Religions 11: What is Roman religion? Key concepts

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Religions 11 What is Roman religion?Key
concepts
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Chronological overview

• 753 BCE Romes foundation Romulus
• 753-509 BCE Rome kingdom
• 509-27 BCE Republic battle between plebeians
  and patricians Rome more powerful expansion in
  Italy
• 340-338 Italian War
• 264-129 BC three Punic Wars against Carthage
• Subjugation of Hellenistic world (from about 200
  onwards)
• 168 Battle of Pydna victory over Macedonia
• 148 Provincia Macedonia
• 146 Corinth destroyed

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• 133-29 Rome conquers Pergamum (Asia Minor)
  provincia Asia
• 91-89 Social War of Italian cities against Rome
  they all get Roman citizenship
• 88-79 Sulla restoration and dictator
• 60 first triumvirate Crassus, Pompey and Caesar
• 58-50 Gallic conquest by Caesar
• 49-46 civil war, Caesar becomes dictator
• 44 Caesar killed
• 43 second triumvirate Lepidus, Octavian and
  Mark Antony O. wins battle of Actium 31, battle
  of Actium death of Cleopatra in 30
• 27 BCE (or 31) end of Republic, begin of Roman
  Empire, with Augustus as Emperor Empire until
  Rhine/Danube

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• Julio-Claudian emperors (27 BCE-68 CE) Claudius
  conquers Britain
• Flavian Emperors (69-96) Vespasian, Domitian
• Nerva and successors (96-138) Nerva, Trajan,
  Hadrian Trajan conquers Dacia (Roumania) and
  Mesopotamia (briefly)
• Antonines (138-192) Antoninus Pius, Marcus
  Aurelius height of Empire
• 192-284 military emperors, third-century
  crisis
• 284-305 Diocletian
• 306-337 Constantine the Great Christian Empire
• 284-602 Late Antiquity
• 476 fall of Rome East continues

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Terms

• Greek religion Roman religion
• hieros, hagnos,
• hosios, hagios sacer
• eusebeia pietas
• asebeia impietas
• latreia/threskeia cultus
• sebesthai theous/ta
• nomizomena/nomizein
• tous theous etc. religio
•  

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Religio

• obligation with respect to the divine
• negative prohibition, e.g. it is the religio
  that non-initiates do not participate in the
  mysteries of Eleusis (Livy)
• positive prescribed ritual/customary practice
• From second century CE on religio comes to mean
  worship of a particular deity (personal
  relation with god and commitment of way of life
  prominent)

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• Apuleius, Golden Ass 11.26 I was a constant
  worshipper, a stranger to the temple, but at home
  in the religio
• Appropriated by Christians the true religio of
  the true God (Tertullian, Apology 24.2)
• From this time on religio comes closer to our
  religion

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• Words for gods
• Theos/thea, deus/dea, plural theoi/theai, di
• Abstract divine theos, deus
• Other abstract words
• daimon/daemon less specific than theos/deus,
  hence variety of entities between human divine
  sphere, spirits, souls in Christian times,
  it would get a negative meaning through contrast
  with Theos/Deus
• Heros/heros more restricted sphere, tombs
  (Greek) in Roman world more stretched out
  Herakles/Hercules became god, human benefactors
  could become heroes

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• c. Numen vague (is there but exact identity
  unclear) divine power, divine will
• d. genius guardian spirit of individual,
  gradually wider scope genius loci
• e. Distinctively Roman spirits of the dead as
  quasi-divine beings di manes

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Dis manibus sacrum
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Approaches to the divine

• Varro (1st cent. BCE), three approaches
  (theologiai ways to think about the divine)
• the civil civic/official/public religion
• the mythical Roman myth and mythography
• the physical philosophy

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1. The Civil

• Rives discusses here cult religious rituals and
  practices employed in worship
• NB Bremmer discusses this under ritual (what
  is this and what is difference between the two?)
• Prayers invocation attention - request
• Sacrifice (see offering scene on next slide what
  is difference with Greek religion?)
• Vows
• Divination interpretation of divine
  communications

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Arch of Marcus Aurelius, Rome
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• Initiation/purification (NB Bremmer lists this
  under elaborate rituals)

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2. Myth

• Placing too much emphasis on myths
• Not central to Graeco-Roman religions
• No canon
• Marginal to cult (see discussion myth ritual in
  Bremmer myth only rarely touches on ritual)

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Too little emphasis on myths

• Other idea is that myths had lost all religious
  significance by Roman times
• Shift from oral tradition to elite literature and
  art mythographies however, not restricted to
  elite masses retained access, e.g. through art,
  cultic practices etc.
• Criticism on myths yet never entirely dismissed
  and others gave deeper meaning to myths (e.g.
  allegory)
• Ergo kept religious meaning and significance

