Author: lgc@uoregon.edu

Judaism in the Roman Empire

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In his chapter on Roman religious policy James Rives presents evidence that points to a lack of a cohesive policy on how religions were treated in the Roman Empire. Furthermore, most of the interaction between Roman authorities and religious groups under their rule would have been reactionary in nature. Most notably if an individual or group were seen as disruptive to the status quo. As Rives has discussed in other chapters, the socio-economic elite were the same people in charge of religious affairs, so any group that appeared to threaten this established hierarchy as dealt with accordingly. However, up until the first century the Jewish people in the Roman Empire were granted a fair amount of freedom when it came to religious practices. Rives partially explains this phenomenon in stating, “…some people looked upon Judaean tradition with fascination or even admiration, partly because it was perceived as an ancient and exotic “oriental” tradition…” Much like the Roman fascination with all things Egyptian, they viewed the ancient traditions of the Jewish people with a certain reverence that allowed the Jews to go against many Roman religious norms. This difference in religious norms would eventually cause confrontation, as was discussed in both the Warrior and Rives readings. The Jewish historian Josephus cites several exemptions from normal Roman life in his title Antiquities, “…his fellow-Jews cannot undertake military service since they are not able to bear arms or march on the days of the Sabbath. Nor can they obtain the traditional foodstuffs to which they are accustomed. I, therefore, like the governors before me, grand them exemption from military service and allow them to observe their native customs…” (Warrior, 14.5, pg. 165) This relationship of benevolent respect of tradition began to deteriorate in the first century, largely due to the aforementioned concern of the Roman authorities to maintain rule and order. During the first century, there were a series of disturbances and uprisings in Judaea that required notable military responses. In reference to the cause of this unrest, Rives states, “…the Roman governors of Judaea were not especially competent in dealing with Judaean sensibilities, and some were overtly hostile. On the other side, some Judaean extremists regarded the mere fact of Roman rule as a challenge to the rule of god.”

In his writings, Histories, Tacitus encapsulates many of these Roman ideas regarding the Jewish people. He states, “In these everything that we regard as sacred is held to be profane. On the other hand they permit things that for us are taboo.” He continues, “These rites, whatever their origin, are maintained by their antiquity.” In these passages he outlines not only the superiority of Roman religious practices, but also why Jewish rituals were allowed to exist when they seemed to go against everything that being a pious Roman consisted of.

Sibylline Books, Mithras, Magic

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In the selections on the Sibylline Books Warrior helps us understand how the Romans used these oracles, and why they were treated with such reverence.  According to Warrior (speaking of the Sibylline books), “This collection was said to consist of utterances of the Sibyl of Cumae…”, who was said to be an Apollonian oracle. As such, the Romans used this collection in times of panic and anxiety when the established political order might not have been capable of doing so. Such emergencies could have been an upcoming military engagement, plague, or domestic political strife. In sections 8.9 & 8.10, Livy and another anonymous author discuss the Sibylline Books being summoned to help end a devastating plague. The books heeded the advice that Aesclapius should be summoned from Epidaurus, and once completed the plague was quickly subsided. Those in charge of these oracles, the quindecimvirs, were sacred members of the Roman society and were able to be exempt from serving the military or civil responsibilities.

In my reading of the sections on magic, it seems that most of the topics covered problems faced by an individual. There were sections dealing with a dislocated hip joint (12.6), immobilizing a woman (12.10), memory loss (12.17), and even impotence (12.18). Furthermore, there are several sections that deal with harsh punishments for using a spell on your neighbors’ crops, or even knowing magic at all. It is likely that there was such a high amount of interest for these individualized supernatural services because of the largely communal aspect of religious life in Rome. As most cults and rituals were designed to benefit the entire city or empire, there was a large demand for a more personal and individual system.

