Pythion in the eastern reaches of the later Praetorium complex. 50

II.4.1. The free city of Kydonia
Kydonia was a free city, a status conferred by Octavian in return for support during his struggle with M. Antonius. 55Kydonia provided regular civic coinage for western Crete from Augustus to Nero, with a brief interruption under Caligula, 56 and beyond.The extant civic coins were issued not only under the Julio-Claudians but under Domitian, Trajan, and Antoninus Pius.Throughout this period, three denominations were struck, each with a fixed type: a hexastyle temple appeared on the intermediate denomination, a dupondius (5-9).

II.4.2. The Cretan Koinon
Under Caligula, Cretan silver coins were issued by individual cities, although they were signed with the names of the governors with the Koinon serving as an intermediary body; 57 here we can consider them for the evidence they provide concerning the imperial cult in Cretan cities, including Gortyn (36-38).Under Claudius and Nero provincial silver coinage was issued by the Cretan Koinon on its own authority, as one aspect of its work that initially maintained a link to the imperial cult. 58Under Claudius three denominations emphasized his position as the true successor of Augustus (98-100 cf.101). 59After the reign of Nero, the Koinon ceased issuing silver coinage but continued issuing the bronze coinage that had begun under Caligula (cf.102, of Vespasianic date). 60

II.5. Bases for statues and portraits
Statue and portrait bases-a subject for the epigraphist more than the art historian-provide evidence even when the statues or portraits themselves have not survived. 61Statue bases and portrait inscriptions alone, rather than combined with surviving sculptures, form the best base for calculating the sheer quantity of representations of the emperors and members of their family. 62They might be found in a city's Agora, theater, gymnasium; in temple precincts; and at fountains and reservoirs. 63otive statue bases have been found at Eleutherna (15-16)-excavated by the University of Crete from 1985 onward-and particularly at Lyttos (81-87). 64Rethemiotakis' excavation of the acropolis of Lyttos, which revealed a second century bouleuterion used for emperor worship, increased the number of bases for statues or portraits-most of them honorific-beyond those known to Guarducci and Sanders.A long series of imperial inscriptions was erected at Lyttos, often each year, at the expense of the city trea sury and under the supervision of the protokosmos. 65It is surprising indeed that the Gortynian and Knossian records preserve not one votive statue base, despite their status as provincial capital and Roman colony, respectively.

II.6. Other inscriptions
Inscriptions that do not qualify as monumental architectural members, altars, or votive statue bases can only be called "other inscriptions."A variety of such inscriptions are distributed across the central and eastern parts of the island, most of all at Gortyn (39-45).Beyond the capital city, such inscriptions hail from the Roman colony at Knossos (23) and other cities: Phoinix, Eleutherna, Lebena, 66 Arkades,and Itanos (1,17,[75][76]93,96).
We should pay particular attention to inscriptions-including those for temples and other extant structures, monumental architectural members, and priests and high prieststhat reflect prayers for such concepts as the prosperity and welfare, good fortune, victory, health, safety, well-being, and eternal permanence of the emperor, his house, the senate, Rome and the Roman people, as they are evidence of vota pro salute imperatoris. 67At Gortyn the proconsul of Creta-Cyrenae made annual vota to the Capitoline Triad for the welfare of the emperor and empire. 68Remnants of such vows may be visible not only at Gortyn (30-31, 43, 45) and Lebena (73-74), but at Eleutherna (13), Sybrita (18, as promised by the proconsul), Chersonesos (89), Arkades (92), and possibly at an uncertain site in eastern Crete (97).

II.7. Priests and high priests
No one type of inscription attests to priests and high priests; we can examine a variety of texts from Gortyn and Knossos to an unknown location in eastern Crete.It is Gortyn that provides far the greatest amount of evidence for priests, of the divine Augustus and Roma, the divine Augustus, the divine Trajan, and the Cretan Koinon (46-60).Elsewhere evidence is preserved for priests of divus Augustus and divus Vespasianus at Knossos, and a high priest of the Cretan Koinon named at an unidentified city in eastern Crete (24-25, 97).
At Gortyn and Knossos sacerdotes Augusti were probably ordained by the conventus civium Romanorum and by the colonists, respectively. 69Archiereis of the Cretan Koinon were elected at the annual plenary meeting of the Koinon. 70High priests of the Koinon presided over this annual assembly of representatives from Cretan cities, at Gortyn. 71They are named in dating formulae (47, 50-52), in inscriptions commemorating public works (31, 56) and Koinon games (58), possible vota pro salute imperatoris (97), honorary inscriptions for members of the Roman administration (53, 59) and Roman emperors (47, 54-55), and an apparent dedication (60). 72One likely high priest of the Cretan Koinon was sent to Cilicia, to express condolences for the death of Trajan, to pay homage to Hadrian as the new emperor, or perhaps both (49).

II.8. Members and archons of the Panhellenion
While the Panhellenion functioned from a base in Athens, we can consider it an element in Cretan participation in the imperial cult as Doric Crete belonged to it as an ethnos for which the Cretan Koinon functioned as its regional league. 73The Panhellenion was an organization that evolved from responsibility for a cult of Hadrianus Panhellenius, with a four-yearly festival of the Panhellenia, to a center of the imperial cult. 74It orchestrated the offering of honors to the ruling emperor, particularly at accession, and came to organize worship of the theoi Sebastoi both living and dead. 75Its members-including the Cretan Koinon-provided Panhellenes and Panhellenic archons from mainland Greece and the Doric, Ionian or Aeolic periphery of mainland Greece. 76The three cities of Crete that fielded known Panhellenes and Panhellenic archons are Gortyn (61-62), Lyttos (88), and Hierapytna (95). 77

II.9. Festivals
Imperial festivals and celebrations formed the essential framework of the imperial cult; 78 in them, individual elements such as temples and other structures, portraiture and statuary, altars and sacrifices, priests and high priests came together.The combination of imperial festivals and priests constitutes a particularly significant indicator of emperor worship. 79n the Greek East procession, sacrifice and competitions were the three essentials of a festival. 80The activities attested in the Cretan epigraphical record include details of the rituals celebrating the imperial cult at Lissos and other members of the Cretan Koinon (4); evidence for a procession from a provincial temple at Gortyn-in the Agora or else in the eastern reaches of the later Praetorium complex (26)-to the stadium for the Koinon contests at Gortyn (63); games and quinquennial games at Gortyn (64, 66, 70-72); festival calendars at Gortyn (65, 67); and the celebration of imperial birthdays at Gortyn and Chersonesos (69, 91).At Gortyn a monumental altar in the open space north of the stadium-where altars dedicated to Theos Hypsistos and Jupiter Optimus Maximus have also been found-could have lain along a processional route that led from a provincial temple (26) to the North Street, which connected the whole city from east to west (or west to east), as it passed in front of the temple and through a compitum where it crossed the West Road, between the Pythion and Temple of the Egyptian Gods, and possibly on to the Agora southwest of the Odeion. 81In the imperial cult organized by the Cretan Koinon, the competitions were converted from isolympian to isopythian contests, to reflect Augustus' Apollonian propaganda as well as the growing relevance of Apollo's cult at Gortyn. 82A Lyttian xystarch (70), who directed the athletes' training space at Gortyn and supervised the games held in the city, enjoyed the emperor's trust as a type of priest of the imperial cult within the athletic association and as the emperor's intermediary visà-vis agonistic rituals. 83

