The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond

by Zsuzsanna Várhelyi

Overview

This book examines the connection between political and religious power in the pagan Roman Empire through a study of senatorial religion. Presenting a new collection of historical, epigraphic, prosopographic and material evidence, it argues that as Augustus turned to religion to legitimize his powers, senators in turn also came to negotiate their own power, as well as that of the emperor, partly in religious terms. In Rome, the body of the senate and priesthoods helped to maintain the religious power of the senate; across the Empire senators defined their magisterial powers by following the model of emperors and by relying on the piety of sacrifice and benefactions. The ongoing participation and innovations of senators confirm the deep ability of imperial religion to engage the normative, symbolic and imaginative aspects of religious life among senators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521897242
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/22/2010
Pages:	267
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Zsuzsanna Várhelyi is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Boston. She has contributed many articles on Roman history to many volumes and journals, and co-edited, with J.-J. Aubert, A Tall Order: Writing the Social History of the Ancient World. Essays in Honor of William V. Harris (2005).

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I: 1. The new senate of the Empire and religion; 2. Religious groups among senators; Part II: 3. The dynamics of senatorial religion in Rome and Italy; 4. Representing imperial religion: the provinces; Part III: 5. Towards a 'theology' of Roman religion; 6. Innovations and aspirations; Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index hominum; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"It is, in sum mainly on the basis of its strong empirical foundation that this book makes its most important contributions, and it is the reason, ultimately, that historians of the Roman empire and students of Roman religion will want it on their shelves." —BMCR

From the Publisher