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Taking into account the wide variety of mystery cults and their remarkable apogee in late Hellenistic and Imperial times, this paper will argue that Imperial cult practices—at least in some places, according to our sources—probably included certain stimuli that were implemented in order to elicit specific emotions in worshippers. However, my interest here will not be in speculating about the content of these rites, nor about what people actually experienced. Instead, this paper shows that the use of mysteric jargon and certain ritual elements in Imperial cult was devised and adopted in order to suggest a specific understanding and experience of Imperial power. The world of mysteries provided the collective framework of meaning within which those stimuli made complete sense. To this end, one of the main lines of inquiry that runs through the present volume will be explored: how and why Imperial cult made use of the collective semantic value of the mysteries.
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Epigraphy tells about a deeply conservative Athens in Roman times. However, the civic religious life was not identical to that of earlier periods. This article is based on two main ideas. First, continuity is never mere survival; when surrounded by a new context, it may be interpreted as change. The interaction between the Roman empire and the Athenian elites provided such a new context: both Rome and local elites were interested in fostering continuity of religious forms. Secondly, notwithstanding this, epigraphy does indeed document some changes within the civic religion of Roman Athens. One of the most evident is the increasing oligarchization of religious power. It is my contention that this development had a deep impact on religiosity too.From Hellenistic times onwards, the ties between the demos and civic religion were progressively fading away. By Roman times, the democratic fiction did not need to be maintained anymore, as the changes in the management of civic religion show. The increasing religious power of the elite is one of the factors which contributed to create a new framework of meaning. Among other things, the success of certain gods, such as Asklepios, Isis, or Zeus Hypsistos, may also be explained within this new context. Reversely, the growing power of these gods may also account for the option taken by those members of the elite who chose the cult of Asklepios or Isis as a stage on which to display their generosity and improve their social prestige. It seems only fair to conclude that changes in civic religion should also be explained by the changing attitudes of the elites.
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From Herodotus on, Graeco-Roman tradition attributed an Egyptian origin to the widespread Mediterranean custom of parading the gods on a platform. The aim of this chapter is to analyse one of the many ways of creating and recreating a shared cultural universe that lessens the distance between two groups that were initially alien to each other. A combination of estrangement and rapprochement let Egyptian culture appear as fully exotic (it remained the “Other”), and at the same time as the antecedent of the dominant group’s customary way of doing things (thus also becoming part of “us”). Three passages by Claudian (IV Cos. 568–574), Servius (Ad Aen. 6.68) and Macrobius (Sat. 1.23.13) alluding to the Egyptian custom of transporting the images of the gods on platforms helped to recreate a common cultural space between the two traditions, and also conferred respectability on this ritual at times when this might be particularly necessary.
Integration is a buzzword in the 21st century. However, academics still do not agree on its meaning and, above all, on its consequences. This book offers numerous examples showing that the inhabitants of the Roman Mediterranean were “integrated”, i.e. were aware of the existence of a common framework of coexistence, without this necessarily resulting in a process of cultural convergence. For instance, the Spanish poet Martial explicitly refused to be considered the brother of the Greek Charmenion (10.65): paradoxically, while reaffirming their differences, his satirical epigram confirms the existence of a common frame of reference that encompassed them both. Understanding integration in the Roman world requires paying attention to the complex and varied responses to diversity in Roman times.
Series:
Impact of Empire, Volume: 47
Integration is a buzzword in the 21st century. However, academics still do not agree on its meaning and, above all, on its consequences. This book offers numerous examples showing that the inhabitants of the Roman Mediterranean were “integrated”, i.e. were aware of the existence of a common framework of coexistence, without this necessarily resulting in a process of cultural convergence. For instance, the Spanish poet Martial explicitly refused to be considered the brother of the Greek Charmenion (10.65): paradoxically, while reaffirming their differences, his satirical epigram confirms the existence of a common frame of reference that encompassed them both. Understanding integration in the Roman world requires paying attention to the complex and varied responses to diversity in Roman times.
Religious Change in Greek Cities under Roman Rule
Series:
Impact of Empire, Volume: 25
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.
Religious Change in Greek Cities under Roman Rule
Series:
Impact of Empire, Volume: 25
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.
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