III. A Cretan perspective
The imperial cult was neither static nor monolithic but evolved and varied regionally, as the relationship between the emperor and his Greek subjects was continually negotiated 77 Spawforth -Walker 1985, 80 fig. 1. 78 Price 1984b, 102. 79Camia 2018, 111. 80Chaniotis 2003, 5-6. 81 Lippolis 2016, 164, cf.162 fig.11.2. 82Lozano 2017, 152. 83Hervás 2017, 92. and always subject to local conditions. 84Under Augustus the array of honors accorded the emperor was critical in conceptualizing his political actions as comparable to those of a god; as innovations they often involved extensive elaboration and explanation. 85Price offers the following template for Asia Minor: after Augustus and his immediate successors, the array of honors came to be more and more institutionalized; the number of individual recipients of cult decreased; and collective cults took over from those of individual reigning emperors. 86ow that we have examined the types of evidence for the imperial cult on Crete, we can begin to provide a Cretan perspective on the imperial cult by ( 1) seeing what role local elites and Roman authorities and/or communities might have played in establishing the imperial cult within the framework of the Cretan Koinon and (2) examining the forms of emperor worship that evolved on Crete.In the eastern provinces of the empire initiatives from below were the norm for establishing and developing the imperial cult, as it grew spontaneously at local and provincial levels.87Provincial elites and notables such as the archiereis were one of the groups active in establishing the imperial cult, protagonists at whose initiative imperial cult practices-including vota pro salute imperatoris-were introduced on Crete (Fig. 1). 88uring this first chronological phase, the Augustan-Tiberian period appears to have been particularly productive. 89Across place and time, the imperial cult was organized across under the aegis of the Koinon of the Roman period. 90Pre-existing Greek assemblies like the Koinon provided a ready-made administrative machinery to propagate the imperial cult, e.g., issuing decrees (2). 91In Augustus' reorganization of koina in the Greek East, the full title of the Cretan Koinon was τὸ κοινὸν τῆς Κρητῶν ἐπαρχίας, or more briefly (τὸ) κοινὸν (τῶν) Κρητῶν (50, 70, 72, 97); first century inscriptions from Gortyn and Rhodes give the formula τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Κρηταιέων (56, 66). 92embership in the Koinon is difficult to establish beyond the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula, when cities ceased signing or appearing to sign Koinon coinage, and the Hadrianic-Antonine period, when three cities represented the Koinon in the Panhellenion.We can show, nevertheless, that 11 of the 17 member cities contribute evidence for elements of the imperial cult cataloged in Appendix I. 93 Nine cities-including Kydonia and Lappa, even though they were free cities-issued Koinon coinage under Tiberius as well as Caligula. 94Other locations could have sent representatives to imperial festivals at Gortyn. 95Two cities, a Roman colony, and two ports that provide evidence for the imperial cult but were not members of the Koinon are Phoinix (A); Sybrita (G); Heraklion (H), a port of the colony at Knossos (I); and Lebena (K), a port of Gortyn where Gortynian kosmoi are explicitly named.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IMPERIAL CULT ON CRETE
The Koinon was not, however, the only group active in establishing the imperial cult on Crete.During the period when the imperial cult was being created under Augustus and consolidated under the Julio-Claudians, we should also look for evidence of the involvement of Roman authorities-proconsular and imperial initiatives or impetus-and the role of Roman communities at the capital at Gortyn, the Roman colony of Knossos, and the free cities of Lappa and Kydonia, as well as in other cities. 88 Cigaina 2020, 112, 144, 316. 89 By taking into account the fact that six entries in Appendix I (4, 47-48, 55, 69, 71) are derived from the same sources as other entries, we can arrive at a total of 96 pieces of evidence for the imperial cult on Crete.Of these 40 (41.7%)Cigaina 2020, 112, 117, 144. 91 Fishwick 1991, 93. 92 Cf.Cigaina 2020, 111-112 on the evolving name of the Koinon. 93Sanders 1982, 10 fig. 2 for 16 cities: Aptera, Arkades, Axos, Chersonesos, Eleutherna, Gortyn, Hierapytna, Itanos, Kissamos, Knossos, Lappa, Lato, Lyttos, Olous, Polyrrhenia, and Priansos; Pałuchowski 2005, 79-82 for Kydonia, where Greek names on coins are seen as those of protokosmoi.Compare Cigaina 2020, 114 for the cities identified by Sanders-minus Knossos which had duumviri rather than protokosmoi-plus Kydonia.To these we can now add Lissos, which in the Roman period had kosmoi (2).

III.1.1. Roman authorities
Direct proconsular and imperial involvement can be seen in the cult of divus Augustus and annual vota, rescripts, inscriptions dedicated to the cult of the imperial numen or referring to temples/festivals of Augustus, and reverse types for coinage of the Cretan Koinon.The Roman proconsul was another primary agent in the institution of the cult of divus Augustus and the performance of a vota to the Capitoline Triad for the welfare of the emperor and empire; he just may have also intervened in the Cretan calendar, to begin the year on the anniversary of Augustus' birth (cf.2). 96Augustus ought to have been the author of the probable imperial rescript written in Latin and preserved at Gortyn, as it mentions the date of Tiberius' adoption (40).Tiberius was certainly the author of a rescript recorded on a doorjamb of the Asklepieion at Lissos, one that authorized additions to ritual practice (2).Late in the reign of Tiberius the proconsul P. Virasius Naso dedicated an inscription in the Agora of Gortyn, to the numen ac providentia of Tiberius (42). 97It could have been in the Tiberian period that an inscription from Lebena refers to either temples or festivals of Augustus and names a proconsul whose praenomen, Lucius, is the only element of his name preserved (75). 98Coins of the Cretan Koinon also provide evidence of proconsular and imperial involvement in the establishment of the imperial cult.In the reign of Caligula Gortyn issued coins that appear to portray one of the two cult statues present at Gortyn (36-38). 99Claudian coins use the same iconography as the Caligulan issues, to link the new emperor with Augustus (98-100).

III.1.2. Roman communities
The conventus civium Romanorum at Gortyn was yet another group instrumental in the establishment of the imperial cult on Crete. 100The role of the Roman community in the provincial capital can be discerned in Latin inscriptions and a festival.In the reign of Augustus, two Latin inscriptions are preserved: an epistyle dedicated to [Augu]stus and [Roma] (28) and a dedication to Augustus as Caesar d(ivi) f(ilius) (39).In the reign of Tiberius, an epistyle may have belonged to a building sacred to divus Augustus in the Agora of Gortyn ( 29).Around the year 20, the civitas Gortyniorum erected a dedication to his son and heir apparent, Drusus Caesar as Ti(berii) f(ilius), Aug(usti) nep(os), divi pronep(os) (41).Cigaina 2020, 310, 314, 319.Inscription 2 refers to a day before the Calends of each month, just perhaps the birthday of Augustus on the 9 th day before the Calends of October.
99 RPC I, 230, where the statue is said to have been placed in the great shrine of Zeus Kretagenes, not known at Gortyn according to Sporn 2002, 379; see Portale 1998, 498, where it may have been placed in the building sacred to Augustus, cf.28. 100 Cigaina 2020, 272.
The Roman community at Knossos may also have been a driving force for the introduction and development of the imperial cult, at Gortyn as well as at Knossos. 101Their involvement is visible in imperial altars and an epistyle inscribed in Latin.Two altars were dedicated to Caesar Augustus (21-22); a possible epistyle at Heraklion-originally from Knossos?-names Caesar Augustus (19).
For Roman communities in the free cities of Lappa and Kydonia, only Kydonian coins preserve possible evidence of the imperial cult.In the reign of Tiberius, Kydonian civic coinage portrays a hexastyle temple that could have been devoted to the imperial cult under Tiberius (5); it appears on a podium under Claudius (6). 102Sanders suggested that this temple represented the actual shrine of divus Augustus, who was represented on the obverse of 5. 103 It remains possible that this reverse portrays a local temple in which the imperial cult was accommodated or a local temple commemorated on civic coinage. 104eyond the capital, colony, or free cities, the evidence available at Lissos shows that the Romanized communities participated in the establishment of the imperial cult.Festivals provided the requisite framework for worship of the emperors on Crete as elsewhere in the Greek East, as at the Asklepieion of Lissos where a rare inscription at the principal entrance to the temple, with lacunae in critical places, preserves both a decree of the Cretan Koinon that proposed additions to the celebration of the imperial cult and Tiberius' reply approving those additions (2).This inscription is one of the few that preserves details of ritual practices, as it specifies refraining from something obscured by the condition of the stone; praying with children and wives; and doing something that members of other ethne do, again obscured by wear to the stone. 105It is likely that these celebrations took place not only at Lissos but at other cities that were members of the Koinon in the reign of Tiberius.
Continuing northward and eastward from Lissos, we can take note of evidence for the establishment of the imperial cult at Aptera, Eleutherna, Lyttos, Arkades, and Hierapytna.At Aptera an epistyle that should belong to a temple or other structure is dedicated to Caesar Augustus (10).At Eleutherna an Ionic capital base was inscribed with a rather casual dedication, in Latin, to Imperator Caesar (12); an altar ( 14) and a cippus (17) were dedicated to divus Augustus.At Lyttos a likely architectural member was dedicated to Augustus (77).At Arkades there was a dedication to to Imp(erator) Caes(ar) d(ivi) f(ilius) Augustus (93, in second century letters).At Hierapytna an altar dedicated to the divine Caesar can be dated to the reign of Augustus if it refers to Julius Caesar, or less likely to the reign of Tiberius should it refer to Augustus (94).
From non-Cretan inscriptions we learn something of the competitions that were part of imperial festivals at Gortyn.There contests were celebrated by the Cretan Koinon, in honor of divus Augustus.These contests are mentioned in an inscription from Rhodes (66), possibly erected in the reign of Tiberius, that tells us of an isolympian boys' [pentath?]loncelebrated by the cities of Crete on behalf of the divine Augustus, a long race, wrestling and a pankration, as well as a crown the honorand received from the Cretan Koinon.The forms of worship that evolved on Crete came to include not only cults of the living emperor but cults of specific members of the imperial family, living or dead; the collective cult of the divi Augusti; cult statuary portrayed on coinage of the Cretan Koinon; and festivals including the celebration of imperial birthdays as well as games (Fig. 2). 106The reigns of Trajan and Hadrian appear to have been particularly productive in the evolution of the imperial cult.107Evidence for worship includes inscriptions that attest priests, high priests, members of the Panhellenion or Panhellenic archons.

