usurpations of the Crisis of the Third Century, the Emperors sought the kind of divine legitimacy invoked by Eastern monarchies. Emperors imported rituals such as kneeling before the Emperor, and kissing of the hem of the Imperial robe (proskynesis). Even some Christian emperors, such as Constantine, were venerated after death. In the Eastern Roman Empire after 476 AD, the symbiotic relation between the Imperial Crown in Constantinople and the Eastern Orthodox Church led to the distinctive character of the medieval Roman state. Anastasius I was the last emperor known to be consecrated as divus on his death (518 AD). The title appears to have been abandoned thereafter on grounds of its spiritual impropriety (see Imperial cult of ancient Rome for more on the divinity of Roman leaders). The last ruler to use the titles Dominus Noster was Justinian I (died 565), giving place to the title of Basileus ("King"). In the Eastern half of the Empire, and especially from the time of Justinian I, the system of the Dominate evolved into autocratic absolutism. In contrast to the situation in the Principate, however, emperors in the Dominate could not be deified as it was, excepting the two initial decades and the reign of Julian, the Christian period of the Roman Empire. Another clear symptom of the upgrading of the imperial status was the notion of the emperor as an incarnation of the majesty of Rome; thus lèse majesté became high treason. See also Constitution of the Late Roman Empire References Further reading Carson, Robert. 1981. Principal Coins of the Romans, III: The Dominate, A.D. 294–498. London: Brit. Museum Publ. Elton, Hugh. 2018. The Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, A Political and Military History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hebblewhite, Mark 2017. The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395. London; New York: Routledge. Kelly, Christopher 2004. Ruling the Later Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kulikowski, Michael. 2016. The Triumph of Empire: The Roman World from Hadrian to Constantine. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Melounová, Markéta. 2012. "Trials with Religious and Political Charges from the Principate to the Dominate." Sborník Prací Filosofické Fakulty Brnenské University = Studia minora Facultatis Philosophicae Universitatis Brunensis. Rada archeologicko-klasicka = Series archaeologica et classica. 17.2: 117–130. Minamikawa, Takashi ed. 2015. New Approaches to the later Roman Empire. Kyoto: Kyoto University. Roymans, Nico, Stijn Heeren, and Wim de Clerq eds. 2016. Social Dynamics in