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The aim of this paper is to present a new perspective on the religious function of the Latin adjectives cretatus (whitened with chalk) and calidus (having a white spot on the forehead). The researchers of Roman religion have attributed to the former a specific role. Whitening chalk was used to cover any imperfections in the appearance of the sacrificial animal. According to them, cretatus could also have a pejorative meaning. The author of the article, however, disagrees with this view and suggests to examine more closely the context in which the adjective was used and references to the white colour of the victims. He argues for a different, positive interpretation, namely that the adjective cretatus was used to indicate the effect of a ceremonial act intended to emphasise Roman piety. In the case of the other adjective, calidus, the examination of the context in which the word appeared proves that it most likely did not serve as a technical religious term and animals with a white spot on their foreheads were not considered pars pro toto as white victims in Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Was Cybele brought to Rome to expel Hannibal, as Cicero and Livy suggest, or was she brought to re-establish Rome's Trojan heritage, as Ovid and Herodian propose? Did her sacred stone come from Pessinus, Pergamum, or Mt Ida? In answering these questions this article argues, on the basis of a re-examination of the testimonies of Ovid and Herodian, that the Magna Mater did not come to drive out Hannibal but rather to reaffirm Rome's Trojan ancestry, and that Pergamum and Mt Ida are likely the origin of her sacred stone. In addition the article introduces a passage from Timotheus of Miletus, which locates the goddess in Ilium itself. This new literary evidence emphasizes the connection between the Magna Mater and Troy. By addressing these two questions fresh light will be shed on the Trojan background to the Magna Mater's Roman advent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Romanitas: Revista de Estudos Greco-Latinas is the property of Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article proposes a new reading of a late first-century c.e. inscribed dedication from Todi (Umbria) as an accusation of witchcraft, a rhetorical text aimed at propagating a particular story among the local community. Historical and anthropological studies of witchcraft accusations in other societies have emphasised how they can reveal tensions and anxieties that are normally not visible to the observer. By drawing on these studies and close examination of the language and content of the inscription, this article analyses an historical agent's experience of the social structure of early imperial Italy. The accusation is read as a freedman's response to his ambiguous position in a slave society, the ambivalent power of writing in Roman culture and the religious claims of Flavian imperial discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While various scholars of late have been proffering the theory that the Captivity Epistles were written while Paul was in prison in Ephesus, there are numerous reasons why this explanation of the situation does not work, not least because Paul was a Roman citizen and there are no texts inside or outside the NT which say Paul was ever imprisoned in Ephesus. The traditional locale for Paul's house arrest and his writing of the Captivity Epistles (Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians), namely Rome, is reaffirmed, as is the date sometime in the early AD 60s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the religious doctrines by Saint Paul in the Epistle to the Romans, a book in the New Testament of the Bible and mentions the author's views on how Paul's gospel provides the true teachings of god. Topics discussed include Saint Paul preaching the gospel in Rome and the conditions of Christians in Rome. It also mentions doctrines in the book on topics including righteousness of God, judgment of God, and God's creation.

In this article, I examine the relationship between prodigies and the pax and ira deum. I follow Santangelo in arguing that prodigies did not represent ruptures in the pax deum. Instead, they were simply signs that the pax deum was needed to avoid some impending disaster. In addition, I argue against the traditional understanding of prodigies as expressions of the ira deum brought about by Roman error: although prodigies were sometimes the result of ritual mistakes, they could also simply happen, with no connection at all to human action or divine anger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historische Zeitschrift is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on a triad of diplomatic gifts sent by the Roman republic to two celtic princes, the kinglet Cincibilos, and Balanos during 170 and 169 B.C. Topics discussed include military action taken by the Republic of Rome against Perseus king of Macedonia before the defeat at Pydna in 168; complaints brought against Roman senator Caius Cassius in the Senate for having damaged the territory of Alpine people; and the structuring of the religious system around the tripartite ideology in archaic Roman religion. Also mentioned is triple diplomatic donations structured by ideology in trifunctional Indo-European region.

