Domitian, after him, gave similar orders with respect to himself.
In process of time the very statues of the emperors began to be worshipped.

One blasphemous innovation prepared the way for another.

The title of Pontifex Maximus gave way at length for those of Eternity, Divinity, and the like.

Coeval with these appellations was the change of the word thou for you, and upon the same principles.

These changes, however, were not so disagreeable, as they might be expected to have been, to the proud Romans; for while they gratified the pride of their emperors by these appellations, they made their despotism, in their own conceit, more tolerable to themselves.