J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz - Continuity and Change in Roman Religion

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Continuity and Change in Roman Religion

J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz

CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD

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Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York

Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala LumpurMadras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin IbadanOxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press

First published by Oxford University Press 1979 Special edition for Sandpiper Books Ltd., 1996

Oxford University Press 1979

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without theprior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research orprivate study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction inaccordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in othercountries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address aboveQuotations taken from I.D. Duff's translation of Lucan's Pharsalia are reprinted by permission of The Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press:William Heinemann)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Liebeschuetz, John Hugo Wolfgang Gideon

Continuity and change in Roman religion

I. Rome Religion

I. Title

200'.937BL8027840499

ISBN 0198148224

Printed in Great Britain by Bookcraft Ltd., Midsomer Norton

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IN MEMORY OF

HANS LIEBESCHUETZ

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Acknowledgements

This book has developed out of an undergraduate course on Livy I and is in a sense an extended discussion of the third chapter of Professor P. Walsh's Livy. Dr. J.

North allowed me to use his regrettably unpublished dissertation (J. North, 1968), a mine of valuable insights. Visits to London libraries and the preparation of the final text were aided by grants from the Research Board of Leicester University. Dr. M. Koerner, a helpful neighbour, translated and summarized parts of an important book written in Polish (J. Linderski, 1966). Conversations with Sheila Spire on the subject of Greek philosophy at Rome have left their mark on several chapters.

Much of the book was typed by Linda Rayner. Rachel Liebeschuetz has helped me in various ways to get the text ready for submission. Professor P. Wiseman has read and criticized the opening chapters, and Professor A. Fitton Brown and Professor P. Walsh have gone through the whole text. So, from a stylistic point of view, has Margaret Liebeschuetz. Numerous errors, ambiguities, and infelicities have been removed by the editors of the Oxford University Press. I am extremely grateful to all who have helped to improve the book. The shortcomings that remain are my own.

J.H.W.G.L.

LEICESTER

OCTOBER 1976

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Contents

Abbreviations

page xi

Introduction

xii

I. The Late Republic

1. A problem of religion in the republic

2. Ancient explanations

3. Public divination

4. Rationalism of the late republic

5. Morality and religion

II. The Augustan Revival

1. Restoration after disaster: a twopronged approach

2. Religious reform

3. Moral reform

III. Ideological Consequences of the Principate

1. The ambivalent acceptance of the principate

2. Seneca: the ideology of aristocracy under the empire

3. Astrology in public life

4. Magic in public life

IV. Breakdown and Reconstruction

1. The system rejected: Lucan's Pharsalia

2. Religious anxiety and the fall of Nero

3. Silius Italicus and the Flavian restoration

4. The empire at its high point: the Younger Pliny and Tacitus

5. Public religion and political change in the early empire: a summing up

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V. Towards the Later Empire

1. The end of an epoch

2. Collapse and transformation in the third century

3. The Diocletianic revival

4. Latin apologists of the age of the Great Persecution: Arnobius and

Lactantius

5. The conversion of Constantine

6. Moral and religious consequences of the conversion of Constantine

Epilogue

Appendix

Bibliography

Translations

Index

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Abbreviations

References in footnotes are to the author's name and date of publications as found in the

bibliography. As a rule the title is only cited when an author has several publications in the same

year.

A.J.A.

American Journal of Archaeology

A.J.Ph.

American Journal of Philology

A.N.R.W.

H. Temporini, ed. Aufstieg und Niedergang der Rmischen Welt

B.S.A.

Annual of the British School at Athens

C.A.H.

Cambridge Ancient History

C.I.L.

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

C.I.M.R.M.

M.J. Vermaseren, ed. Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum

Religionis Mithraicae, 2 vols.

C.J.

Codex Justinianus

C.Ph.

Classical Philology

C.Q.

Classical Quarterly

C.Rev.

Classical Review

C.S.E.L.

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclestiasticorum Latinorum

C.T.

Codex Theodosianus

Dar.S.

C. Daremberg, E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquits grecques et

romaines

E.P.R.O.

tudes prliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'empire romain

F.I.R.

Fontes Iuris Romani Ante Iustiniani, vol. 2

F.R.A.

T. Hopfner, ed. Fontes Historiae Religionis Aegyptiacae

Gr. Christ. Schrift.

Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei

Jahrhunderte, Leipzig

H.R.R.

H. Peter, Historicorum Romanorum Reliquiae

H. Theol. Rev.

Harvard Theological Review

I.L.C.V.

E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres

I.L.S.

H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae

J.H.S.

Journal of Hellenic Studies

J.R.S.

Journal of Roman Studies

J. Theol.S.

Journal of Theological Studies

M.A.A.R.

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome

O.G.I.S.

W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae

P.B.S.R.

Papers of the British School at Rome

P.G.

J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca

P.I.R.

Prosopographia Imperii Romani

P.L.

J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina

Prl.

J. Marquardt, Das Privatleben der Rmer

P.W.

PaulyWissowa (Kroll), Real Encyclopdie der klassischen

Altertumswissenschaft

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Abbreviations

R.A.C.

Reallexikon fr Antike und Christentum

R.E.A.

Revue des tudes Anciennes