Religions of Rome: Volume 1, A History

A comprehensive and radical new survey of religious life in Rome over the course of a millennium.

This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thousand years of religious life at Rome. It sets religion in its full cultural context, between the primitive hamlet of the eighth century BC and the cosmopolitan, multicultural society of the first centuries of the Christian era. The narrative account is structured around a series of broad themes: how to interpret the Romans' own theories of their religious system and its origins; the relationship of religion and the changing politics of Rome; the religious importance of the layout and monuments of the city itself; changing ideas of religious identity and community; religious innovation - and, ultimately, revolution. The companion volume, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook, sets out a wide range of documents richly illustrating the religious life in the Roman world.

1. Early Rome; 2. Imperial triumph and religious change; 3. Religion in the late Republic; 4. The place of religion: Rome in the early Empire; 5. The boundaries of Roman religion; 6. The religions of imperial Rome; 7. Roman religion and Roman Empire; 8. Roman religion and Christian emperors: fourth and fifth centuries; Bibliography.

Religions of Rome offers the first full account of the history of the official cults of Rome from the 5th and 4th centuries BC to the 4th century AD. Volume 1, A History, is an analytic history, organised mainly chronologically, and covers such themes as 'imperial triumph', 'the place of religion', 'the boundaries of Roman religion', and 'the religions of imperial Rome'. Together with its companion volume, A Sourcebook, this is the most important survey of more than a thousand years of religious life at Rome.