III.2. Evolving forms of the imperial cult on Crete
Meetings of the Cretan Koinon-whose chief object was organizing and maintaining the cult of the emperor-are still likely to have taken place in Gortyn; 108 the Koinon's activities included voting honors (88), sending ambassadors (49), and representing Crete in the Panhellenion (61-62, 88, 95). 109Officials of the Koinon included the high priest (ἀρχιερεύς, 34, 46-52, 56, 58-59) and a magistrate responsible for athletic exercise in a covered colonnade in the gymnasium like that of Gortyn (ξυστάρχης, 70).The high priesthood was an annual post held by wealthy, powerful men, known to have been held twice by one man (58).Processions in which imperial images were transported from one part of the city to another (63) were a distinguishing feature of rites marking imperial festivals, responsibility for which lay with the current archiereus. 110One inscription names a pontifex quinquennalis, that is, a man who was archiereus when the quinquennial games were celebrated (60).
Cretan cults of living emperors are attested for Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan most of all, Hadrian, M. Aurelius and L. Verus.An architrave or lintel was dedicated to Vespasian at Lappa (11); an altar was dedicated to Domitian at Gortyn (34).A small shrine of Trajan was located at Arkades (92); 111 an imperial freedman set up a dedication to Trajan together with Jupiter Sol Optimus Maximus Sarapis at Phoenix (1). 112At Lyttos altars (78-80) and bases (81-87) were dedicated to him, in the dative.Base 84 is particularly interesting as it tells us that civic funds were allocated for ambassadors to be sent to Trajan for his birthday in 112, and further that a statue was dedicated to him from the funds that were left over.Between 102 and 116 a base was dedicated to Trajan at Eleutherna (15).In 117 Q. Marcius Insulanus of Gortyn was sent either to express Cretan condolences for the death of Trajan or to pay homage to Hadrian or perhaps for both purposes at the same time (49).
In the reign of Hadrian, a base was dedicated to him, in the dative, at Eleutherna ( 16); a Cretan from Gortyn belonged to the Panhellenion, which was a vehicle for worship of the living emperor (61).In the joint reign of M. Aurelius and L. Verus, Cretans from Hierapytna and Gortyn served four-year terms as Panhellenic archons (95, followed by 62).
Cults of specific members of the imperial family-living or dead-were the focus of worship from the beginning of the empire to the beginning of the third century.An epistyle from second-century Gortyn refers to the imperial family (33).A cult of the divine Vespasian is attested at Knossos (25) and one of the divine Trajan at Gortyn (54).Imperial birthdays were to be celebrated at Chersonesos probably in the reign of Antoninus Pius (91) and at Gortyn in the reign of M. Aurelius (60).A priest of the divine [Augu]stus and [Roma] at Gortyn is named in an Ephesian inscription erected early in the reign of M. Aurelius (53); the cult of divus Augustus at Gortyn is still attested in 195, under Septimius Severus (55).Iulia Domna was celebrated as mater [castrorum?] at Lebena in the reign of Septimius Severus (76).
Fishwick 2004, 268. 111 See Fadelli for 92 as evidence of a modest community of limited economic means that was interested in ingratiating itself to the sovereign and Roman functionaries active on the island (2020, 618).
112 Jupiter Sol Optimus Maximus Sarapis and all the gods are named in the dative before Imperator Caesar Nervae (filius) Traianus Aug(ustus) Germanicus Dacicus noster.Price would consider this a votive offering made as the result of a successful prayer (1984a, 91); Fishwick would consider this formula one that combines a votive dative-to Jupiter and all the gods-with a dative of honor addressed to Trajan (1990, 127).
Inscriptions also attest to the role abstractions played in the imperial cult on Crete, such as the vota pro salute imperatoris discussed above.The only Cretan evidence for another abstraction, the cult of the collective emperors-the Divi Augusti-is a plaque bearing secondcentury letters that mentions a gilded shield (clupeum inauratum, probably in the ablative), in a text that records the dedication of something to the [Divi] Augusti at Gortyn (44). 113his appears to be the only inscription in the Greek East that names the Divi Augusti. 114The abstract concept of the Divi Augusti emerged in Rome and the provinces of the Latin West in the middle of the first century and turned out to be one of the most widespread religious manifestations of the imperial cult in the western Roman empire. 115A smaller collective than the Theoi Sebastoi, they were a group whose members were accepted in accordance with the complex balance of power typical of imperial Rome, rather than the provinces. 116lipea/clipei, also spelled clupea/clupei, were embossed or ornamented shields, regarded as works of art rather than armor; gilded shields are attested in the Republican period. 117n the imperial period shields were an identifiably Roman icon, associated with emperors from Augustus onward. 118In the western provinces of the empire they constituted a visual expression of allegiance with and sympathy toward the imperial power. 119oinon coinage-whether silver or bronze-made Cretans aware of both changes to and overall continuity in the imperial household.Among these, Koinon coins supported Vespasian's image as a new Augustus ( 102), as they had done for Caligula (36-38) and Claudius (98-101).
Festivals continued to provide the requisite framework for worship of the emperors as the imperial cult evolved.Again, the evidence comes from outside Crete as well as on the island.An inscription from Argos (68) honors a herald and tragic actor who won four times in the games of the Koinon.A Thespiaian text (72) tells us that the Koinon games at Gortyn included a boys' pankration.On Crete, there is evidence for yearly as well as quinquennial festivals at Gortyn.In the eastern provinces in general, games became an expensive liturgy undertaken by the provincial priest. 120A third-century priest of the Cretan Koinon was honored at Gortyn for the unusually spectacular games he provided, with the permission of an unidentified emperor: three days of animal hunts in the theater; three days of contests that included two pairs of gladiators armed with hunting spears and animals to be slaughtered each day in a fight to the death; four days of gladiatorial games that included four pairs fighting to the death and the remaining pairs fighting with sharp weapons on each day (58, 71).
Quinquennial games of the Cretan Koinon are also attested at Gortyn and Lyttos.At Gortyn a fragment of a substantial inscription (60) names one [M.Antonius] son of M. Antonius, in the nominative to judge from the term pontifex quinquennalis transliterated into Greek.An inscription was erected at Lyttos, in honor of a local notable who was xystarch for the second time for the quinquennial games (70).Now that we have assessed the various types of evidence available over time, we can take account of the resultant geographical distribution of that evidence (Fig. 3).Price considers geographical distribution one of the contexts into which the imperial cult should be set in a regional study, even if it is problematically synchronic. 121The pattern he identified for Asia Minor reflects not the technical status of cities and settlements but their degree of communal organization, and their urban character. 122Vermeule, moreover, calls for careful consideration of the geographical distribution of imperial portraits and of their specific placement in a city or shrine, so as to construct a vivid conspectus of the Roman imperium in Greece and Asia Minor. 123Only in Roman colonies like Knossos were specifically Roman practices such as flamines or Augustales institutionalized; peripheral elements such as gladiatorial games or animal fights might be added to Greek ritual, as at Gortyn.124Most free cities like Kydonia and Lappa are known to have had an imperial priest or temple, or to have put the emperor's head on coins. 125Smaller communities as well as larger ones participated in the imperial cult, as a result of their urban development and local organization. 126In the case of Crete, it is the mountains of the island that do not appear; cities that appear to be more inland-Sybrita and Arkades-lie along north-south transit corridors, both oriented southward.

