The religion of the Greeks and Romans in the period before and after the invention of Christianity provides a special kind of foil to our understanding of modern world religions. Firstly, it provides the religious background against which Judaism, Christianity and eventually Islam first arose and it deeply influenced their development. Secondly, in the period before these religions developed, it provides us with a model of a sophisticated society that had no such autonomous religions at work in it at all. All too often books have been constructed on the assumption that religion was a marginal part of life, interesting perhaps in an antiquarian way, but scarcely needing to be placed at the centre of our understanding. But the fact is that religious activity formed part of every other activity in the ancient world; and so far from placing it in the margin of our accounts, it needs to be assessed at every point, in every transaction. This work offers a picture of Roman religion and of some of the current debates about its character and development. The focus of the survey is the religious experience of the Roman people from about the third century BC to the second.

The Religious History of the Roman Empire: The Republican Centuries is the second Oxford Readings in Classical Studies volume on the religious history of the Roman Empire, accompanying the volume on paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. This volume presents fourteen chapters dealing with aspects of the religious life of Republican Rome between c. 500 BCE and the fall of the Republican constitution in c. 30 BCE. The topics covered include Iron Age rituals (Christopher Smith); Roman Priesthood (John Scheid; Mary Beard); religion and war (Jörg Rüpke); religious behaviour in the context of polytheism (Andreas Bendlin); religious ritual in early and middle Republic (John North); Italian warfare practices (Olivier de Cazanove); the role of women (Rebecca Flemming); sacrificial ritual in Roman poetry (Denis Feeney); the centuriation-ritual (Daniel Gargola); Roman divination (Mary Beard); Augustan Peace and the stars (Alfred Schmid); the great cult-places of Italy (John Scheid); the grove of Pesaro (Filippo Coarelli). Originally published between 1981 and 2011, these chapters provide a vivid picture of key issues under discussion in this period, providing a missing link in the historiography of Roman republican religion. A central question concerns the balance to be found between ritual and belief, both problematic concepts in interpreting this religious tradition. While there can be no question that the performance of rituals was a regular traditional activity to which Romans attached great significance, particularly those who were in a responsible position as priests or senators, the later years of the Republic increasingly saw religious issues taken as matters for debate, and books on religious themes, unknown before the age of Cicero and Varro, began to appear.

This collection of papers, many of them either published here in English for the first time or previously available only in specialist libraries, deals with the religious history of the Roman Empire. Written by leading scholars, the essays have contributed to a revolutionary change in our understanding of the religious situation of the time, and illuminate both the world religions of Christianity and Judaism and the religious life of the pagan Empire in which these developed and which deeply influenced their characters. No knowledge of ancient languages is presupposed, so the book is accessible to all who are interested in the history of this crucial period.

This collection of papers, many of them either published here in English for the first time or previously available only in specialist libraries, deals with the religious history of the Roman Empire. Written by leading scholars, the essays have contributed to a revolutionary change in our understanding of the religious situation of the time, and illuminate both the world religions of Christianity and Judaism and the religious life of the pagan Empire in which these developed and which deeply influenced their characters. No knowledge of ancient languages is presupposed, so the book is accessible to all who are interested in the history of this crucial period.