This work deals with the institution and evolution of imperial cult at the provincial level from the earliest foundations under Augustus down to the mid-third century A.D. On the basis of detailed examination of evidence from the different regions or provinces of the Latin west the emphasis of provincial cults can be seen to move first from the living emperor and Roma to the deified emperor, then from a omposite cult of living and deified dead emperors to a renewed emphasis on the reigning emperor in the late second and early third centuries. Analysis is based primarily on the study of epigraphical, numismatic and iconographic evidence.