NEO´CORI
NEO´CORI (
νεωκόροι)
signified originally a temple-attendant; perhaps a temple-
sweeper (
Hesych. sub voce), which
may well be Ion's description of his office (
Eur. Ion
121): others, however, prefer to connect the termination with the
root of
βούκολος, αἰγικορεῖς,
colo in the sense of
tending (cf. Suid. s.v. Curtius,
Gr. Etym. 463).
However that may be, the word was applied, even in early times, to priestly
officers of high rank, who had the superintendence of temples and their
treasures (Plat.
Legg. vi. p. 759 A;
Xen. Anab; 5.3, § 6). Under the Empire
the word was especially about applied to those cities in Asia which erected
temples to the Roman emperors, since the whole city in such a case was
regarded as the guardian of the worship. These sanctuaries for the cult of
the emperor began in the lifetime of Augustus, at Cyzicus (
Tac. Ann. 4.36) and elsewhere. Not only the
cities which possessed a temple of this kind (distinct from the worship of
Rome and Augustus by the entire province), but also those which contributed
(Dio Chrysost. ii. p. 70) to its support, were called
νεωκόροι of the emperor: the name belonged to the city, not
to any religious official. Accordingly we frequently find on the coins of
Ephesus, Smyrna, and other cities the epithet
ΝΕΩΚΟΡΟΣ, which also occurs in the inscriptions of
those cities (see Conybeare and Howson,
St. Paul, ch. xvi.
fin.). No city was allowed to assume this
office without the permission of the Roman senate, as is clear both from
inscriptions and from
Tac. Ann. 4.55,
56, from whom we learn also that Cyzicus was
punished for neglecting the duties. The name belonged to the city, not to
any religious official. These local cults were directed by a sacerdos or
ἀρχιερεύς, who must be distinguished
from the
ἀρχιερεὺς Ἀσίας (=
Ἀσιάρχης), or priest of the
Koinon, i.e. the union of the whole province of Asia for the
worship of Rome and Augustus [
ASIARCHAE]. The neocorate (as was said above) was distinct from
this, and belonged to separate cities, a single neocorate implying a single
temple maintained to an emperor or imperial family: a city might be
δὶς or
τρὶς
νεωκόρος, if it had two or three temples to two or three
different emperors or imperial families. (See Ramsay in
Class.
Review, 3.175 [1889]; Marquardt,
Staatsv. 1.504,
3.464.) [
AEDITUI]
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]