The Peace of the Gods: Elite Religious Practices in the Middle Roman Republic - Hardcover

Champion, Craige B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691174857 ISBN 13: 9780691174853

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The Peace of the Gods takes a new approach to the study of Roman elites' religious practices and beliefs, using current theories in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, as well as cultural and literary studies. Craige Champion focuses on what the elites of the Middle Republic (ca. 250–ca. 100 BCE) actually did in the religious sphere, rather than what they merely said or wrote about it, in order to provide a more nuanced and satisfying historical reconstruction of what their religion may have meant to those who commanded the Roman world and its imperial subjects.

The book examines the nature and structure of the major priesthoods in Rome itself, Roman military commanders' religious behaviors in dangerous field conditions, and the state religion's acceptance or rejection of new cults and rituals in response to external events that benefited or threatened the Republic. According to a once-dominant but now-outmoded interpretation of Roman religion that goes back to the ancient Greek historian Polybius, the elites didn't believe in their gods but merely used religion to control the masses. Using that interpretation as a counterfactual lens, Champion argues instead that Roman elites sincerely tried to maintain Rome's good fortune through a pax deorum or "peace of the gods." The result offers rich new insights into the role of religion in elite Roman life.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"The Peace of the Gods is an important book that offers a very sound answer to a major question about ancient Roman religion."--Greg Woolf, University of London

"This important and accessible book provides a very clear account of the origins, values, and deficits of the ‘elite-instrumentalist' view of Roman religion in the republican period."--Jörg Rüpke, University of Erfurt

About the Author

Craige B. Champion is professor of ancient history and classics in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is the author of Cultural Politics in Polybius's "Histories," the editor of Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources, and a general editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ancient History.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0691174857
• ISBN 13: 9780691174853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304