roman empire religion myths and festivals

religion
- neolithic times (10000-3000 bce) before rise of roman civilisation to second millennium bce

• animistic beliefs

- archaic period (3000 bce - 800 bce)

• first agricultural settlements appear in italian peninsula and many of the basic religious practices emerge --> rituals associated with the farm, god vesta related to hearth, god janus related to storehouse

- etruscan period (800 -510 bce)

• etruscan dynasty
• trade relations began to develop between the people living in italy and other areas close by (greeks established trade stations on the shores of italy which became official greek colonies beginning around the time of 750 bce), during the first part of the second millennium, a great indo-european migration took place throughout the area of greece and the italian peninsula - exchange of ideas with other cultures --> etruscan and greek religious practices and ideas integrated into roman civilisation. Pheonician religion did not have a direct effect on roman religion, but the presence of pheonicians in the italian peninsula made it easier for eastern ideas to be transmitted into the area during the republic period
• extensive building program, including temples (between 616 and 510 bce)
• number of craftsmen increased and a metal-working industry appeared.  Arts began to blossom.  
• four aspects of religion described by cicero

• religion revealed through teachings of peasant child tages

• highly ritualistic

• national religion (originated at tarquinii, capital of etrusca)

• literary aspect like the religion of jews

• chief etruscan gods were agricultural deities who continued to survive in later times as funerary dieties.  Three categories: (1) indigenous etruscan gods (2) originated in italy (3) originated from area of southern greece
• etruscans buried their dead in elaborately decorated tombs. 
• obsessively concerned with death and afterlife
• divination
• city of rome founded in 8th bce - mythological tale of romulus and remus; also legends of moses, sargon and cyrus

- overthrown of etruscan dynasty, new government 3rd c bce

• greek philosophy became popular, a new temple of a new triad of fertility gods consisting of ceres, liber and libera in 495 bce, other greek gods soon become assimilated into roman religion
• roman republic born in 509 bce, urbanisation, memorial of dead celebrated at the parentalia and the romans participated in the worship of lareas or guardians of community (lares praestites May1). The state religion of rome was overseen by the college of the pontifices and the pontifex maximus, the high priest who performed many important rites and sacrifices. The great tri-partite godhead consisting of mars, quirinus and jupiter became chief gods of the roman people
• in 205-4 bce, goddess cybele (asiatic god) was officially welcomed into the city (coincided with a roman envoy being sent to mt ida to obtain black stone symbolising cybele). Her acceptance was seen as a decisive factor in winning the war with hannibals and the carthaginians.  However, in view of the practice of self-emasculation, the senate passed a slew of ordinances designed to curtail the activities of the cult. No roman citizen was allowed to join the priesthood of the cult or take part in its sacred orgies.  Only the phrygian priests and priestesses could perform any of the rituals of the cult.  In order for any of the festivals, including the megalensia, to be celebrated by all the people of the republic, any unwholesome  eastern aspects of rituals had to be stripped away.

- empire period (27 bce - 395 ce)

• increasing fascination with foreign cults and interest in religio-philosophical ideas
• perturbed by rise of new mystery cults and increasing popularity of various types of superstitious beliefs, emperor augustus launched vast restoration program designed to revitalise the traditional roman religion (but failed)

• pax deorum
• temples in rome were restored e.g. monumentum ancyranum in modern ankara, turkey; ara pacis (altar of peace)

•  renewed worship of lares compitales, the gods of crossroads
• instigation of revision of sibylline books

• peformance of old sacrifices and rituals e.g lupercalia. The secular games were celebrated in 17 bce signaling the beginning of a new era of peace, the pax romana. In honor of the games, the court poet horace composed a poem entitled secular hymn 
• successor tiberius continued the restoration policy and ordered the construction of temples 

• along with the pontifex maximus, there were other religious personnel of roman state religion including the vestal virgins (tend of sacred fire of the temple) and the flamens (administer the rituals of state religion).  Flamen dialis had an especially difficult position involving a multitude of strange prohibitions and taboos.  Several other priestly colleges existed including the augers, the diviners of the wills of the gods, the board of fifteen (quindcimviri) (presided over the sibylline books), the twelve arval brethen (guardians of the fields), the fraternity of titus (in charge of ancient sabine rites), the fetials (guardians of treaties), the salii (the leaping priests)
• sibylline books

• played pivotal role in times of political crisis
• oracular utterances of sibyl 

•  therevwas a legend about how king tarquin, the last of etruscan kings, came to rule over rome and acquire the last three of sibylline books by paying three times their value

• pre-julian calendar

• original author was king numa or romulus
• intricate system of agrarian religious observances 