Besides magic, there were other forms of worship that had a more personal feel to them to counter the large and communal aspect of most Roman religion. Namely, the cult of Mithras, which found popularity in the military ranks as well as the lower classes, who largely would have been left out of the influence religion brought the upper classes of Roman society. To ensure a small and intimate bond, if a group expanded to a certain size it was broken up into two different groups in order to maintain the individual community.  Each group had seven groups of initiation, which formulated a strict hierarchy.

Hierarchy in Roman Religion

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As Rives discusses in his chapter on Religion and Community, an individual’s religious status often largely reflected their status in their society in general. For example, an individual who happened to own a successful shop in town would also likely operate as a key actor in the cities religious affairs. This is likely caused by the fact that, like the Greeks, early Roman religion attributed the success of individuals as well as the empire at large to a correct and pious relationship with the gods. This relationship was viewed by the Romans as a sort of two way street, in that they worshiped correctly and as a result were shown favor by the gods. Which in turn caused them to give proper thanks to the gods, ensuring a continuation of this favor. This relationship is captured well in On the Nature of the Gods, written by Cicero who states, “We give thanks to the gods when we achieve political office or some benefit to our family estate, or if we happen upon some good or avoid some misfortune, and we do not think that our own reputation has been enhanced. Did anyone ever give thanks to the gods because he was a good man? No, he did so because he is rich, honored and secure. Jupiter is called ‘Best and Greatest’ not because he makes men just, moderate and wise, but because he makes them healthy, secure, wealthy and prosperous.” (Warrior, 1.30, pg. 11) In this passage Cicero makes it clear that whether the success is felt by the individual or society at large, it is due to good favor with the gods. As such, it would have seemed silly to have anyone besides the most prosperous members of society be in charge of religious worship. While there were some voluntary associations that were lead by women, slaves, and freedmen, these were largely fringe associations or those that weren’t necessarily of great import. The collegiums that were vital to the success of the entire empire were ran by the socio-economic elite, and as Rives discussed, “Wealth was thus a formal requirement for holding public office, and an important part of serving as a magistrate or public priest was using that wealth on behalf of the populace.”(Rives, pg. 115)

These social hierarchies were echoed in the household, as the father of the household was in charge of caring for the household cult as well as honoring his dead ancestors. These household cults were organized into hierarchical relationships of master and slave, husband and wife, and father and child. Even if a father and husband made a modest living, he still had access to more of his societies resources than his wife, children, or slaves did. Just like it was the job of the top of the socio-economic tree to care for the empire-wide cults, it was the job of the leader of the household to care for the traditional cults of the household.

Cult worship of Isis

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In the secondary readings from Gail Corrington Streete, the incredibly popular goddess Isis and her mystery cult were discussed. Obviously, there are several different versions of the story of Isis depending on which surviving materials are examined. Some of the common themes present Isis as the sister and wife of King Osiris, the mother of Horus, and Isis would eventually be considered the ultimate ruler of the cosmos. Most importantly Isis was considered a divine being who conquered death and fate. There are a few elements of the goddess Isis and her cult that are markedly different from that of the Greek religious traditions we have examined thus far. Foremost, the priests and devotees that worshipped her actively sought to proselytize and spread the cult. Secondly, this proselytizing was often aimed at the poor and powerless in societies. Lastly, and most importantly, unlike the many Greek gods with specific tasks and areas of control, Isis was responsible for any and all happenings in the cosmos. Writers in the Isis Aretalogy and the Isis Hymn reflect this notion, giving a long list of responsibilities that otherwise would have been diffused amongst dozens of individual Greek gods.  In the Aretalogy, for example, Isis controls warfare (Athena), thunderbolts (Zeus), calming and agitating the sea (Poseidon), and discovered fruit for mortals (Demeter). Isis is also responsible for inventing written language, seafaring, civilization, agriculture, marriage, ending murder, and creating justice systems that oversee human interaction. Unlike the divine-human interactions that have been observed in the Classical Age that are characterized by charis, Isis often gave commandments to her devotees in dreams and promised a better life and afterlife. Mikalson has an insight regarding the popularity of Isis that states, “Unlike a Greek god or goddess, Isis alone now could, for her devotees, fulfill virtually of their religious needs.” (pg. 189) In this way, the all-encompassing cult worship of Isis in the Mediterranean world helped paved the way for the concepts of monotheism that would take shape in the Christian community.