III.3. Locating the imperial cult in the landscape of Crete
Here we will consider (1) cities with a particular relationship to the Roman administration, and (2) organized, urban communities together with ports, first along the north coast and northern foothills of three mountain ranges, then along the south coast and the southern foothills of the same mountain ranges.The geographical distribution of evidence for the imperial cult on Crete is concentrated along the north coast and foothills of the island, from Kydonia to Itanos.Along the south coast, Lissos and Phoenix are the only western sites; Sybrita and Arkades are situated in the foothills of Mt.Ida and Mt.Dikte; Gortyn and her port at Lebena are located in the Messara; Hierapytna and Itanos are the only eastern cities.We will, moreover, focus on elements of the imperial cult for which archaeological contexts can be identified; we will also take particular note of the specific placement of elements of the imperial cult within civic topography whenever possible.Only at Gortyn and possibly at Knossos and Eleutherna can we speculate about the imperial cult's place in the civic landscape (see Figs. 4-6).

III.3.1.1. Gortyn and its port Lebena 127
Gortyn was not only an important urban center but also the provincial capital; not surprisingly, it preserves the greatest number and variety of elements of the imperial cult on Crete (Fig. 4a).Gortyn has all the hallmarks of a provincial center, with its acropolis, theater, forum, and Odeion; the Pythion and its theater or odeion; an amphitheater and a Roman theater; and a circus. 128While an early complex that comprised an imperial temple (26) and altar, stadium and gymnasium has been located east of the Pythion in the eastern reaches of the later Praetorium complex (Fig. 4b), the location of a number of portrait busts in the Agora might suggest another cult place or else a place where they were set up or displayed when not in use in processions. 129Stoas could display figures that were continuously updated like a visual calendar. 130Processional routes linked temple, altar, or stoa with structures used for staging spectacles attended by the masses of the city, such as theaters, amphitheaters, and circuses, which were closely connected with provincial centers. 131126 Price 1984b, 86. 127 Archaeological contexts at Gortyn cannot be identified for 30-32, 40-41, 43, 50, 62 cf.69, or 67.Several inscriptions were found not at Gortyn but at Cretan Lyttos (70) and outside Crete at Antioch, Ephesos, Rhodes, Argos, and Thespiae (49, 53, 66, 68, 72).Archaeological contexts at Lebena are not known for 74-75.
128 See Fishwick 2004, 1-3 for the sequence of temple or altar, public area, hippodrome or associated structure, well known in the eastern part of the empire as well as the west.
129 Set up south of the skene of the Odeion, in a structure near but not in the sanctuary of divus Augustus: Cigaina 2020, 280-283.Displayed when not in use in processions : Fishwick 2004, 279. 130Fishwick 2004, 210, 270, 282, 342-343.Thanks to long-term, extensive exploration and excavation by the Italian School of Archaeology in Athens, archaeological contexts are recorded for a number of elements of the imperial cult at Gortyn.In the Agora of Gortyn two series of Julio-Claudian statues were placed in a line, e.g., in a stoa, where a wall of large blocks was seen in place. 132ecent excavations of the Agora of Gortyn have revealed a North Stoa in front of the Odeion that met an East Stoa before it ran in front of Ag.Titos and on to the supposed Agoranomeion; the East Stoa was refaced in the time of Trajan and the Severans, in connection with work on the Odeion. 133he greatest concentration of evidence for the place of the imperial cult in the urban space of Gortyn was in the area around the Greek Agora, including the Odeion to its north and Ag.Titos to its south, an area that appears to have been one principal locus of imperial worship.The Agora is given as the provenience of inscription 42.The Odeion and its stoas closed off the north side of the Agora, where epistyle 29 and inscriptions 51-52 and 56 were found.On the other side of the Agora, Ag.Titos and its environs preserved epistyle 33, part of inscription 45, and six more inscriptions (54-55, 57-59, 65).At the location Mitropolis-south of Ag.Titos, across the modern road to Moires-a small late bath preserved part of inscription 61.North and east of the Agora, an imperial altar (34) was discovered in the theater at the foot of the acropolis; two inscriptions were found on the acropolis itself but not in situ (44 and the first of the inscriptions included in 61).
In the south and west part of the Greco-Roman city, a crossroads yielded an epistyle (28) and most recently the ruins of a small temple apparently connected to the imperial cult at the crossroads near the caput aquae (27).Across an east-west street from the later Praetorium complex, another inscription was found built into a cistern wall in the Nymphaeum (60).The Praetorium complex west of the Pythion is the provenience for fragments of inscription 45-one fragment of which had been found near Ag.Titos-which were found northeast of Temple B in the Praetorium complex (26).The Trajanic bath that replaced the Augustan-Tiberian gymnasium-succeeded in turn by the Praetorium complex-yielded inscriptions that constitute evidence for Greek-style games associated with the imperial cult (64), held in the adjacent stadium until the Antonine period.
Even farther to the south and west, inscription 39 was found along a route between the amphitheater that underlies the modern village of Ag.Deka and the Roman Circus; an unpublished statue of an emperor was recently found in the same location when the small road was being paved. 134t Lebena, Gortyn's port as well as the location of an important Asklepieion, a block or stele was found in the temple of Asklepios (76) while an epistyle was re-used in the church of Ag.Ioannis east of the shrine (73).

III.3.1.2. Colonia Iulia Nobilis Cnosus (Knossos) and its port Heraklion 135
The only Roman colony on the island was Knossos, which had a port at Heraklion in the imperial period.Roman Knossos has not been the subject of systematic excavation but has been the focus of extensive rescue excavation and survey since the early 1990s. 136For those elements of the imperial cult whose archaeological contexts are attested (Fig. 5a-b), we can note that inscription 23 was found to the north of the Civil Basilica, in a field near another Roman villa; the agora/forum of Knossos was probably somewhere in the region of the Civil Basilica. 137Altar 22 was found north of the theater; the garden of the modern Villa Ariadne yielded another altar (21). 138t is not surprising that the evidence for the imperial cult appears to have been concentrated in the civic and residential area that included the Civil Basilica, the theater, and the modern Villa Ariadne near the ancient Villa Dionysus. 139The Knossos Urban Landscape Project found that the Roman city was centered in the area of Villa Dionysus, across the ancient and modern road from the Civil Basilica and therefore the Greek Agora; it was surrounded by urban amenities that include other large urban villas and imperial statuary. 140The Knossos Roman Geophysics Project concluded that the Villa Dionysus was surrounded by other courtyard structures, and that the feature known as Makryteichos was probably the back of a terrace supporting a stoa and other structures. 141he feature that linked the areas of the Civil Basilica, the theater, and the Villas Dionysus and Ariadne is the Roman road that ran through the site roughly along the 80-100 m contour. 142The location of two imperial altars, one north of the theater ( 22) and the other in the garden of the Villa Ariadne ( 21) is intriguing; we just might be able to speculate upon a processional route from evidence for the cult arranged along a Roman road that ran through the colony. 143137 Found north of the Civil Basilica (Hood -Smyth 1981, 41, no.96).Probable location of Greek agora: Hood -Smyth 1981, 20, 23. 138 Altar 21, found in the garden of Villa Ariadne.Villa Ariadne was built in an area that may have been part of a better residental quarter of Knossos, to judge from the mosaic pavements found just northeast and east of the villa (Hood -Smyth 1981, 44, nos.130-131); parts of four prosperous Roman houses of the first two centuries CE above the Unexplored Mansion (Hood -Smyth 1981, 47-48, no.186; Sackett 1992); and remains of Roman buildings including a house, discovered in excavations for the Stratigraphical Museum Extension (Hood -Smyth 1981, 48-49, no.188; Warren 1988, 88-94).At least two important Roman structures were discovered in the field immediately north of the Villa Ariadne by the Knossos 2000 Project: (1) the remains of a 2 nd -3 rd century bathing establishment for private or at least restricted use, together with its athletic-themed mosaic; (2) the walls of a major public building, perhaps a bath house, close to the Villa Dionysus and across the road from the (probable) forum (AR 1995-1996, 41-42). 139The area of Knossos Village (Bougada Metochi) was in Roman times partly residential and partly given over to small industry and agricultural processing (Sweetman -Grigoropoulos 2010, 349-351). 140Trainor 2019, 8. 141 7 where sections of the Roman road are marked in red. 143Signs of the Roman road that ran through the colony begin to the northwest at a bridge over the stream that runs west of the Acropolis hill (near Hood -Smyth 1981, 39, no.69).An extra-urban section of Roman road has been found ca.250 m northeast of the bridge.We might note that on the lowest slopes of the Acropolis, at its northern edge, a concentration of amphora sherds has been located; it can be compared with concentrations at other entry points, one on the north edge of the city and another on its southern boundary.
This road is likely to have run to one side (perhaps east?) of the theater-and not through it, as the modern road does-to a section of road found south of the Civil Basilica, on one side of the Greek Agora (Hood -Smyth 1981, 43, no.116; Sweetman -Grigoropoulos 2010, 362 OTE-V).
Another section of road was found in front of the Knossos Taverna, which lies east of the Villa Ariadne (Sweetman -Grigoropoulos 2010, 344 ΔΕΥΑΗ Trenches and 365 no.4).
West of the Minoan Palace, the Royal Road Excavations revealed sections of a road with a different orientation (Hood -Smyth 1981, 50, no.211).
In Knossos Village a section of Roman road was found in the Mathioudakis plot, west of the main road opposite the entrance to the Palace (Hood -Smyth 1981, 50, no.208).

