Diaspora to dissociate themselves from the position of their co-religionists in Palestine. In this situation it would not be surprising to find many Jews apostatizing, and, on occasion, the imperial cult may have been used as a device whereby Jewish loyalty to Rome could be tested.” In fact, “the latter possibility is more likely to have been true of Asia Minor than any other part of the empire, for it was in that province particularly that the imperial cult was so firmly rooted and linked with the