• survival of beliefs archaic times

• numina or "spirits"

• isis

• caligula removed restrictions against the worship of isis 

• cybele

• the cult of cybele and attis resurged under reign of claudius when all restrictions against the cult were dropped and roman citizens were free to become galli
• a new group of spring holidays in honor of cybele and attis was announced - 15th of march was the grand procession of cannophori or reed-bearers (a reenactment of primordial time in the past when cybele found attis abandoned as a young childe, along the shores of sangarius river in thrace. On 24 March, the sanguis, the funeral of the god took place. 25 March was the day of hilaria, a time of joy and celebration commemorating the resurrection of attis

• mithraism

•  first appeared in rome in 60 ce; by the end of 2nd c, the worship of mithra had spread westwards as far as britain. Enjoyed a large degree of success, especially among roman males and in particular roman miliary. However, the exclusion of women from the cult could also probably explain why it never became the religion of the majority of the roman world.  Popularity extended even to ranks of some roman emperors e.g commodus. In year 307 ce, diocletian, galerius and licinius met together at river danube to dedicate a mithraeum located there.  In the dedication, mithra was referred to as the protector of their empire
• the roman mithra was characterised as the slayer of sacrificial bull. As one of the central ritual of the cult, the killing of the bull was both a creative and redemptive act.  
• in one pictorial representation, mithra is shown naked, wearing only a phrygian cap.  The mythic references to mithra's birth from a rock provide a reason for the usual location of mitraeum inside a cave or a man-made underground enclosure carved out of solid rock 
• 7 initiatory grades

• eschatological outlook on life 

•  worship of emperor

• caesar

• regarded as a descendent of venus; as a teenager he was accorded the position of flamen dialis, the priest of jupiter, after sulla cancelled this appointment, he became the pontifex maximus 

• christianity

• primitive form emerged during 1st c ce as a small, isolated offshoot of palestinian judaism 
• when christianity moved out of palestine and into the greco-roman world, paul of tarsus became its leading advocate.  Paul was a greek speaking pharisaic jew. 
• the issue of religious excluivism led to a split within the early church between the jewish christian (located in jerusalem and led by james, the brother of jesus) and the gentile christian church (centered in greco-roman world with capital in rome and overseen by peter) Finally in 49 ce a showdown took place in jerusalem where a council was held to debate the gentile question
• in the first two centuries of the church's existence, three church fathers played important roles in developing the church's theological outlook.  These church faters were clement of alexandria (150-215 ce, origen (greatest work de principiis) and tertullian 

• the gnostics were one religious group that posed a threat to the orthodox church in the first centuries of common era. Many gnostic groups within the church were labelled as heretical by the orthodoxy. Most of their writings present a dualistic perspective of the world. One gnostic christian teacher in 2nd century named saturninus was a docetist introduced concepts of satan and yahweh.  Teachings continued to develop in 2nd and 3rd centuries ce. Two main historical writings - the writings of irenaeus (an early church father) and gnostic texts discovered at nag hammadi, egypt in 1946. Non-christian revealer figures - hermes trismegistus, poimandres, asclepius

• In the 3rd and 4th centuries ce, manichaeism spread eastward from persia into western world. Its main religious tenets were a syncretistic blend of zoroastrian, christian and buddhist spiritual ideas.  The movement was founded in persia by Mani (216-277 ce).  St Augustine is a chief source of information about the teachings of mani. 

•  monasticism - movement in egypt started by pachomius (293-346 ce) who organized a monastic community in the desert. Follow suitors include basil the great (330-379 ce), john cassian (360-435 ce). St benedict employed the rule as the organising principle of his monastic order  
• persecution - in the 3rd century, rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary and, in honor of rome's divine pantheon, the roman emperor decius decided to stage roman's first empire-wide persecution of christians.  Many christians gave into the demands of the emperor and offered sacrifices to the pagan gods, a problem was created later because the church had to figure out how to readmit the lapsed christians. A policy debate developed over the issue between the roman church and the north african church 

