Synopses & Reviews
This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thousand years of religious life in Rome, from the foundation of the city to its rise to world empire and its conversion to Christianity. 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.
Review
"Finally, someone has written a readable history of the complex subject of Roman Religion. Beard, North and Price, professors from Cambridge, University College London and Oxford respectively, bring a wealth of expertise to the project, but their approach is, in their own terms `radical'. Throughout, this book is authoritative, well organized, interesting and eminently readable. It is highly recommended as a background to the important subject of religion as it is manifested in numismatic imagery." Wayne G. Sayles, The Celator
Review
"Religions of Rome is a major work from a major press that will likely be widely read and cited for years to come. Often, it is worthy of such a status." The Journal of Religion
Review
"A handsome, impressively illustrated two-volume set..." Lingua Franca
Synopsis
Religions of Rome offers the first full account of the history of the official cults of Rome from the Republic to the late Empire (5th and 4th centuries BC - 4th century AD). Volume 1, A History, is an analytic history, organised mainly chronologically, and covering 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.
Table of Contents
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.