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La titolatura dei funzionari cultuali offre indicazioni sull’oggetto del culto oltre che sulle mansioni e sulla durata dell’incarico sacerdotale. Il presente articolo esamina il sacerdozio del culto imperiale in Grecia (provincia Achaia). L’analisi sistematica della documentazione epigrafica mostra che in ambito sopra-cittadino il titolo archiereus è pressoché esclusivo. In ambito municipale – cui si riferisce la maggior parte delle attestazioni epigrafiche – il titolo hiereus è gradualmente soppiantato, durante il primo secolo d.C., dal titolo archiereus, secondo una precisa evoluzione che riflette nello stesso tempo il passaggio nell’oggetto del culto da singole figure imperiali all’insieme dei Sebastoi (imperatore regnante, suoi predecessori, altri membri della domus Augusta). Priestly titles can offer insights on the cult object served by each priest as well as on the tenure and specific functions of a given priesthood. This paper examines the priesthood of the imperial cult in Greece (provincia Achaia). The sys-tematic analysis of the epigraphic evidence shows that in the supra-civic realm the title archiereus is almost exclusive. As for civic priests, who are the most represented in the epigraphic evidence in Greece, the title hiereus is gradually replaced during the 1st c. AD by the title archiereus, this showing a precise evolution which also reflects a shift in the cult object from single imperial figures to the Sebastoi as a whole (including the reigning emperor, his predecessors, and other members of the domus Augusta).

A cult for Drusus the Elder was instituted in Athens following Drusus’ death in 9 BC. In inscriptions the priest of this cult is referred to as “hiereus of Drusus hypatos”. This priestly office was associated with the charge of eponymous archon, as shown by the fact that all preserved Athenian laterculi archontum dated after 9/8 BC mention the priesthood of the consul Drusus next to the office of archon. Based on the analysis of the epigraphic references (around twenty) to the priesthood of the consul Drusus one can argue that the latter disappeared sometime between ca. AD 105 and 140. At the end of the 19th century Dittenberger had stated that the proliferation of honours for the emperor Hadrian following his first official visit to the city (AD 124/5) would have finally provoked the end of Drusus’ priesthood. Indeed, the cult of Drusus must not have survived beyond Hadrian’s reign, yet I hypothetically suggest that Hadrian’s visit as a privatus in 111/2 AD, when the fu­ture emperor was offered the eponymous archonship without apparently holding the office of priest of Drusus, may have been the first act of its disappearance. I suggest that for reasons of convenience in that year the office of hiereus of Drusus hypatos may have not been held, and this event could have brought about the end of this priesthood, either immediately or gradually over the following years.