E-Book Overview
What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion, and what motivated them to change those rituals? To these questions Clifford Ando proposes simple answers: In contrast to ancient Christians, who had faith, Romans had knowledge, and their knowledge was empirical in orientation. In other words, the Romans acquired knowledge of the gods through observation of the world, and their rituals were maintained or modified in light of what they learned. After a preface and opening chapters that lay out this argument about knowledge and place it in context, The Matter of the Gods pursues a variety of themes essential to the study of religion in history.
E-Book Content
The Joan Palevsky
Imprint in Classical Literature
In honor of beloved Virgil— “O degli altri poeti onore e lume . . .” —Dante, Inferno
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the Classical Literature Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which is supported by a major gift from Joan Palevsky.
the matter of the gods
the transformation of the classical heritage Peter Brown, General Editor I II
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III
Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity, by Kenneth G. Holum
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John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric and Reality in the Late Fourth Century, by Robert L. Wilken
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Biography in Late Antiquity: The Quest for the Holy Man, by Patricia Cox
VI
Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt, by Philip Rousseau
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Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, by A. P. Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein
VIII
Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul, by Raymond Van Dam
IX X XI
Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition, by Robert Lamberton Procopius and the Sixth Century, by Averil Cameron Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity, by Robert A. Kaster
XII
Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, a.d. 180–275, by Kenneth Harl
XIII
Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, introduced and translated by Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey
XIV
Gregory the Great: Perfection in Imperfection, by Carole Straw
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“Apex Omnium”: Religion in the “Res gestae” of Ammianus, by R. L. Rike
XVI
Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World, by Leslie S. B. MacCoull
XVII XVIII
On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, by Michele Renee Salzman Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and “The Lives of the Eastern Saints,” by Susan Ashbrook Harvey
XIX XX XXI
Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius, by Alan Cameron and Jacqueline Long, with a contribution by Lee Sherry Basil of Caesarea, by Philip Rousseau In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini, with introduction, translation, and historical commentary by C. E. V. Nixon and Barbara Saylor Rodgers
XXII
Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital, by Neil B. McLynn
XXIII
Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in Late Antiquity, by Richard Lim
XXIV
The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority, and the Priscillianist Controversy, by Virginia Burrus
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Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius’s “Life” and the Late Antique City, by Derek Krueger
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The Shadows of Poetry: Vergil in the Mind