Roman Religion

Question 1

In his speech in defence of Valerius Flaccus, the governor of Asia who was accused of corruption, the Roman author and lawyer Cicero gave a very pointed summary of the organisation of religion in the Roman empire: ‘every polity has its own cults, we have ours’. Explain by means of examples the principle and how this worked in practice!

Question 2

Do you agree with Rives’ proposition to speak of ‘religion in the Roman empire’ rather than ‘the religions of the Roman empire’? Why? Why not?

Question 3

What do we mean by Roman?

Answer 3

• period augustus - diocletian
• rome, italy and western provinces
• pagan religion

Question 4

What do we mean by religion?

Answer 4

• superhuman force
• beliefs
• actions

Question 5

What is civic religion?

Answer 5

local variations of same religious system (public cults/ civic cults

Question 6

What concerned the original roman religion?

Answer 6

• worship of abstract powers residing in nature, typical of a primitive, agricultural society (‘pre-deistic’ stage)
• later animism (evolutionary thinking)
• later anthropomorfic

Question 7

How did roman religion form after anthropomorfic?

Answer 7

• anthropomorfic not attractive
• introduction imperial cult
• civic religion and lived religion introduced

Question 8

What are the three meanings of civitas?

Answer 8

• citizenship
• collective body of all citizens of a city
• Urban centre and the territory of city-state

Question 9

characteristics civic religion:

Answer 9

• set of public cults/civic cults (legal)
• related to the city’s overarching concerns (war and peace, prosperity, health etc.), organised
• paid for by the civitas
• led by magistrates and priests
• cult community defined by membership
• attending public rituals

Question 10

How did we know if Populus Romanus, Rome cult was civic?

Answer 10

literary evidence of public priesthoods and public vows for new public cults

Question 11

How did we know if 2. Peoples of Italy and the Provinces cult was civic?

Answer 11

epigraphic and archaeological evidence

Question 12

What were the public priesthoods of public cults in Rome?

Answer 12

• flamines
• Fratres Arvales
• Vestal virgins

Question 13

How did the public vows and public sacrifices in public cults in Rome look like?

Answer 13

1. Offering of incense and wine
2. Animal sacrifice (oxen)

Question 14

How was the hierarchy of public cults?

Answer 14

• Not all public cults were equally important to the civic community
• patron deities

Question 15

What are the characteristics of the most important civic cults?

Answer 15

i. Sanctuary highly monumentalised
ii. Very prominent/dominant (sub)urban position in landscape, highest point, overlooking from a hill
iii. Greatest festivals, often associated with the patron deity
iv. Prestigious priesthood, some more wanted than others

Question 16

What did household gods of each family include?

Answer 16

a. Genius of pater familias: guardian spirit of head of family (difference between the genius and the person themselves) / Juno (materfamilias)
b. Lares familiares: gods of the family as a transgenerational group, protectors of the family, depicted in short girded tunic, rhyton with animal protome, patera
c. Genii loci: spirits of the natural or physical environment of the place (snakes)
d. Penates: gods watching over the family’s food supplies (not discussed here)
e. (selection of other gods), statuettes of other divinities, chosen by the family

Question 17

What are the ritual actions of a household?

Answer 17

a. Regularly according to calendar (fixed moments) and irregularly at special occasions e.g. at safe return home
b. Small offerings of incense and wine, or bits of food that are consumed on a daily basis
c. Coin offerings
d. Greeting gestures at lararium
e. Scratching graffiti (tells us about the coin offerings and other offerings, on the walls near the lararium)

Question 18

Function of lararia

Answer 18

Small temples for the Lares and the Genius of the pater familias

Question 19

Types of lararia

Answer 19

a. Aedicula in stone (small shrine 2D or 3D), stuccoed and painted
b. Aedicula in wood
c. Simple niche in the wall
d. Plain painting

Question 20

Location of Lararia

Answer 20

• atrium
• peristylium / garden
• kitchen

Question 21

What are the household religions outside the physical house?

Answer 21

a. Rituals at tombs of dead family members
b. Rituals on the farm

Question 22

The household and rites of passage

Answer 22

1. Death and burial
2. Acceptance of a new-born in the family
3. Admission of a child into adulthood
4. Marriage
5. Manumission of a slave

Question 23

Other forms of ‘lived religion’: magical practices

Answer 23

glossary and binding spells

Question 24

Magical practices in Graeco-Roman antiquity
Characteristics of curse tablets

Answer 24

• lead as raw material
• pierced: binded by nails
• retrogade writing: secret message
• folded: secret message

Question 25

Ritual actions of a desperate lover

Answer 25

making clay figurines
- attaching magical material (hair, clothes) to the model
- writing spells on body parts of the models
- nailing the model & simultaneously pronouncing spells
- writing the same spell on a curse tablet and reciting it
- tying lead tablet to the models and pronouncing formulae
- put it beside the grave of someone who died untimely or by violence