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The gods

• Kronos Chronus/Saturnus
• Persephone Proserpina
• Hades Pluto
• Demeter Ceres
• Poseidon Neptunus/Neptune
• Hestia Vesta
• Zeus Jupiter
• Hera Juno
• Apollo Apollo
• Artemis Diana
• Hermes Mercurius/Mercury
• Dionysos Bacchus/Dionysus
• Athena Minerva
• Ares Mars
• Aphrodite Venus
• Hephaistos Vulcanus

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Greek vs. Roman myth

• Relation Greek-Roman myth, idea of Roman
  slavishly taking over Greek myths, but this is
  untrue. Not one to one relationship
• Other emphasis in pantheon e.g. Juno and Jupiter
  more, Minerva less important Hercules worshipped
  as deity
• Romans usually put legendary men/heroes in well
  defined geographical and historical context
  stories about early Rome (Romulus and Rhemus),
  Aeneas (Aeneid)
• Ergo there existed a Roman mythology!
• Moreover, Roman pantheon was much more than just
  these gods
• New gods Silvanus (Pan), specific Italian gods
  (Bellona, Mater Matuta), eastern gods (Magna
  Mater, Isis etc.)
• Abstractions become highly popular, in particular
  since Hellenistic period (Tyche/Fortuna,
  Helios/Sol, or even Tiber)
• New additions to the pantheon were also the Roman
  emperors, who nonetheless retained separate
  status (divus)

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• In conclusion, after approaches 1-2 to the
  divine
• Roman religion was much like Greek religion
  (Graeco-Roman tradition) religion in the Roman
  Empire, however, has to be seen after
  developments in Hellenistic period (e.g. more
  emphasis on private experience of religion, ruler
  cult, abstract deities such as Fortuna), which
  were fostered in a specific Roman context
  (stories about early Rome, Italian deities etc.).
  

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2b Art

• Much the same as myth (intertwined)
• Again, too much emphasis on divine images
  idolatry ( idol worship), as if worship of
  statues was central to Greek-Roman religion
• Jewish-Christian concept only worship of one
  God gt concept is applied by early Christians to
  Graeco-Roman traditions
• Greek terms for statueagalma, andrias,
  aphidruma, bretas, eidôlon, eikôn, hedos,
  hidruma, kolossos, and xoanon
• Latin effigies, imago, signum, simulacrum and
  statua
• Jewish works, I BCE and later, Christian works
  first half II CE onwards gt eidôlon term is used
  for all Graeco-Roman statues (though
  non-Christians used the term only rarely for
  divine statues)

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• Placing too little value on divine images as if
  they are only pure decoration

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3. Philosophy

• Different schools of thought (Academics, Stoics,
  Epicureans), but all strived to define the
  divine. Generic ideas
• morally good and perfect
• source of blessings and virtues
• Removed, yet linked to daily life by intermediate
  levels of being
• Philosophy was not armchair science but way of
  life gt comes closer to our concept of religion
  clear ideas about morals and behaviour,
  missionary aspect (e.g. influence of Ciceros
  Hortensius on Augustine, pp. 40-1 textbook)
• However, despite criticism on all 3 other
  approaches to divine, philosophers never wanted
  to replace them and remained restricted to the
  elite! (e.g. example of Cicero, On the Nature of
  the Gods, p. 40 textbook)

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Conclusion

• 4 independent approaches to the divine that
  overlapped in various ways
• Myth and art similar subjects, though also
  different
• Cult separate, but myth and art also played a
  (limited) role
• Philosophy most radically different from other
  3, but still did not reject them either
  integrating or accepting them

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Authority

• Diversity of approaches explains why there was no
  priestly class and also why there existed a
  diversity of religious authorities in charge of
  different areas
• Rise of the polis religious authorities are
• Magistrates (civic priests)
• Priests
• Focus on proper cult acts, not on their
  interpretation, hence correcting someones
  religious behaviour was not part of the job
  (unless it affected the well-being of the
  community) they were facilitators of the holy

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• Other misconception
• Emperor not head of religion (pontifex maximus),
  only president of highest religious institution
  (pontifices) but had no wider authority than Rome
• Measures concerning religion derive from his
  authority as emperor

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Belief

• Belief specific (modern) Christian connotation
  contains series of key doctrines that
  characterize essence gt problematic term for
  Antiquity
• Without this association, however, the term can
  be useful if we mean accepting something in the
  religious sphere as true even without proof
• Rives, p. 48 What distinguishes the
  Graeco-Roman tradition from Christianity is thus
  the absence not of religious beliefs, but of
  pressures to define and scrutinize those beliefs

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• A. religious significance should be seen
  primarily in terms of social and cultural
  factors, not belief
• B. no central doctrine
• C. no mechanism to enforce beliefs no
  orthodoxy (right belief), but orthopraxy
  (right action)
• Ergo individuals believed what they liked
  without interference the only thing that was
  expected was that you did your religious duties

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Morality

• Modern notion of religion strongly associates
  with morality, but in Antiquity there were no
  fixed set of rules
• Widespread belief in gods concern with moral
  behaviour, but never systematised or imposed
• Ergo not central to Graeco-Roman religion as it
  is now