Fig. 5a-b. Knossos
From there the road ran on to a bridge over the Kairatos River and on toward the hinterlands south of Knossos (Hood -Smyth 1981, 50, no.204; Sweetman -Grigoropoulos 2010, 362 OTE-Y).It is worth noting that the southern area of the city constituted a distinct commercial zone with facilities for processing and packaging agricultural goods from the south, including a concentration of amphora sherds near a kiln as well as milling activities (Trainor 2019, 9-10).At modern Ag.Ioannis, well north of the Knossos Survey area (see Fig. 5a) and on the way to modern Heraklion, inscription 25-which could be honorary rather than funerary, given its use of the dative and its list of priesthoods-was found built into the metochi of Makrammetis; this structure preserved not one but two inscriptions that refer to men who appear to have belonged to the same milieu as the enclave of Italians in the northern area of Roman Knossos. 144Their preservation in a Turkish metochi may have been the result of the well-known pattern of quarrying and looting that brought movable Knossian antiquities northward from the ancient site.

III.3.1.3. The free cities of Lappa and Kydonia
Two free cities, each with a special status granted by Augustus himself, lay at Lappa and Kydonia on the north coast of western Crete.Lappa has been the subject of extensive rescue excavations in more than 20 plots;145 evidence for the imperial cult has been found in only one of these.Architrave/lintel 11 was found near a Roman bath complex on the northeastern side of the hill of modern Argyroupoli. 146No archaeological contexts can be identified at Kydonia, as only numismatic evidence (5-9) is available.

III.3.2.1. Along the north coast and in northern foothills 147
To the north of the White Mountains in western Crete, a single element of the imperial cult is attested at Aptera, east of Kydonia and west of Lappa, where an architrave was found near one of the Roman baths and cisterns at Aptera (10).
To the west of Mt.Ida, Eleutherna and Sybrita can be identified as urban centers that participated in the imperial cult.Eleutherna is particularly well known, thanks to excavations there by the University of Crete; for this study the excavations at Sector I (Katsivelos) are particularly productive (Fig. 6a-b).Inscriptions re-used in the Basilica of Euphratas and Roman House 2 may be associated with a shrine of Hermes and Aphrodite which could have housed the imperial cult: Ionic capital base 12, epistyle 13, and imperial altar 14.Another piece of evidence for the imperial cult at Eleutherna comes from the road in front of the so-called Roman Public Building, where it just might mark one point on a processional route (15).No Cretan city competed with Gortyn as a center for the imperial cult until secondcentury Lyttos-in the foothills of Mt.Dikte-became a major cult center. 148At Lyttos a bouleuterion built in the second century served the imperial cult and displayed a number of honorific statues or portraits on bases. 149Lyttos' port at Chersonesos shared in the upland city's enthusiasm for the imperial cult.There remains of the coastal city that have survived extensive development include an epistyle at the location Hellenika in Limen Chersonesou (89).

III.3.2.2. Along the south coast and in southern foothills 150
Lissos, on the southwest coast of Crete provides precious, albeit it sparse, information for a study of the imperial cult, evidence that can be located within the sanctuary of Asklepios.The Asklepieion there was apparently a site for worship of the emperor, to judge from an inscribed doorjamb (2) and two portraits heads (3) found there; the inscribed doorjamb contains rare evidence for rituals in imperial cult celebrations (4).South of Eleutherna, at Sybrita, a temple of Hermes was built and dedicated to a Flavian emperor, probably Domitian (18).

III.3.3. On the road from Lissos to Hierapytna
The most economical explanation for the geographical distribution of elements of the imperial cult is the route of the Roman road that ran from Lissos in southwestern Crete to Hierapytna in the southeast of the island.The tabula Peutingeriana preserves the general configurations of an articulated road system that converged on Gortyn in the Messara; this road was not a single project but one that evolved during the imperial period. 151he cities shown on Fig. 3 that do not lie along one of these routes are both coastal cities: Heraklion, the port of Knossos, and Itanos at the northeasternmost point of Crete.One segment of this road system ran westward from Gortyn and then north to Sybrita and Eleutherna before turning west to reach Lappa, Aptera and Kydonia, before turning south to reach Lissos. 152Another segment ran north from Gortyn to Knossos and then eastward to Chersonesos before turning south to reach Lyttos and Arkades, then east to terminate at Hierapytna. 153Separate roads connected Gortyn with its port at Lebena and with Hierapytna via Inatos. 154he emperor could be placed within the sanctuaries and temples of the gods in a range of ways, a number of which can be illustrated by the available Cretan evidence. 157At Eleutherna the shrine of Hermes and Aphrodite preserves evidence of a number of different ways of incorporating an emperor into the local religious system: a dedication to Imperator Caesar (12), an altar to divus Augustus (14), a base dedicated to Hadrian ( 16), and a dedication to or on behalf of the tyche, victory and eternal permanence of an emperor whose name is not preserved (13).Elsewhere emperors were honored at ancestral religious festivals or at their own festivals, temples, and sacrifices, as at the Asklepieion of Lebena where an early inscription that refers to temples or else games of Augustus (75).Trajan received an unusual dedication together with Jupiter Sol Optimus Maximus Sarapis at the port city of Phoenix (1), on the south coast of Crete.158At Sybrita a temple of Hermes was dedicated for the sake of the well-being and permanence of an emperor whose name is not preserved, even though it remains clear that the temple belonged to Hermes (18).Part of the exterior of a temple could honor the emperor, as at Lissos where an inscribed doorjamb of the Asklepieion commemorated Tiberian approval of additional rituals in the celebration of the imperial cult at temples of Augustus, apparently among members of the Cretan Koinon (2).Honorific busts, as opposed to full-sized statues, could bring the emperor and imperial family into the temple, even its cella, and at the same time indicate subordinate status, as at Lissos where the temple of Asklepios displayed portraits of Tiberius and his son Drusus the Younger (3).Dedicatory or honorary inscriptions could invoke divine protection for the emperor, as at Lebena's Asklepieion where first-second century inscriptions concerned the safety of one or two emperors (73-74), and a plaque was dedicated to Iulia Domna (76).
At a supra-civic level coinage of the Cretan Koinon linked the emperor-the father of the empire-with the pancretan figure of Zeus Kretagenes.In the reign of Caligula Gortyn issued a tetradrachm of the Cretan Koinon with a remarkable reverse that related Augustus closely with Zeus Kretagenes by placing seven stars in the field (36). 159In the tridrachm type (37) the seven stars in the field continue to link Augustus with Zeus Kretagenes;160 the drachm type (38) bears the same seven stars.These same three reverses were issued by the Koinon in the first year of Claudius's reign to link him with the Cretan-born Zeus (98-100).

