for the Romans, religion was the core of all; gods were in everything, and everything was in the hands of the gods

I. Roman State and Private Religion

• e. g., Robigo, the god of rust, festival the Robigalia
• the dead: Manes

• Apollo on the Palatine (near House of Augustus), Jupiter on the Capitoline
  
• imperial cult (see also below)
• polytheistic, anthropomorphic
• calendar:
• credited to Numa, overseen by priests
• appointed days for religious and secular business
• large number of festivals
  
• open to manipulation (e. g., Bibulus)
  
• the proper ritual above all else: "In fact a sacrifice without a prayer is thought to have no effect, or not to constitute a proper consultation of the gods.  Besides, one kind of formula is used in seeking omens, another in averting evil, another for praise.  We see too that senior magistrates make their prayers using a precise form of words: someone dictates the formula from a written text to ensure that no word is omitted or spoken in the wrong order; someone else is assigned as an overseer to check <what is spoken>; yet another man is given the task of ensuring silence; and a piper plays to prevent anything else but the prayer being audible.  There are records of remarkable cases of both types of fault -- when the actual sound of ill omens has spoilt the prayer, or when the prayer has been spoken wrongly.  Then suddenly, as the victim stood there, its head <that is, a part of the liver> or heart has disappeared from the entrails, or alternatively a second head or heart has been produced."  (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 28.10)
  
• e. g., Crassus and the Eleusinian Mysteries
• Clodius at the Bona Dea ("Caesar's wife must be above suspicion!")
  

• functional, not emotional or moral: "Besides, all men are agreed on this point, that it is the external goods, vineyards, corn-fields, olive-groves, teeming crops and fruits, in short all the advantages and successes of life, that they obtain from the gods, whereas no one ever imputed his virtue to God. No doubt it is right not to do so, for we are deservedly praised for virtue, and rightly glory in it, which would not be the case if we possessed that endowment from God instead of from ourselves. On the other hand, when we have been increased in honours or estate, or if we have obtained any other advantage that depends on fortune, or averted any evil, then we render thanks to the gods, and consider that no addition has been made to our own merits. But did any one ever render thanks to the gods because he was good? No, but because he was rich, or honoured, or preserved from injury. And it is for those reasons that we call Jupiter best and greatest, not because he makes us just, or temperate, or wise, but because he gives us safety, and freedom from hurt, and riches, and abundant resources....But, to return to the subject, it is the universal judgment of mankind that good fortune is to be sought from God, and wisdom obtained from oneself. We may dedicate temples as we will to Mind, and Virtue, and Faith, but we nevertheless see that these qualities are resident in ourselves, whereas the attainment of Hope, Safety, Wealth, and Victory has to be asked for from the gods. The prosperity, therefore, and success of the wicked refute, as Diogenes used to say, the whole idea of divine power and supremacy."  (Cicero, de Natura Deorum, III.36)

• state control: elected priesthoods (e. g., pontifex maximus)
  
• priests as politicians (some exceptions: flamen Dialis)

II. Religious Influences

• syncretism (e. g., Jupiter/Jove = Zeus, Juno = Hera, etc.)
• Sibylline books at Cumae (Aeneas at Cumae)
• Asclepius (god of healing) directly adopted
  

III. Imperial Cult and the Cult of Roma

IV.  Mystery Religions

• Dionysus/Bacchus and Bacchanalia (Etruscan influence): banned from Rome, 186 BC, by the s. c. de Bacchanalibus
  
• Cybele
  
• Isis-cult: #1, #2
  
• Manicheanism (Mani): dualism of dark and light, evil and good
  
• Sol Invictus, Elagabalus, Constantine
  
• Mithra
  
• general policy of acceptance of foreign cults encountered abroad and brought back to Rome (freq. by the legions)
  

V. Judaism and Christianity

• Judaea Roman province
• Jewish diaspora
• to Alexandria, Cyrene, Athens, Thessaloniki, Sardis
  
• Jews and Rome
• taxation
• expulsions, pogroms: Tiberius, Claudius
• Jewish Revolt 66-70: Temple and Jerusalem/Judaea destroyed
• 115-117: Cyrene and the Levant
• 132-135: Jerusalem under Simon Bar Kochba becomes a Roman colony
  

• begins ca. AD 30 in Judaea: relatively quick spread
• early debate on whether open to the Gentiles: St. Paul wins the day (#1, #2)
  
• Nero: the martyrdoms and persecutions begin
• but cf. Pliny and Trajan (course packet #16)
  
• continue periodically, worst under Diocletian (284-305)
• Julian the Apostate (361-363): attempt to revive paganism
  
• first official edict against them: mid-third century AD
• first known treatise specifically against them: Celsus, AD 180
• argued they were irrational, attractive to intellectually vulnerable (i. e., women, slaves, children, lower classes)
  
• must compete with other religions like Mithraism, Manicheanism
• population: 1-5% of the empire
• why the Roman reaction?  loyalty to fellow Christians, not the state; monotheism precluded participation in imperial cult; secrecy; resurrection; man as god; Holy Trinity

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Updated 11-27-06, bolmarcich@mail.utexas.edu