E-Book Overview
This book, the second of the two volumes that make up Religions of Rome, presents a wide range of documents illustrating religious life in the Roman world from the early Republic to the late Empire (both visual evidence and texts in translation). More than just a "sourcebook," it explores some of the major themes and problems of Roman religion (such as sacrifice, the religious calendar, divination and prediction). Each document has an introduction, explanatory notes and bibliography, and is used as the starting point for further discussion.
E-Book Content
VOLUME
2
A Sourcebook
M A R Y
B E A R D
Lecturer in Classics in the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of'Newnham College J O H N
N O R T H
Professor of History, University College London S I M O N
P R I C E
Fellow and Tutor, Lady Margaret Hall,
CAMBRIDGE U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS
Oxford
Contents
Acknowledgements Preface
viii
ix
Conventions and abbreviations
xiii
1
Earliest Rome
1
2
The deities of Rome
3
The calendar
4
Religious places
5
Festivals and ceremonies
6
Sacrifices
7
Divination and diviners
8
Priests and priestesses
9
Individuals and gods: life and death
26
60 78 116
148 166 194
10
Rome outside Rome
11
Threats to the Roman order
12
Religious groups
13
Perspectives Glossary
239 260
288 349
365
Deities and their epithets
369
Bibliography 371 371 1 Literary texts 2 Secondary literature Details of illustrations Index of texts cited General index
375 402
405 410
216
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our warm thanks to those who gave us advice on the translations in this volume, and helped us in many other ways: in particular to our research assistant, Géraldine Herbert-Brown (funded by the British Academy); also to Jonathan Barnes (12.7e(v)); T i m Bateson (11.5); Michael Crawford; John Crook; John Curran; Richard Gordon (12.5); John Henderson; Richard Hunter; David Langslow (1.4b); Christopher MorrayJones (12.6g); Tessa Rajak (especially for 12.5); Michael Reeve; Joyce Reynolds; John Scheid (4.5); Mark Smith (12.7e(i)); Fritz Zimmermann (12.7d(ii)).
Preface
'Religions of Rome' - the traditional, polytheistic religions of the city of Rome and its empire - have a history of over 1, 200 years. It is a history that stretches from the city's origins in the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., when Christianity was firmly and officially established as the religion of the Roman empire. This book draws on material from throughout this long period, arranging it largely by theme - gods, the calendar, temples, divination, reli gious officials, and so forth. O f course, the character of Roman religion changed enormously during that time, as Rome itself developed from a small village in central Italy to the capital of a world empire, incorporating a wide diversity of religious traditions and beliefs. This book recognizes those changes, but does not attempt to present a chronological account. For that the reader should turn to our companion volume, Religions of Rome 1: A History. There is more at stake in this arrangement than simply a choice of chapter headings. By grouping the material thematically across the centuries, we are suggesting that (despite all the changes) the 'religions of Rome' did retain cer tain significant constants over their long history. We are suggesting, for exam ple, that Roman sacrifice of the fifth century B.C