Roman gods : a conceptual approach /
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The book is concerned with the question of how the concept of \'god\' in urban Rome can be analyzed along the lines of six constituent concepts, id est space, time, personnel, function, iconography and ritual. While older publications tended to focus on the conceptual nature of Roman gods only in those (comparatively rare) instances in which different concepts patently overlapped (as in the case of the deified emperor or hero-worship), this book develops general criteria for an analysis of pagan, Jewish and Christian concepts of gods in ancient Rome (and by extension elsewhere). While the argument of the book is exclusively based on the evidence from the capital up to the age of Constantine, in the concluding section the results are compared to other religious belief systems, thus demonstrating the general applicability of this conceptual approach.
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1 online resource (219 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-209) and index. :
9789047428480 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Military religion in Roman Britain /
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This volume deals with the religions of the Roman soldiers in Britain and the religious interactions of soldiers and civilians. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological evidence, the discussion shows the complexities of Roman, Eastern, and Celtic rites, how each system influenced the ritual and liturgy of the others, and how each system was altered over time. The first part presents discursive chapters on topics such as the cult of the emperor, Mithraism in Britain, the cults of Celtic warriors and healers, the Romanization of Civilian religions, and Christianity; the second part consists of an annotated catalogue of the epigraphical sources. Of significance is the broad range of materials synthesized to show the extent to which native religions influenced and were influenced by imported Roman and Eastern cults.
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1 online resource (xv, 386 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 349-373) and indexes. :
9789004351226 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nemesis, the Roman state and the games /
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Although Nemesis was already revered in Archaic Greece, the main evidence for worship comes from the Roman Principate. During this period two important facets of the cult were the association of the goddess with the state, and her presence in agonistic contexts. Nemesis, the Roman State and the Games explores these aspects, discerning a possible connection between them. The author begins by discussing the origin and background of the goddess. He then clarifies the ways in which the goddess was enlisted into the service of the Roman emperor and state. Finally, he explains the presence of the goddess almost exclusively at the Roman Munus and Venatio as derived from the function of such games to express the proper order of society. Nemesis represents a significant re-evaluation of the place of Nemesis in the Roman World. The book also provides an invaluable corpus of epigraphic, literary, and iconographic evidence for the goddess.
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1 online resource (xv, 373 pages, [28] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-354) and indexes. :
9789004295803 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isis and Sarapis in the Roman world /
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Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World deals with the integration of the cult of Isis among Roman cults, the subsequent transformation of Isis and Sarapis into gods of the Roman state, and the epigraphic employment of the names of these two deities independent from their cultic context. The myth that the guardians of tradition and Roman religion tried to curb the cult of Isis in order to rid Rome and the imperium from this decadent cult will be dispelled. A closer look at inscriptions from the Rhine and Danubian provinces shows that most dedicators were not Isiac cult initiates and that women did not outnumber men as dedicators. Inscriptions that mention the two deities in connection with a wish for the well-being of the emperor and the imperial family are of special significance.
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1 online resource (xiv, 235 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-230) and index. :
9789004283466 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Law and religion in the Roman republic /
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Over the past two hundred plus years, scholarship has admired Roman law for being the first autonomous legal science in history. This biased view has obscured the fact that, traditionally, law was closely connected to religion and remained so well into the Empire. Building on a variety of sources - epigraphic, legal, literary, and numismatic - this book discloses how law and religion shared the same patrons (magistrates and priests) and a common goal (to deal with life's uncertainties), and how, from the third century B.C., they underwent a process of rationalization. Today, Roman law and religion deserve our admiration because together they supported and consolidated the growing power of Rome.
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1 online resource (vi, 229 pages) : illustrations, mappages. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-221) and index. :
9789004219205 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion.
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This is the second of a two-volume collection of studies on inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Their common aim is to argue for the historical relevance of various types of ambiguity and dissonance. While the first volume focused on the central paradoxes in ancient henotheism, the present one discusses the ambiguities in myth and ritual of transition and reversal. After an introduction to the history of the myth and ritual debate (with a focus on New Year festivals and initiation) in the first chapter, the second and third chapters discuss myth and ritual of reversal-Kronos and the Kronia, and Saturnus and the Saturnalia respectively; the fourth treats two women's festivals-that of Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria; the fifth investigates the initiatory aspects of Apollo and Mars. In the background is the basic conviction that the three approaches to religion known as 'substantivistic', functionalist and cultural-symbolic respectively, need not be mutually exclusive.
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1 online resource (xv, 354 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004296732 :
0169-9512 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East /
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The study of Manichaeism, the first Gnostic world religion, has made major advances in the last few decades thanks to the continuing discovery and decipherment of genuine Manichaean texts from Egypt and Central Asia. This work brings together a number of major articles by the author published between 1981 and 1992 on the history of the sect in Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire. The studies have all been up-dated in the light of newly published material.
