Religion in the Roman Empire

Gods and humans, the history of a city like Pompeii is above all that of two communities living together, a precarious harmony guaranteed by the celebration of regular rituals, in temples, in the public square, in the streets, in houses or on graves. In a society thus organised and hierarchical due to sacrifices that were intended to express the superiority of the gods over men, to speak of the gods is, then, inevitably, to speak of men. To describe the cult of Jupiter is to evoke the Roman identity of the inhabitants, the public oaths, the patronage over the assemblies (Jupiter is the god of public oaths), that is, at the foot of the altar of the local capitol. To speak of Venus is to talk about civic harmony, about maritime navigation and the life of corporations, especially textile craftsmen; it is also, of course, to talk about love and eroticism in a Roman city. To speak of Bacchus is to conduct a sociological study of wine, from the cultivation of vines on the slopes of Vesuvius to the drunkenness of banquets, of which there are so many testimonies in Pompeii. To examine the cult of the Lares is to better understand the social and topographical organization of a Roman house, the involvement of the family in neighbourhood life. Explaining funeral practices means defining the grave not only as a testimony to the rank of the deceased, but also as a place of worship, adapted to a ritual separation between the dead and the living. Faced with the richness of religious expressions encountered in Pompeii, the essential observation is that no area of human activity was spared by religion. From birth to death, at work or in the theatre, in one’s city or on a journey, piety was a daily concern, maintained by gestures of reverence towards the gods, a greeting in passing by a temple, a few grains of incense on the family altar, a toast during the banquet and then, from time to time, the sacrifice of a chicken or a pig in the yard of the sanctuary or in the garden of the house. This interweaving of religion and human life is so thorough that the study of the testimonies of religious activity reveals a whole section of the functioning of Pompeian society, completing our knowledge of the history of the city.

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Rubina Raja and Anna-Katharina Rieger

Sanctuaries were a crucial part of human life in the Roman period across the Empire both in the sense that sanctuaries were visible and tangible spaces, in- and outside settlements, as well as spaces in which ritual practice that constituted and made religious life took place. 1Sanctuaries differed immensely in their physical appearances. There was no entirely set formula for how a sanctuary should look. Nonetheless the absolutely crucial feature in every sanctuary was the altar at which the offerings took place. These offerings constituted the essence of practicing religion and were the actions, which created contact between the gods and the mortals. 2However, sanctuaries were not spaces in which everyone would have had the same experiences and they were not even spaces into which everyone was allowed at any given point in time.

All too often sanctuaries are approached merely as physical spaces in which ritual practices took place. 3However, they were so much more than that. They were frameworks for experiences and places where the senses were stimulated. Sanctuaries in the Roman period were spaces where visitors had visual impressions, smelled, heard and sometimes tasted things. Sanctuaries framed, gave space and controlled religious practices. 4They gave a home to the gods and were elaborated in order to make the gods want to be there. 5Sanctuaries were spaces in which performances took place and rituals were acted out. They were living spaces for living people and their living gods. 6Therefore, sanctuaries, their surroundings and makers were in a constant dynamic process of mutually shaping each other. Sanctuaries shaped experiences, but experiences shaped people and enabled continuity or change in practices over time. Religion was therefore so to say lived in such spaces and the constant interaction between space and people would have had an impact on how religion was practiced and given shape over time. 7It was not a given that deities would want to live in a particular sanctuary. They would have to be offered a home and to accept that home. In attempts to bind the deity to sanctuaries epithets were given to the deities that could help tie them to one particular place. In the Roman period—as opposed to the earlier Classical periods—epithets became much more popular. 8

Sanctuaries, although often called public spaces, cannot be assumed to have been public at all times—and some most likely were not public at any point in time. Access to sanctuaries would have been controlled and monitored, which in turn would have impacted the experience of the visitors. Experiences would also have differed depending on the situation of the individual. Aspects such as occasion, rank, gender, power relations, societal standing and role in religious situations would have had an impact on the ways in which the individual would have perceived a visit to a sanctuary. 9