ROMAN RELIGION

beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula from ancient times until the ascendancy of Christianity in the 4th century AD. the religious beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Romans from the 8th century BC to the early 4th century AD, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Religion was for the Romans the exact observance of established rites on behalf of the entire community. Prosperity and health, bountiful harvests, and success in war could be achieved in no other way than by the strict performance of rituals designed to maintain the favour of the gods, conceived of as abstract powers rather than anthropomorphic deities. Piety therefore was not understood in terms of individual religious experience but meant the faithful observance of ritual duties. It is difficult to reconstruct the history and development of Roman religion. Our information about rituals, festival calendars, and the worship of various gods derives from relatively late sources, antiquarians such as the 1st-century-BC Roman scholar Varro. He wrote at a time when Roman religion had already been exposed to the influences of Greek religion and so tended to confuse contemporary beliefs and practices with earlier ones. The literary evidence must therefore be supplemented by inscriptions, works of art, coins, and the like. Additional reading General works include R.M. Ogilvie, The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus (1969), a short account; H.J. Rose, Ancient Roman Religion (1948), a standard work; W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People, from the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus (1911, reprinted 1971); Kurt Latte, Rmische Religionsgeschichte (1960, reissued 1976); Martin P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, vol. 2, Die hellenistische und rmische Zeit, 3rd ed. (1974), with a rich bibliography; Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Rmer, 2nd ed. (1912, reprinted 1971), a basic collection of material; Robert E.A. Palmer, Roman Religion and Roman Empire (1974); and Ramsay MacMullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire (1981). Special periods and subjects are treated in Raymond Bloch, The Origins of Rome (1960); Michael Grant, Roman Myths (1971, reissued 1984); H. Wagenvoort, Roman Dynamism: Studies in Ancient Roman Thought, Language, and Custom (1947, reprinted 1976; originally published in Dutch, 1941); Mauro Cristofani (ed.), Dizionario della civilt etrusca (1985); Agnes Kirsopp Michels, The Calendar of the Roman Republic (1967, reprinted 1978); W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans (1899, reissued 1969); Inez Scott Ryberg, Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art (1955); Alan Wardman, Religion and Statecraft Among the Romans (1982); Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 in 2 parts (1988); Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (1911, reprinted 1956; originally published in French, 1906); Lily Ross Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor (1931, reprinted 1981); John Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire (1970, reissued 1985); A.D. Nock, Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (1933, reprinted 1988); Michael Grant, The Climax of Rome: The Final Achievements of the Ancient World, A.D. 161337 (1968); E.R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (1965); Robert C. Smith and John Lounibos, Pagan and Christian Anxiety: A Response to E.R. Dodds (1984); and Arnaldo Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (1963). See also Michael Grant and Rachel Kitzinger (eds.), Civilisation of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome, 3 vol. (1988), especially the essays in vol. 2. Michael Grant