When Christians opposed an imperial cult, they were deemed as denying the emperor's right to rule.
Presumably it was dedicated to the imperial cult.
No other cult matched the imperial cult in terms of dispersion and commonality.
The imperial cult was to Jews and Christians sacrilege.
Contrasted to this are imperial cults that are defined by political influence detached from ethnicity.
A similar reason for intolerance existed in that time - the Japanese imperial cult.
As previously mentioned, the main method by which the imperial cult ordained its members was through an oath of allegiance to the emperor.
And the Japanese imperial cult is clearly a matter of faith.
This was first expressed in the imperial cult of Rome, but finds expression at all times of history.
The theologians of civil or political theology are the people, asking how the gods relate to daily life and the state (see imperial cult).