• The Edict of Thessalonica (also known as Cunctos populos), issued on 27 February AD 380 by three reigning Roman Emperors, made Nicene Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. In 313 the emperor Constantine I, together with his eastern counterpart Licinius, issued the Edict of Milan, which granted religious toleration and freedom for persecuted Christians. By 325 Arianism, a school of christology which contended that Christ did not possess the divine essence of the Father but was rather a primordial creation and an entity subordinate to God, had become so sufficiently widespread and controversial in Early Christianity that Constantine called the Council of Nicaea in an attempt to end the controversy by establishing an empire-wide, i.e., "ecumenical" orthodoxy. The council produced the original text of the Nicene Creed, which rejected the Arian confession and upheld that Christ is "true God" and "of one essence with the Father." However, the strife within the Church did not end with Nicaea, and the Nicene creedal formulation remained contentious even among anti-Arian churchmen. Constantine, while urging tolerance, began to think that he had come down on the wrong side, and that the Nicenes — with their fervid, reciprocal persecution of Arians — were actually perpetuating strife within the Church. Constantine was not baptized until he was near death (337), choosing a bishop moderately sympathetic to Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, to perform the baptism. Constantine's son and successor in the eastern empire, Constantius II was partial to the Arian party, and even exiled pro-Nicene bishops. Constantius' successor Julian (later called "The Apostate") was the only emperor after the conversion of Constantine to reject Christianity, attempting to fragment the Church and erode its influence by encouraging a revival of religious diversity, calling himself a "Hellene" and supporting forms of Hellenistic religion. He championed the traditional religious cultus of Rome as well as Judaism, and furthermore declared toleration for all the various unorthodox Christian sects and schismatic movements. Julian's successor Jovian, a Christian, reigned for only eight months and never entered the city of Constantinople. He was succeeded in the east by Valens, an Arian. By 379, when Valens was succeeded by Theodosius I, Arianism was widespread in the eastern half of the Empire, while the west had remained steadfastly Nicene. Theodosius, who had been born in Hispania, was himself a Nicene Christian and very devout. In August, his western counterpart Gratian promoted persecution of heretics in the west.
• in 410 ce, rome was sacked by the visigoths led by an arian christian named alaric.  The collapse of rome plunged the ancient world into chaos. The first great ecumenical council of the church called the council of nicaea was called to settle the arian controversy.  The athanasian creed was issued (trinity concept).  In 381 ce, theodosius I called for a second general council at constantinople condemning arianism.  In 428 ce, a monk named nestorius (patriarch of constantinople in 428ce) and cyril (patriarch of alexndria, were in dispute about the divinity and human aspect of christ, leading to the third council at ephesus in 431 ce rejecting nestorius' views.   

• theos aner

• term theos aner or divine men was popular in late antiquity and used by some writers to describe certain religious or quasi religious figures.  Many of these self described holy men believed that they had certain supernatural powers bestowed upon them by their god.  These powers included the power to peform miraculous healings or to forsee the future. Some are fake. 
• activities of first century ce holy man apollonius of tyana were described by 3rd century ce biographer philostratus in his biographical work entitled the life of apollonius of tyana.  
• second century CE alexander of abonoteichus - lucian's biographical sketch entitled alexander the quack prophet.  The success of cult established at abonoteichus could have been partially due to alexander's pet snake. Archaeological evidence in the form of ancient coins indicates that there was already a snake cult associated with god asclepius in the area of abonoteichus.  

•  dreams

• passion of st perpetua and felicitas
• 2nd century text sacred tales composed by pagan sophist named aelius aristides, a fervent member of the cult of asclepius 

•  other personal religions

• zostrianos and the search for gnosis
• corpus hermeticum, a mystical and syncretistic collection of egyptian writings originating in the 2nd or 3rd century ce. Poimandres was one of the most important books. 
• neo-platonist philosophical movement - founder - plotinus
• iamblichus and the art of theurgy
• augustine's confessions.  He was born in the city of tagaste in n africa and grew up in turbulent times. Rome had been sacked by goths and the western empire was falling into chaos. Moral conscience reflected in "incident of the pears" 

Myth

- Romulus /ˈrɒmjᵿləs/ and Remus /ˈriːməs/ were the twin brothers and main characters of Rome's foundation myth. (The pronunciation in English is different from the Latin original Rōmulus and Rĕmus). 

festivals
- Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral annual festival,^[2] observed in the city of Rome on February 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia was also called "dies Februatus", purified (literally "februated day") after the instruments of purification called "februa", which give the month of February (Februarius) its name.

•  偶然にも、以下のような伝説が存在した。すなわち、3世紀にローマにおいて結婚が禁止されたが（このような史実はない）、聖ウァレンティヌスは密かにある夫婦の結婚を司った罪で2月14日に斬首に処せられたというのである。
•  传说牧神节（Lupercalia）最初是在帕拉蒂尼山的山洞里庆祝畜牧神卢波库斯的节日。在基督教被引入罗马后，祭祀众神的习俗逐渐被人们淡忘，但是教士们为了保留节日所带来的这份乐趣和欢乐，将牧神节改为圣瓦伦丁节（今情人节，Valentine's day），日期也由2月15日改至2月14日。之后圣瓦伦丁节逐步演变为男女之间相识，交换礼物的社交节日。