Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A History by Mary Beard

Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A History Reviews

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  Emily

  This is really terrific, nuanced introduction to religions of Rome. Although it is probably not ideal for most undergrads, it's great for advanced undergrads and graduate students.
  
  These three amazing specialists collaborate to give an overview of the religions of Rome, from the Republic through Christianization. They address the native, civic religion of the city of Rome, while explaining why a search for the "true Roman Religion" that is "uninfluenced by Greek Religion" and they take seriously the exchange of religious ideas and practices that developed as the Republic became Empire. They discuss the tensions between civic cult and elective practice.
  
  Chapter 5 "The Boundaries of Roman Religion" is a great discussion of the establishment and maintenance of the conceptual boundaries between religio and superstitio - acceptable and unacceptable religious practice. It's one of the finest discussion of Roman religious concepts and the relationship between those ideas and the persecutions of "foreign religions."
  
  This simply is a must-read for scholars & teachers of any religion that was practiced within the Roman borders - including scholars of Ancient Christianity & Judaism.
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  David

  A thorough, scholarly work. From early republic to Christianity, the authors trace out the history of Roman religion. An excellent job of maintaining the complexity and the Roman-ness of Roman religion and of resisting the urge to make unfounded statements based on theories of how all religions develop. Almost all of my preconceptions of Roman religion (many based on short summaries of Roman religion) were refuted.
  
  My only problem with the work was that the authors take a lot of knowledge for granted. They do not go through the Roman gods and tell who they were, nor do they describe the worship of Lares or define what a genius was. A good work but most suitable for graduate students. Look elsewhere for an introduction.
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  Jenn Phizacklea

  Wonderful, thorough and full of interest.
  
  This is a book not to be undertaken lightly. If you have a slight interest in the subject, primarily paganism and the birth and rise of Christianity, then this may be too scholarly for you; but if you want to know everything there is to know, and to read some thoughtful discussion on the evidence that remains and possible interpretations, then this is the best possible place to start.
  
  I wish I’d read it before I fuddled my way through Livy (the festival of the hair, the onion, and the sprat is helpfully given context here, for example) but I’m glad I got to it before Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.
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  Ron W.

  This was my text at university for postgraduate studies in the religions of ancient Greece and Rome. Mary Beard is a respected scholar of ancient Rome and this text certainly lives up to that standard. I actually read this one cover to cover!
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  Tayla Haynes

  A really great in depth textbook to further deepen your knowledge on Roman Religion. This is a book to come to with at least a base knowledge of Roman religion and politics. It has a great sources and I am interested in looking into the accompanying source book.
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  Viktor

  I wish it would tell more information on the roman religion than of christianity...
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  Anna

  Interesting, but a little dry!
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  Robert

  Majestic!
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  Elliott Bignell

  This is a fascinating and detailed work, exhaustively referenced but perhaps a little dry. The author writes clearly and is very careful to delineate the limits to what can be stated and to qualify the sources used. However, the style lacks perhaps a certain wit – there is very little banter in this book.
  
  The world of Roman religion is fascinating, of course, and the transition to Christianity epochal and tragic, leading as it did to the eclipse of so much of classical thinking in the West. It can perhaps be said that Roman sculpture has never been surpassed, even today, and the Enlightenment has been described by no less than Gay as the rebirth of classical paganism.
  
  However, things are not as simple as the above would make them sound. The very term paganism, Beard argues, only acquired meaning with the ascendance of Christianity as its rival, the Mithraic and Isiac cults not standing in obstinate contradistinction in the same way. Previously there was a welter of separate cults, some of which were regarded by the Roman state as “orthodox” and of strategic importance, so to speak. Sacrifice to these gods was considered a matter of national security, as they sponsored the state and took its side in wars. Gods could be bribed to change sides with a commitment to later worship, but Rome had its native deities and these must be propitiated. Interestingly, such commitments were held to be contractual – no less but also not more than a pound of flesh, or a temple or a festival.
  
  Roman persecution of Christianity was by no means as systematic in the two centuries prior to Constantine’s conversion, nor Christian persecution of everyone else as rapidly normalised in the two succeeding centuries, as is sometimes portrayed. The state did not really intervene in Christian orthodoxy until the Council of Nikaea. Roman expectations regarding pagan practice also varied according to social class, period and place, evolving as the state itself grew and altered. In addition to this, it is sometimes hard to ascertain from available sources what the practice really was, especially during the early Republic and beforehand. Roman paganism is widely viewed as concerned with observance above belief and as accommodating and syncretic rather than exclusive, collecting and blending the gods of its subject peoples, but this also is too simple.
  
  An interesting aspect of which I was not aware is the sheer antiquity of Roman apotheosis. It was not the Caesars who inaugurated the practice of deifying dead rulers but a much earlier phase of Roman civilisation. Romulus, co-founder, had since long been deified as Quirinus, perhaps ever prior to the Republic itself. The founding myth of Aeneas, linking Rome to Troy, was also new to me. Next up will be the Aenid!
  
  All in all this is a work of impressive erudition, academic and dense, with a few interesting surprises and very many details. I would recommend it as follow-up reading for those with serious interest rather than as light pop-history, which it is quite manifestly not meant to be.