III.5. Integrating the imperial cult into Cretan society
Finally, we can assess the degree to which elites and other social strata were involved in running the imperial cult as a phenomenon that was socio-political as well as religious.In the Greek East the high priesthood was plainly the preserve of an affluent oligarchy, an elite whose power and influence extend beyond their native city. 161We can begin with the Cretan Koinon and its high priests, drawn from the elite of the island, who had pride of place in processions at imperial festivals,162 plus members and archons of the Panhellenion who represented Crete in the cult headquartered in Athens.We will consider religious and political functionaries within cities, such as imperial priests and (proto)kosmoi, whose dominance and prestige was enhanced and whose superiority was expressed in the rituals of the imperial cult. 163We can then look to see whether these men tended to be Roman citizens or not, and what prior or later career is attested. 164Next, we will take note of the city as a whole in the form of a council of the people, or else the citizenry, both involved in and benefitting from running the imperial cult. 165Finally, we will see how individual initiatives and resources could serve the city even as they were exploited by prominent figures in the city for their own advantage.166

II.5.1. Supra-civic and civic initiatives
Inscriptions and other sources document a range of activities for the supra-civic Cretan Koinon and its high priests and xystarch together with members and archons of the Panhellenion.The Koinon itself, for example, undertook to vote that a stele be erected to the Panhellene designate Pardialianos in his own city, Lyttos (88); Panhellenic archons hailed from Gortyn (62) and Hierapytna (95).In the local context of Gortyn, four high priests are named in dating formulae (34, 50-52); Claudius Timarchus boasted of his ability to determine whether gratitude be expressed to proconsuls (46).At Cilician Antioch, the high priest Q. Marcius Insulanus died while on an embassy to Trajan or Hadrian or both (49).M. Antonius was the father of a pontifex quinquennalis at Gortyn (60).T. Flavius Akestimos of Lyttos was xystarch for the quinquennial games of the Koinon (70).Three more high priests were particularly beneficient at Gortyn, perhaps even beyond what was expected.167Soarchos son of Kylindros brought water at his own expense, perhaps to the Odeion, a structure associated with the celebration of the imperial cult (56).Philokrates built with his own funds a building whose epistyle was dedicated on behalf of the [tyche?] of Trajan and all his house and the senate and people of Rome and the city of Gortyn (31, 48).T. Fl(avius) Iulius Volumnius Sabinus was honored by his own clients at Gortyn for the extraordinary games held during his tenure (58, 71).A high priest was also responsible for honoring a Roman quaestor (59).These honors showcased the power and influence of the high priests involved and reinforced the connection between Crete and the imperial power.
At the civic level there is evidence for the role of imperial priests.Two are named in dating formulae: a son of Panares of Gortyn may have been the priest of a Caesar as well as the [high] priest of divus Augustus, when the Gortynians and their wives appear to have celebrated something on the fifth day before the Ides of an unpreserved month at the beginning of the imperial period (57).M. Sonteius M.f.Ter.Casina was a priest of divus Augustus at Knossos, honored by the wards he defended at Gortyn (24).As priest of the divine [Augu]stus and [Roma] at Gortyn, Antonius Vareius honored the proconsul C. Claudius Titianus Demostratus at Ephesos (53), perhaps for his role in the evolution of the imperial cult at Gortyn after an earthquake in the time of M. Aurelius. 168Fl(avius) Titianus (54), who was sacerdos designatus divi Traiani at Gortyn, provided the funds from which the cives Romani qui Gortynae consistunt dedicated a base to Septimius Severus;169 L. Naevius Exacestas carried out the dedication together with all the Roman citizens resident at Gortyn (55).
Beyond dating formulae, protokosmoi were honored for their participation in the imperial cult, dedicated a temple from private funds, and signed coinage that provides evidence of the imperial cult on Crete.At Lyttos Pardalianos was honored as protokosmos as well as Panhellene designate by the Cretan Koinon, the city of the Lyttians, and his client M. Iunius Soterios (88).At Lyttos' port of Chersonesos Chryson son of Ateimetos at Chersonesos-together with his wife Soteira and his unnamed children-dedicated a temple with a statue from his own funds (89).At Kydonia protokosmoi signed coinage relevant to the imperial cult: Etearchos (6), Neokydas son of Tharsagoras (7), Agathon (8), and Alexandros son of Aristarchos (9).
Of the kosmoi active in the imperial cult, three at Lissos were responsible for the inscribing of a decree of the Cretan Koinon and Tiberius' reply to it on a doorjamb of the Asklepieion: Aristodamos son of Tharson, Ariston son of Kointo(n), and Potitus son of Demetrios (2).Two of these names include Roman names, Potitus as a cognomen and Kointo(n) as a patronymic, that reflect Roman influence more than citizenship.
By comparison with high priests, members and archons of the Panhellenion, and imperial priests, protokosmoi and kosmoi were less likely to be Roman citizens, to judge from their Greek personal names.At Lyttos two protokosmoi named in dating formulae were Roman citizens (79-80, 83-86), to judge from their tria nomina.Two more protokosmoi, however, bore Greek personal names instead (78, 88), as do those from Chersonesos and Arkades (88, 92).Protokosmoi named at Arkades, Chersonesos and Kydonia all bear Greek personal names (6-9, 89, 92).Only one protokosmos is known to have held a later position: Pardalianos, also honored as Panhellene designate (88).The three kosmoi of Lissos named in 2 bear single names, two of which-Kointo(n) and Potitusappear to reflect Roman influence rather than citizenship.
The council of the people and therefore the city, or the citizenry as a whole, were responsible for the erection of altars and bases and other inscriptions and also for allocating public funds for games.The role of "the city" is widely documented, particularly at Lyttos on altars (78-80), bases (81-86), and on a stele (88).The city or the citizenry is also cited as a source of authority on a base at Eleutherna (16) and on stelai at Gortyn (41) and Arkades (92).

III.5.2. Individual Initiatives
Three wealthy individuals from Sybrita, Hierapytna, and Gortyn contributed personally to the workings of the imperial cult in their cities; all three were Roman citizens, specifically Flavii whose families appear to have received the franchise from one of the Flavian emperors.T. Flavius-whose personal name or title has not been preserved on 18-constructed a temple of Hermes at Sybrita from his own funds and dedicated it on behalf of the well-being and permanence of a Flavian emperor; the temple had been promised by C. Pomponius Gallus Didius Rufus, proconsul under Domitian, in 88/89.Chaniotis suggested that T. Flavius was a wealthy individual in the city, somehow related to the proconsul, even though his name indicates that he is likely to have received his Roman citizenship through imperial patronage. 170As for the reason he took upon himself the financial burden, one attractive scenario would be that he received the franchise through the mediation of Pomponius, and expressed both his gratitude and his status as a Roman citizen by fulfilling the proconsul's promise later in the Flavian period.
At Hierapytna L. Fl(avius) Sulpicianus Dorion dedicated three honorific bases to emperors at Hierapytna, perhaps while or soon after he was Panhellenic archon between 161 and 165. 171These three bases are taken together as evidence of Dorion's devotion to these emperor(s), including those under whom he was Panhellenic archon (95).Dorion himself appears to have been honored at Gortyn, 172 conceivably in his capacity as Panhellenic archon.Not new to the Roman franchise, he was the son of T. Flavius Sulpicianus Dorion, high priest of the Cretan Koinon in 129 (50); father of an entry-level Roman senator, L. Flavius Sulpicianus Dorion Polymnis; 173 and grandfather of another senator, L. Flavius L.f.Cleonaeus, as well as his two sisters, Flavia L.f.Crispinilla and Flavia L.f.Polymnia Marciana. 174Another member of the family, T. Flavius (Claudius?)Sulpicianus was-however briefly-a candidate for emperor in 193, on the death of Pertinax. 175The family names-the nomen Flavius and the cognomen Sulpicianus-can be traced back to the Flavian period, when the Flavii Doriones received the franchise from Vespasian, through the local patronage of the Romano-Cretan A. Larcius Lepidus Sulpicianus, son of an Italian equestrian and a Gortynian woman, quaestor of Creta-Cyrenae at the very end of Nero's reign and a legate to legio X Fretensis during the Jewish war of Vespasian and Titus. 176. Flavius Xenion of Gortyn served as Panhellenic archon during the next four years (165-169); 177 on his death his will provided for the celebration of a series of imperial and family birthdays (62, 69).As the imperial birthdays have already been discussed above, we can now turn our attention to the family birthdays: Xenion himself; twins Lamprio and Xenophilos; a son Zenophilos; and Claudia Marcellina, a wife given her different gentilicium.It would seem that again the family's Roman citizenship dates back to the Flavian period, though we know nothing of Xenion's forebears; the unusual Greek personal name of Xenophilos might reflect the lineage of his mother Claudia Marcellina, to judge from the name of Ti.Claudius Xenophilos in the Domitianic period (34, 47).The family's great wealth is clear from Xenion's benefactions not only at Gortyn but at Eleusis where he set up an endowment which led to his son Zenophilos and his grandson Flavius Xenion Marathonius receiving Athenian citizenship. 178 total of 34 men are known to have participated in the running of the Cretan imperial cult in its many aspects: 15 high priests and a xystarch, and Panhellenes or Panhellenic archons; five imperial priests; 10 protokosmoi (one of them also a Panhellene); three kosmoi; and one man whose office is not preserved.All these should be considered provincial or civic elites, men in a position to turn their religious and political positions to social advantage.Four of these men are known to have held other positions, three of them Roman citizens and one not: M. Ulpius Sebon (52, 61), L. Flavius Sulpicianus Dorion (95), T. Flavius Xenion (62, 69), and Pardalianos (88).Gasperini entertains the further possibility that Sebon's wife Tryphaina and his familiares became Roman citizens under Hadrian and so bore the nomen Aelius/Aelia. 179The Flavii Sulpiciani Doriones entered the Roman senate in the next generation after the Panhellenic archon L. Flavius Sulpicianus Dorion (95), and one was even candidate for emperor for a short time-the very figure worshipped in the imperial cult.

