Vom dreizehnten Gott zum dreizehnten Apostel?

Abstract

The Christianization of the imperial funeral in late Antiquity did not change its political function. The public honours bestowed upon the dead emperor were meant to display dynastic continuity and political legitimacy. Furthermore, the Christian concept of consecratio, like its pagan counterpart, legitimized the imperial succession and manipulated the emperor's dead body for the propagandistic presentation of the triumphant domus divina. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was buried in the centre of the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, flanked by the tombs of the twelve apostles on either side. From the literary, iconographical and numismatic evidence one cannot deduce, as has sometimes been suggested, that there Constantine wanted to be venerated as the thirteenth apostle, but that he proclaimed himself to be lσoXplστos, i.e. the equal of Christ. Thus he radically christianized the pagan idea of identifying the emperor with his patron god. Although Constantine's ceremonial instructions - which replaced the traditional funeral ceremony with a Christian mass - were imitated by later Christian emperors, his uncompromising demand for identity was not. It appears that his son, Constantius II, had already removed his coven from the church of the Holy Apostles. In addition, Christian writers openly opposed Constantine's idea of a 'Christian' apotheosis and propagated instead the concept of the emperor's accession to the Heavenly Jerusalem, where he would enjoy communion with God. At the same time, the usurpers were mercilessly banned to hell. The dead emperor now was a subordinate part of the celestial hierarchy. The solemn rites for the deceased imperator Christianus were an amalgam of pagan and Christian rituals. The new Christian imperial cult argued from a theological perspective for the emperor's superhuman elevation and widened the gulf between the ruler and his subjects. The majority of Christians apparently did not see any contradiction bet