From Caesar Augustus onward, various Roman emperors and their family members were officially declared to be gods. The topic of this paper concerns the imperial deification process and the role subjectivity played in which emperors and imperial family members were accorded divine status. Specifically, the personal and political considerations of the reigning emperor or senate that served as the basis as to why a certain individual obtained or was denied deification, and the evolution of the divinization process over time, are examined. Conversely, an alternative act called damnatio memoriae, by which the memory of deposed emperors or other unwelcome persons was condemned to oblivion after their death by the state, is also compared. The reactions (as preserved in the poetry and prose of ancient writers) of the Romans and imperial subjects to the imperial deification apparatus in general and the conferral of divinity upon specific persons are also noted. The paper focuses in particular on the reign of Domitian, who upon his succession deified his brother and immediate predecessor Titus, and later his young son as well. In contrast to past imperial customs of deifying emperors after their death, Domitian demanded to be hailed as a god during his own lifetime, and the paper investigates his justifications for this deviation from the precedent that only a deceased emperor or member of the imperial family could be granted apotheosis. He suffered the condemnation of his memory after his assassination. And while poets and writers bestowed voluminous adulations upon him in his lifetime and referred to him as a god, his reputation plummeted precipitously after his death.