IV. New evidence, a new perspective
It would be astounding if there were not new evidence for elements of the imperial cult in the decades since the publication of Sanders ' Roman Crete in 1982.It is the types of evidence gathered and perspectives on that evidence that have seen a remarkable evolution beginning with the publication of Price's Rituals and Power in 1984.Sanders considered the epigraphical, numismatic, and literary evidence, as well as the archaeological evidence available to him.Here we have updated that evidence, particularly that for temples and other structures as well as imperial portraiture.The numismatic evidence takes advantage of the Roman Provincial Coinage series, which began in 1992; epigraphic evidence for members and archons of the Panhellenion benefits from the work of Spawforth and Walker from 1986 onward.
The chronological and geographical distribution of elements of the imperial cult can be updated, given the expanded evidence.As elsewhere in the Greek East, the imperial cult on Crete was established within the framework of pre-existing institutions and ideologies; it grew and evolved organically at both the local and provincial level.The available evidence now shows that, from the establishment to the evolution of the imperial cult on Crete, it is particularly well documented in the Augustan-Tiberian and Trajanic-Hadrianic periods.The resultant geographical distribution of the imperial cult now extends to some 16 cities, large and small, that participated to one degree or another.
The greatest change since 1982 is in our understanding the imperial cult not as a political phenomenon empty of religious import but as one that had both religious and sociopolitical significance for Cretan participants.It was incorporated within traditional Cretan religious systems and so evoked divinity for the emperor while at the same time putting him and the imperial family under the protection of and subordinate to the deities of the island.The imperial cult was also incorporated within Cretan social systems, as elites of the island and its cities participated in and benefitted from cult activities.From a Cretan perspective, the imperial cult on Crete was a multivalent phenomenon, one that intertwined religious ritual and social dynamics with political power to forge and assert identity and status for individuals, cities, and the island as a region in Greek society and in the Roman empire.

F. Eleutherna
monumental architectural members 12) Ionic capital base dedicated to Imperator Caesar, with letters-nearly a graffitoprobably inscribed on the concave molding while it was in its original position; in the time of Octavian; found in Room III of the Basilica, the southernmost division of the long hall adjoining the southern wall of the Basilica's narthex (Tzifopoulos 2009, 124, no.14).
imperial altars 14) Altar to divus Augustus; in the reign of Tiberius?found in second use in a Roman wall between Rooms 17 and 23 of House 2 (Tzifopoulos 2009, 117-120, no.11).
statue bases 15) Cylindrical Ionic base dedicated to Trajan; in the reign of Trajan, between 102 and 116; found on the east-west road of the city, in front of the entrance to Room 37 of the so-called Roman Public Building (Tzifopoulos 2009, 120-121, no.12).
16) Base dedicated to Hadrian from the city of the Eleuthernaians; in the reign of Hadrian; built into a wall near the southernmost enclosure of the Katsivelos site (Tzifopoulos 2009, 121-124, no.13).
other inscriptions 17) Cippus dedicated to divus Augustus; in the reign of Tiberius?found at Prines, in the possession of Leon.Zacharakis (IC II, xii 28).

G. Sybrita
temples and other structures 18) Block from the urban temple of Hermes, dedicated for the sake of an unpreserved emperor's well-being and permanance, as promised by the proconsul  1990, 200, no.16).22) Altar dedicated to Caesar Augustus in Latin; in the reign of Augustus; from the location Hellenika, in the area of the house of Konstantinos Froudharakis (Hood -Smyth 1981, 41, no.99; Chaniotis -Preuss 1990, 200, no.16).other inscriptions 23) Inscription dedicated to Domitian in Latin; in the reign of Domitian; found in a field adjoining the site of a Roman villa, on the north edge of a vineyard northeast of the Roman Civil Basilica (Chaniotis -Preuss 1991, 191, no. 1).priests and high priests 24) Honorary inscription in Latin at Gortyn that names M. Sonteius M.f.Ter.Casina who was sacerdos divi Augusti at Knossos and defended his wards at Gortyn; Julio-Claudian?found among the ruins of the so-called Praetorium (IC IV 295).25) Inscription in Latin naming an aeditu(m)us, flamen, [---] divi Vespasiani whose name has not been preserved; Flavian?found at Ag. Ioannis, in the ruins of the metochi of Makrammetis (IC I, viii 54).
between the ruins of the Odeion and Ag.Titos in the field of the brothers Kouridakis (IC IV 272).43) Dedication on behalf of Trajan's ty [che]; in the reign of Trajan; found in the village of Mitropolis in the possession of Stath.Sergedakis (IC IV 438).44) Plaque mentioning a gilded shield and something sacred to the [divi] Augusti in Latin; 2 nd century; found in the west wall of a Byzantine castellum on the acropolis (IC IV 288).45) Fragments of a dedication for the fortune and health and victory of an emperor whose name is not preserved and of his divine house, four earlier ones in Greek and three later ones in Latin; 2 nd to first half of the 3 rd century; found not far from Ag. Titos (IC IV 286) and in the area northeast of Temple B (the "Praetorium" temple) (Magnelli 2004, 109-113; Di Vita 2010, 260 n. 460; Cigaina 2020, 248-249).Soterios; 2 nd century; found at Lyttos (IC I, xviii 56; Follet 1976, 132; Spawforth -Walker 1985, 86).

M. Chersonesos
temples and other structures 89) Epistyle for a temple with a statue dedicated on behalf of the tyche and safety of an anonymous emperor, from Chryson son of Ateimetos, his wife Soteira, and his children, dedicated from his own funds as he promised when he was protokosmos; 2 nd century; found in the plot of Georg.Papageorgios on Demokratias Street, in the location Hellenika of Limen Chersonesos, about 350 m north of the Odeion (Kritzas 2002).and L. Verus, 161-165; at Athens (Raubitschek 1943, 73-76; Oliver 1970, 101-102; Follet 1976, 127; Spawforth -Walker 1985, 85).

P. Itanos
other inscriptions 96) Dedication naming Gaius in the genitive; in the reign of Caligula; found at Erimoupolis by Demargne (IC III, iv 19).

Q. An uncertain location in eastern Crete
priests and high priests 97) Plaque (?) dedicated on behalf of the good luck and safety of an emperor and all his house and the Roman Senate and people, by a high priest of the Cretan Koinon; 1 st -2 nd century, perhaps Trajanic; found by Mariani in an unrecorded place and noted together with other inscriptions from eastern Crete (IC III, ix 10).

R. The Cretan Koinon
coinage 98) Koinon silver coinage with a statue of divus Augustus in a toga, holding a patera and scepter, placed on a wagon drawn by four elephants, each with its mahoutrider, and assimilated to Zeus Kretagenes to judge from the seven stars in the field on the reverse of a tetradrachm; in the first year of the reign of Claudius (RPC I, 232, nos.966-967; Cigaina 2016, 209, 316; 2020, 309).
99) Koinon silver coinage with a statue of divus Augustus in a toga, seated on a curule chair, holding a patera and scepter, feet resting on a stool, and assimilated to Zeus Kretagenes to judge from the seven stars in the field on the reverse of a tridrachm; in the first year of the reign of Claudius (RPC I, 232, no.968; Cigaina 2016, 209,  316; 2020, 309).
100) Koinon silver coinage with a radiate head of divus Augustus and assimilated to Zeus Kretagenes to judge from the seven stars in the field on the reverse of a drachm; in the first year of the reign of Claudius (RPC I, 233, no.969; Cigaina 2016, 209,  316; 2020, 309).