Copyright of Stratum Plus Journal is the property of P.P. Stratum plus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Allow me to quote these unusual -- or should I say genial -- words of Constantine the Great dated to 313 AD: "No one should be forced to observe religion... Let everyone follow the religion he chooses... Everyone may freely believe in what his heart wants... One who is convinced to be in the right path of faith should not mistreat others. At worst, he should only help others. If he does not want that, let him leave them be. Let everyone try to save his soul as his soul desires, it should not be forced onto him. I wish that my people live peacefully and be serene; this is the common good of all people and the entire Empire. Let those who mistake, same as those who have faith, feel joyfully the benefit of the peace and serenity. Namely, that graceful peace in society may bring those who mistake back to the right path. Let no one mistreat others and let everyone have what his heart wants, and let them revere what they believe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of religions throughout the Roman world may be explained partly as a consequence of the movements of peoples, partly in terms of the emergence of new elective cults. Understanding these processes entails exploring the kinds of contacts and exchanges established between individual worshippers, and the contexts — local and imperial — within which they took place. These developments culminated in the emergence of new cults that spilled over the boundaries of the Roman Empire to create the first global religions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the religious importance of Cicero's De Haruspicum Responso against the background of prodigy-handling in Republican Rome. Comparing the prodigy in question to an ‘auditory epiphany’, it argues that key issues raised by the speech include the nature of the divine voice, the relationship of the prodigious ‘rumbling and clattering’ to the gods themselves, and the ambiguous temporalities implied by Roman practices of divination. The article also suggests that De Haruspicum Responso proposes a significant overlap between religious and political speech, and it questions the radical split often assumed between the religious ideology of Cicero's philosophical and his more ‘public’ works. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Saint Augustine (354-430 CE), a native North African, lived during the time Rome ruled the Mediterranean region. Augustine's mother was a devout Christian. His non-Christian father was a local official whose political influence enabled Augustine to acquire an esteemed education from reputable institutions. Traveling internationally, Augustine led a fascinating life, and his cultural experiences helped develop his worldly, judicious concepts. With a synthesis of academic scholarship and theological conviction, Saint Augustine became a renowned Christian intellectual. In his book The Confessions of Saint Augustine, he not only shares his social, educational, and theological development, but also he clearly identifies himself as an African. Nevertheless, people today think of Saint Augustine as a European theologian, including many African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Das Setting in Cyprians apologetischem Werk Ad Donatum ist ein Gespräch zwischen ihm und einem Freund, Donatus, das in einem hübschen Garten stattfindet. Im Zusammenhang dieses Gesprächs berichtet Cyprian seinem Freund über seine Hinwendung zum Christentum. Dabei ist zugleich neben Donatus ein größeres Publikum angesprochen, vermutlich Konvertiten in den (je verschiedenen) Stadien ihres Konversionsprozesses. Cyprians Beschreibung diente seiner Selbstvergewisserung über Sinn und Wert von Bekehrung, spornte zugleich aber seinen Gesprächspartner Donatus in dessen Konversionsprozess ebenso an wie andere Leser, die entweder neue oder potentielle Konvertiten waren. Die Bekehrungserzählung reflektiert daher die Bedeutung, die Christen in Karthago um die Mitte des dritten Jahrhunderts der Bekehrung zuschreiben konnten, und die Wertvorstellungen, denen Cyprian während seines Konversionsprozesses begegnete. Damit reiht sich Cyprian unter die Autoren ein, die gewöhnlich als Apologeten bezeichnet werden: Unter den 16 Werken, die gewöhnlich hierzu gezählt werden, beziehen sich 14 auf die Bekehrung des Verfassers. Verteidigung des Christentums, Selbstvergewisserung der zum Christentum Gekommenen und Befürwortung der Hinwendung zum Christentum greifen Hand in Hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey presents recent studies of the Gospel of John that have attended to the long-standing question of the relationship that may or may not exist between the Johannine story of Jesus and words and events from his life. A renewed interest in a closer link between John and history is taking place. Recent work on