cult with the offices of high priest and a neokoros, who underwrote expenses for temple maintenance. The religious leaders of the imperial cult seem to be portrayed by the False Prophet who causes Roman society to worship the image of the Beast (13:11–17). The Beast refers to Caesar and veneration of him as deity. Smyrna, Ephesus, and other cities in Asia Minor also became centers for the imperial cult.30 The citizens of these communities would seem to be patriotic and zealous for the imperial cult.