1st Edition

Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy Evidence and Experience

Edited By Edward Bispham, Christopher Smith Copyright 2001

    As Rome extended its influence throughout Italy, gradually incorporating its various peoples in a process of Romanization and conquest, its religion was extensively influenced by the cults of religious practices of its new subjects and citizens. It was a period of intense religious ferment and creativity. Roman religion, controlled and determined by religious and political functionaries who mediated between humans, had centred on a select pantheon of gods with Jupiter at its head. It was a religion in the process of becoming the servant of the state, however genuine its priests and votaries might be. Understanding the dynamics of religious change is fundamental to understanding the changing culture and politics of Rome during the last five centuries B.C. Religion in Archaic and Republic Rome and Italy tells that story.

    Chapter 1 Introduction, Edward Bispham; Chapter 2 An Anthropologist’s View of Ritual, Nicole Bourque; Chapter 3 Tuscan Order: The Development of Etruscan Sanctuary Architecture, Vedia Izzet; Chapter 4 Sacred Rubbish, Fay Glinister; Chapter 5 Some Thoughts on the ‘Religious Romanisation’ of Italy Before the Social War, Olivier de Cazanove, Edward Bispham; Chapter 6 From Concordia to the Quirinal:, Emmanuele Curti; Chapter 7 Prophet and Text in the Third Century BC, J. A. North; Chapter 8 The Games of Hercules, T. P. Wiseman; Chapter 9 Looking Beyond the Civic Compromise:, Andreas Bendlin; Chapter 10 Worshipping Mater Matuta:, Christopher Smith;

    Biography

    Bispham, Edward; Smith, Christopher