Note 242 — Chapter VIII

Tacitus, Ann. iv. 15, 55. The town which possesses a temple dedicated by the diet of the province (the κοινὸν τῆς Ἀσίας κ. τ. λ.) bears on that account the honorary predicate of the “(imperial) temple–keeper” (νεωκόρος); and, if one of them has several to show, the number is appended. In this institution one may clearly discern how the imperial worship obtained its full elaboration in Asia Minor. In reality the neocorate is general, applicable to any deity and any town; titularly, as an honorary surname of the town, it meets us with vanishing exceptions only in the imperial cultus of Asia Minor—only some Greek towns of the neighbouring provinces, such as Tripolis in Syria, Thessalonica in Macedonia, participated in it.