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.Establishment of the imperial cult on Crete

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. Evolution of the imperial cult on Crete
to Trajan from the city of the Lyttians in the second protokosmate of Banaxiboulos son of Komastas; in the reign of Trajan in 107; found in the ruins of Lyttos (IC I, xviii 19).79) Altar to Trajan from the city of the Lyttians in the protokosmate of M. Pompeius Kleumenidas; in the reign of Trajan, in 112-113; found among the ruins of Lyttos (IC I, xviii 27).80) Altar to Trajan from the city of the Lyttians in the protokosmate of M. Pompeius Kleumenidas; in the reign of Trajan, in 112-113; found among the ruins of Lyttos (IC I, xviii 28).statue bases 81) Base dedicated to Trajan by the city; in the reign of Trajan, in 104-105; found in the church of Ag.Georgios at Xidà (IC I, xviii 17).82) Base dedicated to Trajan by the city of the Lyttians in the third protokosmate of Banaxiboulos son of Komastas; in the reign of Trajan, in 107-108; found at the church of Ag.Georgios in Xidà (?) (IC I, xviii 21).83) Base dedicated to Trajan by the city of the Lyttians in the protokosmate of Ti.Claudius Boinobios; in the reign of Trajan, in 112; found on the acropolis of the ancient city, near the church of the Stavromenos (IC I, xviii 22; Kotsonas 2019, 404, 417, 420, 422 fig.10).84) Base mentioning a statue dedicated to Trajan from the city of the Lyttians, from funds that remained from expenses for ambassadors sent for the birthday of the emperor (18 September), in the protokosmate of Ti.Claudius Boinobios; in the reign of Trajan, in 112; found on the acropolis west of the church of the Stavromenos (IC I, xviii 23; Kotsonas 2019, 418, 420, 423 fig.11).85) Base dedicated to Trajan by the city of the Lyttians in the protokosmate of M. Pompeius Kleumenidas; in the reign of Trajan, in 112-113; found on the acropolis of the ancient city, near the church of the Stavromenos (IC I, xviii 29; Kotsonas 2019, 404, 417, 420, 422 fig.10).86) Base dedicated to Trajan by the city of the Lyttians in the protokosmate of M. Pompeius Kleumenidas; in the reign of Trajan, in 112-113; found on the acropolis of the ancient city (IC I, xviii 30).87) Base (?) dedicated to an emperor called ὁ τῆς οἰκουμένης κτίστης; in the reign of Trajan?found in the cemetery of the church of the Ag.Anagyron (IC I, xviii 50).Panhellenion members and archons 88) Stele (?) erected by vote of the Cretan Koinon and the city of the Lyttians, in honor of Pardalianos, protokosmos and Panhellene designate, from his client M. Iunius imperial altars 90) Altar to Trajan; in the reign of Trajan, in or after 102; found in the house of Emm.Kakontakis at Mochó (IC I, vii 29; 1968, 250).festivals 91) Two-sided stele-in two fragments-with a catalog of birthdays, two of them on or before a date in October, and references to Antoninus Pius and Faustina if not also L. Verus; likely in the reign of Antoninus Pius, after 112-115; found in the village of Chersonesos (IC I, vii 10).N. Arkades temples and other structures 92) Stele recording the sacrifice of a heifer, for the first time, to Tyche in a small shrine of Trajan, on behalf of the tyche of Trajan, from the city in the protokosmate of Asklapon son of Aristophon; in the reign of Trajan; in the Heraklion Museum, inv.no.175 (IC I, v 9).other inscriptions 93) Plaque dedicated [Α]ὐτοκράτο[ρι Καί]σαρι Θεοῦ υἱῷ Σεβαστῷ [---]; 2 nd century; found in the house of Demetr.Baritakis at Ini (IC I, v 27).O. Hierapytna imperial altars 94) Altar to the divine Caesar; in the reign of Augustus or Tiberius; in the Ierapetra Sylloge (SEG 32.874).Panhellenion members and archons 95) L. Fl(avius) Sulpicianus Dorion, Panhellenic archon; in the reign of M. Aurelius Hood -Smyth 1981, 40-41, no.86; Knossos Roman Geophysics 2015 and 2018.
6) Civic bronze coinage signed by the local official (protokosmos?)Etearchoswith a hexastyle temple on a podium on the reverse of a dupondius; in the reign of Claudius (RPC I, 241, no.1018).7)Civicbronzecoinage signed by the local official (protokosmos?)Neokydasson of Tharsagoras with a hexastyle temple with a pellet in the pediment on the reverse of a 2-assarion; in the reign of Domitian(RPC II, 53, nos.47-48).Fragment of an architrave and frieze, dedicated to Caesar Augustus; reign of Augustus; found in Sector VII (which includes the northeast bath complex and the tripartite cistern), during demolition of a wall in 2000; in the reign of Augustus (Martínez Fernández 2007).
C. Pomponius Gallus Didius Rufus and executed by a T. Flavius; reign of Domitian?from the location Tzaphouri, in a plot on the lower, southern slopes of Kephala hill, between Ag.Photini and Thronos (Baldwin Bowsky 2001a).Small columnar altar dedicated to Caesar Augustus in Latin; in the reign of Augustus; found in the garden of the Villa Ariadne (IC I, viii 48; cf.Chaniotis -Preuss I. Knossosmonumental architectural members 20) Fragment of an epistyle with the name Trajan in the genitive; in the reign of Trajan or Hadrian; in the HeraklionMuseum, inv.no.406 (Baldwin Bowsky 2006,  407-410, no.5).
and high priests 46) Claudius Timarchus [high priest of the Koinon], who boasted it was in his power to determine whether gratitude be expressed to proconsuls; in the reign ofNero  (Tac.Ann.15, 20; Pałuchowski 2008, 123).47) Tib.Claudius Xenophilos, high priest of the Koinon; see 34. 48) Philokrates [high priest of the Koinon]; see 31.49) Stele recording the honor of customary funeral rites for Q.Marcius Insulanus Kres Gortynios, first man of the province, i.e., archiereus, who fulfilled all the liturgies and distinctions before serving as ambassador on behalf of Koinon, possibly to express condolences for the death of Trajan or to pay homage to Hadrian as the new emperor or both; 117; at Antiochia ad Cragum, where he died (AE 1967.522;Cigaina 2020, 130-131).50) Base in honor of Hadrian from the Cretan Koinon in the priesthood of T. Flavius Sulpicianus Dorion; in the reign of Hadrian, in 129; found in Ag.Deka, first in the tavern of the brothers Kourikakis, then in the house of Stell.Mitrakis (IC IV 275).51) Plaque in honor of Hadrian, dated by the unpreserved name of a high priest and naming the Cretan Koinon; in the reign of Hadrian; found in the ruins of the Odeion (IC IV 276).52) Column in honor of Paulina, when M. Ulpius Sebon was high priest [of the Cretan Koinon]; in the reign of Hadrian; found in a stoa on the west side of the monumental stoa that closed off the south area of the Odeion, in the Agora (Magnelli 2006).53) [An]tonius Vareius [---]lus, priest of the divine [Augu]stus and [Roma] at Gor[tyn], named in an inscription honoring the proconsul C. Claudius Titianus Demostratus; in the reign of M. Aurelius, shortly after 161; at Ephesos (Baldwin Bowsky 2001b, 106-109, no. 7).54) Base dedicated to Septimius Severus in Latin, from the cives Romani qui Gortynae consistunt, from the funds of Fl(avius) Titianus, sacerdos designatus divi Traiani, on behalf of his decurionate, with L. Naevius Exacestas, sacerdos divi Augusti, and with omnibus civibus Romanis Gortynae consistentibus/curantibus; in the reign of Septimius Severus, in 195; found south of Ag.Titos in a field (IC IV 278).Architectural member (?) dedicated to Augustus; in the reign of Augustus; found in Xidà, in the house of Nikol.Dambakakis (IC I, xviii 48).