the role of “witness” in the early Church and in the transmission of traditions is also related to this search for the relationship between John and history, as is the ongoing debate over the relationship between the Fourth Gospel and the Synoptic Tradition. The debate over the religious and social background to John has been enriched by recent studies that attempt to locate the Gospel in the Roman Empire, and trace the influence of Roman religion and Imperial practices in the Johannine text. Rich studies of Johannine Theology continue to appear, and the recent turn to a more literary evaluation of the Gospel has led to a strong growth in interest in the role of Johannine characters within the story. Some claim that they are entirely subject to the Johannine rhetoric, while others prefer to single them out as distinct and identifiable “personalities.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a survey of the roles and status of Meter's cult in the western Black Sea area, her reception in the archaic period, and the subsequent development of the goddess's characteristics. Based on new scholarship on the goddess's roles and status in Phrygia, and taking as a starting point an analysis of a selected number of archaeological Meter objects from the Black Sea region, it will be argued that Meter in this area throughout the centuries functioned as, primarily, a goddess of power, a protector of cities, and a goddess of the elite - the very traits that also characterised her cult in Phrygia. Furthermore, it is suggested that Meter, because of these traits, was eagerly embraced by official authorities outside the Black Sea area also, and that hence they were the primary reason for her early presence in Athens and later in Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the II century a.Chr., in its late Roman forms, the Egyptian religion coexisted with the new religious phenomenon of the Christian cult. The individuals had two options for the form and cult practice to choose as a matter of a strict existential nature, that rised the question of the historical development of the Egytpian religion too and consequently the one of the crisis and of the cause of its eminent end under the influence Christian missionarism. So far, the research in the history of religion field prediliged the phenomenologic approach to the historic and existential one, that made possible the idea of continuity and coexistence of the ancient Pagan religion along with the Christianism, this religious turning point being almost impossible to perceive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twelfth century the cult of St Agatha of Catania was revived on the island of Sicily. This article explores the development of the cult within the wider process of the re-Christianisation of an island which had, in the previous century, been removed from Muslim control by Norman conquerors. It demonstrates that the revival of St Agatha's cult occurred through its connection to powerful political circles and to a range of emergent communication networks. The increasing renown of this shrine centre contributed to Sicily's integration into the Latin Christian world, and countered suspicious external perceptions of the island. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The re-evaluation of classical education (paideia) recurred throughout the Roman period, reaching a particularly fevered pitch during the late fourth century, as the empire became Christian. The political consequences of Christian learning become particularly clear in the debate between two learned, Latin-speaking Christians who translated Greek works: Jerome and Rufinus. In the course of their acrimonious conflict over the theological legacy of Origen, these two prominent intellectuals resorted to name-calling: Jerome accused Rufinus of being unlearned, and Rufinus claimed that Jerome’s erudition signalled impiety. These accusations over education, culture, and linguistic expertise convey a deeper anxiety over the nature of knowledge and power at the dawn of the Christian Roman Empire. To what extent can Christians appropriate and transform the knowledge of ‘others’? When is translation an act of piety and when it is an act of hubris? What kinds of cultural capital will be valued in a newly Christian world, where classical paideia is valued and held suspect at the same time? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the cult of the minor Roman goddess Anna Peranna, a nymph associated with an annual cycle and festivals. In particular, it describes archaeological evidence uncovered at a foundation associated with the goddess and her cult. Literary references to the goddess and to her cult or its practices are also surveyed. The general nature of nymphs within Greek and Roman religion are also addressed. Then the nymph Anna Peranna is portrayed specifically in terms of ancient evidence and practices associated.

