Religion in the Roman Empire

by Rives, James B.

• ISBN13: 9781405106559
• ISBN10: 1405106557
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-12
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book provides an engaging, systematic introduction to religion in the Roman empire. Covers both mainstream Graeco-Roman religion and regional religious traditions, from Egypt to Western Europe. Examines the shared assumptions and underlying dynamics that characterized religious life as a whole. Draws on a wide range of primary material, both textual and visual, from literary works, inscriptions and monuments. Offers insight into the religious world in which contemporary rabbinic Judaism and Christianity both had their origin.

Author Biography

James B. Rives is Kenan Eminent Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of Religion and Authority in Roman Carthage (1995), Tacitus: Germania (1999), and has co-edited Flavius Josephus and Flavian Rome (2005). He has written a number of important articles on Roman religion in the Journal of Roman Studies and Journal of Early Christian Studies, and has taught courses on Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire, religions of the Roman Empire, and ruler cult in the Graeco-Roman world.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vi
List of Maps	vii
List of Text Boxes	viii
Acknowledgments	ix
Maps	xi
Introduction	1	(12)
1 Identifying "Religion" in the Graeco-Roman World	13	(41)
2 Regional Religious Traditions of the Empire	54	(35)
3 The Presence of the Gods	89	(16)
4 Religion and Community	105	(27)
5 Religion and Empire	132	(26)
6 Religious Options	158	(24)
7 Roman Religious Policy	182	(20)
Epilogue: Religious Change in the Roman Empire	202	(9)
Glossary of Major Deities	211	(4)
Glossary of Authors and Texts	215	(6)
References	221	(8)
Index	229