Continuity And Change In Roman Religion

This book, first published in 1979 and out of print since 1986, surveys religious attitudes reflected in Latin literature from the late Republic to the time of Constantine. Liebeschuetz focuses on the development of the Roman public religion, particularly the relation between Roman religion and morality.

Historiography and method -- Religious institutions and religious authority -- Ritual and myth -- Theology -- Roman and alien -- Continuity and change from Republic to Empire.

This volume explores the nature of religious change in the Greek-speaking cities of the Roman Empire. Emphasis is put on those developments that apparently were not the direct result of Roman actions: the intensification of idiosyncratically Greek features in the religious life of the cities (Heller, Muñiz, Camia); the active role of a new kind of Hellenism in the design of imperial religious policies (Gordillo, Galimberti, Rosillo-López); or the locally different responses to central religious initiatives, and the influence of those local responses in other imperial contexts (Cortés, Melfi, Lozano, Rizakis). All the chapters try to suggest that religion in the Greek cities of the empire was both conservative and innovative, and that the ‘Roman factor’ helps to explain this apparent paradox.

A comprehensive treatment of the significant symbols and institutions of Roman religion, this companion places the various religious symbols, discourses, and practices, including Judaism and Christianity, into a larger framework to reveal the sprawling landscape of the Roman religion. An innovative introduction to Roman religion Approaches the field with a focus on the human-figures instead of the gods Analyzes religious changes from the eighth century BC to the fourth century AD Offers the first history of religious motifs on coins and household/everyday utensils Presents Roman religion within its cultural, social, and historical contexts

Summary: This study throws new light on the Roman impact on Italic religious structures in the last four centuries BC and, more generally, on the complex processes of change and accommodation set in motion by the Roman expansion in Italy. Cult places had a pivotal function among the various 'Italic' tribes known to us from the ancient sources, which had been gradually conquered and subsequently controlled by Rome. Through an analysis of archaeological, literary and epigraphic evidence from rural cult places in Central and Southern Italy including a case study on the Samnite temple of San Giovanni in Galdo, the authors investigate the fluctuating function of cult places in among the non-Roman Italic communities, before and after the establishment of Roman rule.

This Companion volume offers fifteen original essays on the Hellenistic world and is intended to complement and supplement general histories of the period from Alexander the Great to Kleopatra VII of Egypt. Each chapter treats a different aspect of the Hellenistic world - religion, philosophy, family, economy, material culture, and military campaigns, among other topics. The essays address key questions about this period: To what extent were Alexander's conquests responsible for the creation of this new 'Hellenistic' age? What is the essence of this world and how does it differ from its Classical predecessor? What continuities and discontinuities can be identified? Collectively, the essays provide an in-depth view of a complex world. The volume also provides a bibliography on the topics along with recommendations for further reading.

From one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, an innovative and comprehensive account of religion in the ancient Roman and Mediterranean world In this ambitious and authoritative book, Jörg Rüpke provides a comprehensive and strikingly original narrative history of ancient Roman and Mediterranean religion over more than a millennium—from the late Bronze Age through the Roman imperial period and up to late antiquity. While focused primarily on the city of Rome, Pantheon fully integrates the many religious traditions found in the Mediterranean world, including Judaism and Christianity. This generously illustrated book is also distinguished by its unique emphasis on lived religion, a perspective that stresses how individuals’ experiences and practices transform religion into something different from its official form. The result is a radically new picture of Roman religion and of a crucial period in Western religion—one that influenced Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and even the modern idea of religion itself.

This volume offers a contextual study of sanctuaries and cults in Crete in the transitional period from the end of the Late Bronze Age into the Archaic period (c.1200 to 600 BC). It provides a dynamic picture of the interplay of religious tradition and societal change in a period long considered a 'Dark Age' by Classical scholarship.

Wolf Liebeschuetz is one of the most distinguished, creative and best-liked of contemporary Ancient Historians. In his fifty-year career of teaching and publication Wolf, German-born and British-educated, has informed generations of scholars - collaborating, instructing, disputing and commenting on research.In this volume, coinciding with his eightieth birthday, twenty historians and archaeologists who have known Wolf as friends, colleagues and pupils acknowledge and celebrate his influence by presenting papers on topics related to his four monographs: Antioch: City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (1972); Continuity and Change in Roman Religion (1980); Barbarians and Bishops (1990); and The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (2001). Four core sections cover: 'Law and Religion' (Duncan Cloud, Robert Markus, Karl Leo Noethlichs, John North, Benet Salway); 'Antioch and the East' (Hugh Elton, Geoffrey Greatrex, Doug Lee); 'Barbarians and Bishops' (Jonathan Barlow, John Drinkwater, Peter Heather, Neil McLynn); 'The City' (Simon Corcoran, Nick Henck, Luke Lavan, Andrew Poulter, Charlotte Roueché). The book opens with 'Modern Historiography' (Hartmut Leppin, Bryan Ward-Perkins) and closes with an 'Afterword' (Averil Cameron).

This book reorients the study of sacrifice, examining the locus of ritual action - the altars of Republican Rome and Latium.