The article discusses the religious characteristics of the imperial cult of the ancient Roman empire. It describes the worship and devotion to the Roman emperor, the influence of the imperial cult on other pagan cults and practices, and the effect of imperial cult practices on the development of Christianity in Europe in the early Middle Ages. Other subjects under discussion include the notion of the emperor as Son of God, the historiography of religious studies concerning Roman cult practices, and the diffusion of Roman religion through emigration. The work of historian Jörg Rüpke is discussed, along with the theories of historian Roland Robertson.

This article proposes an alternative way to think about the violence that swept the Roman Empire in the wake of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Traditionally seen as the inevitable result of Christian intolerance, recent experience suggests that this violence can be better understood by casting a broader net and including political as well as theological issues. The result shows this violence to be the by-product of a struggle between emperors and bishops to control access to the divine. In an age of widespread belief in the active intervention of deity in human affairs, this “religious” prerogative was fraught with profound “secular” implications that make our distinction between “Church” and “State” meaningless. Martyrs play an important role in this process, but it is a symbolic one. Bishops use martyrs to control emperors. But, as a famous confrontation between Ambrose of Milan and the emperor Theodosius shows, bishops also relied on their new role as patrons of a large and volatile constituency. Their efforts were abetted by significant rethinking of the meaning of martyrdom and persecution that followed Julian the Apostate's ill-starred efforts to rein in Christianity without producing martyrs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The object we have decided to discuss here is the use of Ancient History as an iconographical source in the European art of the 17th century. We have divided the study in two parts, the first one consists on the analysis of the deuotio ritual contextualizing it within the republican Roman religion. Basing on the literary sources, we shall focus on the Decius Mus deuotio. In the second part, we will connect that ritual with Rubens and his paints dedicated to the Decius Mus deuotio. The next step is try to explain why this story was chosen, in which sources did Rubens get inspired and which iconographical elements were used to shape the ritual in the different scenes in the cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the problem of the difficult attribution of inscriptions dedicated to Sol Invictus, which some authors have interpreted as Mithraic monuments, some as inscriptions belonging to the Syrian god Sol Invictus Elagabal and others, finally, to a Roman Sol Invictus, unconnected with any Eastern influences or Eastern origin. The issue of these multiple epigraphic monuments is of great importance for the study of the diffusion of Mithraism, of the worship of the Syrian deity, and in general for the study of Roman cults of Eastern origin. Departing from theoretical considerations found in the existing literature and through the application of a comparative methodology with monuments from other parts of the Empire, the specific case of Roman Dacia is introduced with a detailed and individual analysis of epigraphic sources associated with the problem, made all the more complicated by the fact that in these inscriptions no explicit mention of Elagabal is made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented discussing polytheism in ancient Roman civilization. Details are given highlighting the extent to which Rome was a religiously pluralistic and tolerant society and the characteristics and rationales behind those religious ideologies are examined. The teachings of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Marcus Terentius Varro are particularly cited concerning their views of the importance of religion and its relationship to the state.

The Roman abhorrence of human sacrifice presented by ancient literary sources stands in contrast to the frequency of rites requiring the death of a human being performed by the Romans during the Republic (509–44 BCE). After examining the ways our sources talk about ritual murder, especially as it was practiced by foreign peoples and subversive or tyrannical elements within Roman society, this discussion turns to the issue of the forms of ritual murder performed by the Romans. Of these various rites, the only one clearly identified by them as human sacrifice, that is, as an offering to the gods of a human life, is the live interment of Gauls and Greeks. Other forms of ritual murder—the burial of unchaste Vestal Virgins and the drowning of hermaphroditic children—were not, in Roman opinion, sacrifice. This distinction made the disposal of Vestal Virgins and hermaphrodites acceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the proceedings from the historical conference "Religious Flows in the Roman Empire - The Expansion of 'Oriental Cults' (Isis, Mithras, Iuppiter Dolichenus) from East to West and Back Again," hosted by the University of Heidelberg, Germany on November 27-28, 2010, featuring presentations by Jaime Alvar, Laurent Bricault, and Engelbert Winter.

