ADORATION is also used for certain extraordinary civil honours or respects which resemble those paid to the deity, yet are given to men.
The Persian manner of adoration, introduced by Cyrus, was by bending the knee, and falling on the face at the prince's feet, striking the earth with the forehead, and kissing the ground. This ceremony, which the Greeks called proskynesis, Conon refused to perform to Artaxerxes, and Callithenes to Alexander the Great, as reputing it impious and unlawful.
The adoration performed to the Roman and Grecian emperors consisted in bowing or kneeling at the prince's feet, laying hold of his purple robe, and presently withdrawing the hand and clapping it to the lips. Some attribute the origin of this practice to Constantius. It was only persons of some rank or dignity that were entitled to the honour. Bare kneeling before the emperor to deliver a petition, was also called adoration.
The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England, in the ceremony of kissing the king's or queen's hand, and in serving them at table, both being performed kneeling.