Unit 4 Religions in the Roman Empire Flashcards
Intro
Romanisation whinges diversity discourses and cult
Romanisation has been successfully discarded (they say today - Mattingly grr?) as a blunt tool for understanding the impact of Rome on the provinces. Instead, historians and archeologists now accept (do they) that a ‘Roman; world can also be one which incorporates diversity.
Religious ritual and imperial cult do not mean the same rigour and anti-person methodology that it does today. Cult - from the Latin word cultus, refers to the reverence that was shown to the gods through acts of religious worship - people therefore performed ‘cult’ (activities). Cult - what people did
Traditional cult or Imperial cult - a series of actions performed by worshipers to honour a divine figure. NOT - a discrete religious group of people as it has come to mean today
4.1 A world of Gods and Goddesses
Manucius Felix and his Christian biased disdane for the old gods too many a crowd
Minucius Felix 3rd Century CE a cChristian critic of the Pantheon of gods
Writes:-
Roman gods were given local names or equated with local versions of similar deities e.g. Jupiter Hammon in Africa, Jupiter Latiaris in Latium Italy , Jupiter Fetetrius associate with oaths
Roman religions was polytheistic, meaning that multiple gods and goddesses coexisted alongside one another
He sees ‘the gods’ disdainfully as 1) ‘a crowd’ 2) Absurdity of polytheistic beliefs and practices - too many Dianas this or that e.g. Diana the huntress, Diana Lucifera
The suovetaurilia religious festival every five years at the conclusion of the census - to purify the land prayers to Janus, Jupire and mArs
4.3 A deity by any other name; interpretatio Romana local and global gods, syncretism
Rives interpretation - The tendency to identify gods very closely with specific locales an to give them distinguishing epithets (an adjective or discriptive phrase expressing a quality or characteristic) that linked them to particular temples, cities, tribes, or topographical features. People tended to treat all gods as local gods, though those with a shared language tended to use the same set of names for they local gods
The gods that one group worshipped in one place were ‘the same’ as the gods another group worshiped in another.
Syncretism - The amalgamation of different religions, cultures and schools of thought - Hercules adoption by the Batavian’s - or had he already been there pre the Romans and as per their legend??
Roman religion was not the only dynamic religion (probably) of the ancient world though it was pretty good
4.5 When emperors become gods: imperial cult as global religion
In imperial period it becomes commonplace to offer cult to the emperor and members of his family
In the east there had been a long tradition of ruler cult e.g Hellenistic king worship
Julius Caesar had been deified after his assassination, Augustus styled himself as a ‘son of god’ and was himself defied
Emperor worship - a unifying force within the empire, religious rites offered to him as head of state served to link him directly to the ‘divine world’
4.5 When emperors become gods: imperial cult as global religion II
Imperial cult was as much about global political stability as it was religious worship
Scholars refer to emperor worship as ‘imperial cult’ rather than ‘the imperial cult’ as the activities performed on behalf of the emperor may vary from place to place
It was a sign of social standing to hold a role connected with imperial cult and allowed ambitious freedmen to play their part (e.g. college of the Severi Augustles in the west)
Romans were brought up to accept that gods existed and ritual (cult) activities were appropriate for honouring them; that was how the world worked
4.6 Performing religion and ritual in the western provinces
Can the epigraphic evidence from alters, curse tablets and the like be used to understand which members of the local community engaged in these rituals and why?