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1 online resource (xiv, 325 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295810 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Isis, Dionysos, Hermes : three studies in Henotheism /
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This is the first of a two-volume collection of studies in inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Their common aim is to argue for the historical relevance of various types of ambiguity and dissonance. The first volume focuses on the central paradoxes in ancient henotheism. The term 'henotheism' -- a modern formation after the stereotyped acclamation: #EIS O QEOS# (\'one is the god\'), common to early Christianity and contemporaneous paganism -- denotes the specific devotion to one particular god without denying the existence of, or even cultic attention to, other gods. After its prime in the twenties and thirties of this century the term fell into disuse. Nonetheless, the notion of henotheism represents one of the most remarkable and significant shifts in Graeco-Roman religion and hence deserves fresh reconsideration.
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1 online resource (xiv, 268 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004296725 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The cult of Mithras in the Roman provinces of Gaul /
: Originally presented as the author's thesis (M.A.), Manchester. : 1 online resource (xiii, 175 pages, 40 leaves of plates) : illustrations. : Includes bibliographical references and indexes. : 9789004296336 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Egyptian priests of the Graeco-Roman period : an analysis on the basis of the Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literary and paraliterary sources /
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Throughout Egyptian history, high-ranking Egyptian priests were the scholars responsible for the creation of the very material that constituted the core of Egyptian intellectual culture. During the first millennium BCE, and particularly in the Graeco-Roman period (late fourth century BCE?fourth century CE), they were the social group in charge of mediating and negotiating the terms of the relationship between traditional Egyptian culture and the new foreign rulers of the country. As such, they are fundamental figures for our understanding of the greater Mediterranean and Near Eastern world of the time. 0Marina Escolano-Poveda offers for the first time a detailed analysis of the most relevant Egyptian priestly characters from Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literary and paraliterary sources. The examination of these sources contrasts the self-presentation of Egyptian priests in texts created and circulated within the temple environment with images presented by outside sources, providing a solid base to analyze how these figures were seen in their historical milieu. In the second part of the book, the results of the previous analysis are contrasted with a series of widely-used models employed to understand the historical and intellectual context of Egyptian religion and the Egyptian priesthood in the Graeco-Roman period, questioning the usefulness and applicability of such models. Escolano-Poveda proposes new ways of understanding the role of the Egyptian priests in this context as fundamental actors in the development of the philosophical, scientific, and literary culture of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique worlds.
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xiii, 395 pages : illustration ; 31 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-373) and index. :
9783447114257
3447114258 :
2190-3646 ;
La romanisation des dieux : l'interpretatio romana en Afrique du Nord sous le Haut-Empire /
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Heirs to the Punic and Berber traditions, the North Africans, once conquered by the Romans and willing to show respect for their new masters' gods, did not want to forsake their beloved ancestral deities and solved this dilemma by giving Roman names to their traditional gods, who nevertheless kept most of their former natures. This phenomenon, known as interpretatio romana, resulted in an interpenetration of both religious universes, each being enriched in the process. Roman African gods thus conceal dual personalities within themselves, which this book tries to investigate through all available sources (epigraphy, literature, numismatic and archaeology), unveiling many unsuspected aspects of great deities like Saturn/Baal Hammon, Astarte/Venus or Mercury/Baal Addir. If those gods of Roman Africa have inspired many individual studies, there was still a need for a book examining them all together within their interrelations. Here is then at last a real global study of the Roman-African pantheon. *** Héritiers des traditions puniques et berbères, les Nord-africains, à l'arrivée du conquérant romain, voulurent conserver leurs divinités ancestrales tout en respectant les dieux de leur nouveau maître. Ils affublèrent donc de noms romains leurs dieux traditionnels tout en leur conservant l'essentiel de leur personnalité d'origine. Ce phénomène, connu sous le terme d' , résulta en une interpénétration des deux univers religieux, qui s'enrichirent ainsi mutuellement. Les dieux de l'Afrique romaine cachent donc des personnalités multiples que cet ouvrage tente de dévoiler en mettant à profit toutes les sources disponibles : épigraphie, littérature, numismatique et archéologie. Ces grandes divinités, telles que Saturne/Baal Hammon, Vénus/Astarté ou Mercure/Baal Addir livrent ainsi tour à tour des aspects insoupçonnés de leurs personnalités. Si les dieux d'Afrique romaine ont suscité diverses études individuelles, il manquait encore un ouvrage qui les examinerait tous ensemble et dans leurs rapports entre eux. Voici donc enfin une véritable étude globale du panthéon romano-africain.
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1 online resource (xiv, 750 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 671-693) and indexes. :
9789047410331 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ritual dynamics and religious change in the Roman Empire : proceedings of the eighth Workshop...
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This volume presents the proceedings of the eighth workshop of the international network 'Impact of Empire', which concentrates on the history of the Roman Empire and brings together ancient historians, archaeologists, classicists and specialists in Roman law from some thirty European and North American universities. The eighth volume focuses on the impact of the Roman Empire on religious behaviour, with a special focus on the dynamics of ritual. The volume is divided into three sections: ritualising the empire, performing civic community in the empire and performing religion in the empire.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047428275 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.