Relationships with the gods and cult practices

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In his hypothetical construction of a temple at Sunium, Mikalson attempts to address the various dimensions of Greek religious life and how they combine and converge at temple sites. In his step-by-step approach, Mikalson successfully explains which components of religious sites were most important, and those that followed once a cult had become popular enough to sustain a large temple. In his introductory chapter James Rives talks at length about the four dimensions of religious worship: cult, art, myth, and philosophy. In many ways cult, art, and myth converge during the production of a religious worship site like the one Mikalson constructed in his chapter. In the Greek religious landscape, the most important step to becoming a pious individual was to worship in the correct fashion, hence the importance of cult. This same reverence for cult drove the Greeks to place their worship sites in locations that were suitable for each individual god. Mikalson points out, for example, that mountaintops were often sacred for Zeus and the Site of Sunium was fitting for the god of the sea.  After choosing a proper location, nearly every aspect of the temples construction had a cult purpose, most notably the altar on which offerings would be made. The altar was the crucial aspect of cult, as the practice of sacrificial offerings was a fundamental part of their religious lives and a crucial aspect of remaining in good favor with the god. While myths of the deeds of gods and heroes likely served to reinforce the cult practices, they were not what modern Westerners would classify as a sacred religious text or tradition. Myths were often oral traditions that were used as symbolic representations of philosophical truths, according to Rives.  As it pertains to the temple at Sunium, there would have likely been tales of men lost at sea or killed in naval battles as a result of not providing the proper offering to Poseidon. So while myths might not have served a central role in religious life, it probably reinforced the central ideas and practices of cult. Besides just performing an offering before embarking on the sea, many worshippers would have brought dedications to the temple at Sunium in thanks to the god for fulfilling their requests. These dedications were often works of art such as small statuette or sculpted or painted plaques that would decorate the temple. In many ways, these works of art would be physical and tangible evidence that Poseidon had in fact helped dozens of sea merchants or sailors.

As I previously stated, the presence of myths was far more important to literature and art than it was cult. As Rives states, “…myth remained a fluid tradition, reworked and adapted to new contexts by successive generations…”
Cult worship was clearly the more important aspect of Greek religious life and was merely reinforced by myth and literature.

What I found most interesting about the overall “religiosity” of the Greeks was that they seemed to rely on the gods to help them with things that were out of their control. For example, a sailor would make an offering to Poseidon before setting sail because once they were on the water they were at the mercy of the elements. Greeks made offerings to Zeus because they could not control the climate and weather. So while they were ritualistic when they needed to be, more often than not they were able to complete tasks without invoking the gods.

Introduction to Greco-Roman Religions

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In his chapter on Greek religion and Greek culture, Jon Mikalson attempts to draw distinctions between the aspects of Greek life that were heavily influenced by religion and those that were almost entirely secular. In this attempt, Mikalson places himself at odds with many scholars on the topic who hold that religion touched all aspects of Greek life. The sense that I got from reading the chapter was that each aspect was influenced by religion in some way, some more so than others. For example, the Greek government buildings were architecturally similar to the temples, and the meetings were opened with a prayer and an offering. After which, business at these meetings was purely secular. There was an excerpt from Socrates that explained how in many ways this was because it was important for humans to use the skills and abilities the gods had given them in order to handle their own affairs. The subtopic regarding Localism, Nationalism, and Polytheism was of particular interest to me because of our discussion on Tuesday regarding how religious traditions interacted. As each locality had its own gods and goddesses, it is surprising that there was not a higher degree of religious conflict. According to Mikalson, “There was never a crusade by one Greek city-state to impose its gods or cultic system on another, and there is no evidence that there were even proselytizing efforts in this regard.” It appears that to the people of Ancient Greece it was more important to respect the gods of someone else than to attempt to claim yours as superior.