The Romans - The Dead and Deified Emperors

The old greco roman pantheon had literally hundreds of major and minor deities who all vied for the attention of the lowly humans. The dead and deified emperors, beginning with julius caesar, were slated in as minor gods but still important enough that worshipping at their altars was considered a civic duty. In practice, though, worshipping dead emperors was less an act of devout piety or even crass superstition as it was a demonstration of loyalty to the sitting emperor. It was all much more about visibly supplicating yourself for the imperial altar, which the emperors like to see. Then really believing that if you didn't offer a goat to the