[German version] The cultic worship of the emperor during his lifetime and after his death, namely as a deity and part of the municipal pantheon, was as such the Roman Imperial version of ruler cult already commonly practised amongst the Hellenistic kings. Like the ruler cult, emperor worship was seen from the perspective of the towns as an expression of political ties and political self-definition. From the ruler’s point of view, it was a means of safeguarding his power symbolically. Greek ruler cult can traced back solely to neither the Middle East nor the Greek hero cult…