Re-evaluating the Introduction of the Adoratio

This article explores when the adoratio was introduced: Alf & ouml;ldi rejected the fourthcentury sources' assertion that Diocletian was the introducer, and argued that the adoratio was introduced under Commodus or the Severans. This has been influential. However, this article argues that Alf & ouml;ldi's evidence is unconvincing. Instead, the evidence strongly suggests that the adoratio was not introduced under Commodus or the Severans, and it seems that it had not been introduced by the early 250s either. Lastly, I argue that the sources do not allow us to illuminate the degree to which the adoratio had been institutionalised in the decades before Diocletian.