The architecture of the Roman Empire reveals much about ancient society and the context in which Christianity grew to be the official religion of the Empire. The author offers an archaeological view of what the buildings say about people who created them, and how they lived. This perspective guides the reader to discover how the Greek and Roman world helped shape later generations and influenced the development of Christian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using postcolonial analysis to account for the Roman Empire's pervasive presence in and influence on early Jesus-follower communities (early Christians), as depicted in New Testament texts, is both evident (given its usefulness for analysing situations of unequal power relationships) and complicated. The complications are due partly to the material and conceptual potential and constraints inherent in postcolonial biblical studies, as well as to the complexities involved in dealing with empire and imperialism. The study of the Roman Empire, as far as its impact on early Christianity and (in this article) on the letters of Paul is concerned, requires attention to Empire's material manifestation, ideological support for Empire, and religious aspects - issues that are identified and briefly discussed. Empire can be understood in many different ways, but it was also constantly constructed and negotiated by both the powerful and the subjugated and therefore attention is required for its possible reach, uses and the purposeful application of discursive power in New Testament texts that were contemporary with Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The final objective of this study is to make an rapprochement between Ancient History and the quantitative analysis. First of all, we have studied the literary and bibliographic sources that relate or enumerate the prodigia to create a database with them. After that, we started our quantitative or statistical analysis.With the results of this analysis, we wondered if the statistical methodology could be useful to the studies on Ancient History, specially in relation with the Roman Republic. Moreover, we used this analysis to rese arch many aspects related to the Roman Republic religion, like the interference between the politics and the prodigies, the role played by the public priesthoods and the possible consequences in the Roman society. The statistical information obtained is presented in a clear and accessible way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the piety and religion of 4th-century Roman emperor Constantine I, focusing on his participation in the custom of votive offerings. The author describes scholarship about Constantine's religious beliefs and discusses indications of votive inscriptions including one at the church of St. Peter's in Rome, Italy and an offering to the goddess Fortuna on the Column of the Goths in Constantinople. Also discussed is the use of votive offerings in both paganism and Christianity.

The article discusses the political relations between the Roman and Sasanid Persian empires during the third and fourth centuries, particularly with reference to the institutionalization of respective state imperial religions of Christianity and Zoroastrianism in that period. The Sasanid institutional changes are interpreted as partial reactions to Roman religious policies toward "orthodox" and "heretical" Christians and reflective of altered attitudes of the Sansanid sovereigns toward their Christian populace, as well as Jewish and Manichean subjects.

The vision of Roman religion that Christians outside Rome bequeath in their writings has two features. On one hand, it shows a clear perception of the different religious practices in different cities of the empire, as well as local selection in the reception of Roman practices, providing rich material to investigate this religion as a local, regional and provincial phenomenon. On the other hand, however, what is also present and intimately bound to this is the question of the Christian reception of Roman literature, of the role played by the literary texts containing information on religion for the expansion, knowledge and diffusion of Roman religion anywhere in the empire. The apologies of Tertulian, the two books of Ad nationes and Apologeticum, constitute privileged texts to observe this procedure, because the references to Roman religion found in them stem substantially from the literary tradition, hence these works also offer a space for reflection on literature as a means of religious diffusion, reflection and criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 4th to 8th centuries, unusually cold weather was correlated with cataclysmic events such as the fall of the Roman Empire in the west, leading to the dark ages in Europe, the transfer of the center Roman culture to Constantinople, and the rise of Islam. Finally a warming trend in the 8th century was coincident with an intellectual blossoming under Charlemagne in western Europe, in Byzantium, and by Islamic scholars in the Middle East. The Materia Medica of Dioscorides, Greco-Roman military physician of the 1st century, was an herbal-an illustrated manuscript describing medically useful plants. Learned men in Europe, Byzantium and the Islamic lands, increasingly used the styles of their civilizations in copying these manuscripts as illustration grew more and more stylized and errors crept in as the works were more divorced from the direct study of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the books written by historian Keith Hopkins primarily on Roman history. Career background and development of Hopkins in history; Review of the books of Hopkins on Roman politics, economy, and religion; Insight of the author on the personality of Hopkins both personal and professional.

After a general caveat concerning the interpretation of polemical pamphlets, various chronologically relevant aspects of the so-called Carmen contra paganos are revisited. In particular, the recent identification of the anonymous praefectus and consul with Vettius Agorius Praetextatus is challenged by reasserting the classical identification with Virius Nicomachus Flavianus. Thus the composition of the poem can be dated to the aftermath of the battle at the Frigidus (5-6/9/394) on firm grounds. At the same time, new light can be shed on the careers of Leucadius rationalis rei privatae fundorum domus divinae per Africam ca. 388/90 and Marcianus proconsul Campaniae ca. 393/94. This way, the author's methods of distorting as well as various modern misconceptions emerge. As a conclusion, some new paths of further research on the poem and on late Roman religious conflicts can be suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on a conference on Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire, held in Bochum, Germany, from July 4-5, 2013. Topics of discussion included the legal status of Jews, regional political differences of the province of Judea compared to other parts of the empire, and the policies of the Flavian dynasty regarding Jews.