The changing ceremony of evocatio
6. Rome and the outside world
Almost every section o f this chapter has touched on the religious conse-quences of the growth o f Rome's empire: the change i n the traditional fetial ritual for declaring war; religious honour paid to Roman generals in the East; the effect o f growing contact with Greek philosophy o n the develop
ment o f religious discourse a t Rome. This final section w i l l consider directly two aspects o f religious change i n the context o f the expanding empire: first, Rome's export o f some o f its own religious forms to the out
side world; second, the place of'foreign religions in Rome itself, in this last period o f the Republic. The chapter w i l l close b y looking at a painting and a poem from that period, both o f which throw light on the complexity o f (and the complexity o f our interpretations of) the religious world o f the first C e n t u r y , its 'foreign' cults, and its cult groups.
Roman religion belonged i n Rome. As we shall emphasize in the follow-ing chapters, i t was closely tied b y its rituals and myths t o the city itself; a n d its deities, priests and ceremonies were not systematically exported t o quered territories (just as, for the most part, 'native' religious traditions con-tinued under Roman d o m i n a t i o n ) .1 2 2 Nonetheless Roman power influenced the religion o f Italian and provincial territories, while Roman 120 Against Vatinius 14.
121 Pliny, NaturalHistoiyXXX.3-11, with Garosi (1976) 30-1; see also the extracts at 11.3.
122 Below, pp. 339-48.
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imperialism was in part expressed through the development o f religious institutions i n the provinces. In this sense, by the late Republic, religion that was recognizably 'Roman' in some senses could be found elsewhere than in Rome itself.
The clearest instance o f the direct export o f Roman religious forms can be seen in the establishment and regulation o f religious practices in the coloniaeoi Roman C i t i z e n s , founded for the settlement of military veterans and the poor i n Italy and sometimes (at least from the late second centuty B.C.) i n provincial territory. We shall consider the religious life o f coloniae more fully i n chapter 7; for the moment i t is enough to stress that these communities, i n theory at least, mirrored the religious institutions of Rome itself. N o t only were they founded according to a religious ritual modelled on that which Romulus was supposed to have used i n the foundation of Rome: the auspices were taken and the founder ploughed a furrow round the site to mark its sacred boundary (replicating the pomerium of Rome).1 2 3 But also some central features o f their religious Organization were copied directly from that of the parent city. This is well illustrated by the charter of foundation that survives for Julius Caesars colonia at Urso i n Southern Spain, laying out in detail the Constitution of the new city.1 2 4 Several clauses in this charter make regulations for the selection and service o f the civic priests, pontifices and augures; these clearly drew on the rules and privileges o f the Roman priests o f the same name, and even directly referred to the religious practice o f Rome i n framing some o f their terms: 'Let these pon
tifices and augures...be guaranteed freedom from military service and com-pulsory obligations i n the same way as apontifexìs and shall be i n Rome.'1 2 5 Rome's export o f a new Community, in other words, might involve a self-conscious replication of Roman religious forms outside Rome.
But the export o f Roman religious practice, especially to the Greek world, often entailed a more complex process than the deliberate and direct replication o f Roman cult abroad. The spread o f Roman dominance led provincial communities — directly encouraged by Rome or not — co adopt (or adapt) various 'Roman' rites and religious institutions. Some of these were drawn directly from Roman religion itself; others were significantly different from anything found at Rome, but were nevertheless defined explicitly i n terms o f Roman power.
Various developments show the cities o f the Greek world using for the first time elements of specifically Roman religious and mythic symbolism.
A n inscription from the island o f Chios, for example, provides an unusu-ally clear Illustration o f how Roman myth might be incorporated into a
123 Below, pp. 328-9.
124 The charter is known from alate first Century A.D. copy of the original regulations. The significance of this copy and other aspects of the regulations: below, p. 328.
125 ILS 6087, section 66 (= 10.2a); for a discussion and translation of the whole docu-ment, Crawford (1996) 1.393-454.
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Greek religious context. I t records the establishment, probably i n the early second Century B . C . , of a procession, sacrifice and games honouring Rome;
but i t also records the dedication o f some k i n d o f representation (whether a visual image, a written account, or both, is not clear) of the story o f Romulus and Remus and their suckling by the wolf. That is, one Roman mythic V e r s i o n o f the foundation o f their city is here put on display in a Greek cultic context.1 2 6
In other cases Eastern cities paraded their allegiance to Rome i n the reli
gious centre of Rome itself. So, for example, a series of inscriptions from the Capitoline hill recording dedications by various Eastern communities i n gratitude for Roman benefactions or assistance shows another side of Greek assimilation of Roman religious forms. The exact date of many of these ded
ications is disputed; this is partly because some o f the earliest texts o f the group are preserved only i n ri-inscriptions of the early first Century B . C . and others have been lost and survive only i n manuscript copies from the Renaissance. Nonetheless it seems certain enough that this series of o f f e r i n g s
had started at least by the late second Century B . c .1 2 7 I t includes a dedication by the Lycians o f a statue o f 'Roma' to Capitoline Jupiter and the Roman People: ' i n recognition o f their goodness, benevolence and favour towards the Lycians'.1 2 8 A n d there are too, among others, dedications by a man sur-named 'Philopator and Philadelphus' (a K i n g o f Pontus, or member o f its royal house, o f the late second or first C e n t u r y B . C . ) and Ariobarzanes o f Cappadocia (early first Century B . C . ) , presumably also to the Capitoline g o d .1 2 9 I n other words, as Roman power spread, so also Roman religion, its cults and deities, began to have a significance further and further afield. The gods o f the city o f Rome, in the city o f Rome, received offerings and dedi
cations from an ever widening group o f 'foreigners'.
But one of the most striking developments i n the eastern Mediterranean was not, i n fact, a replication of any cult or deity that was found at Rome at all. From the early second C e n t u r y on, there spread through the Greek world cults centred on the deified personification o f Rome - Dea Roma, 'Goddess Rome' - or such variants as 'The People of Rome' or 'Rome and the Roman Benefactors'.1 3 0 A few communities i n the East dedicated tem
ples to Roma - notably Smyrna from as early as 195 B . C . , Alabanda i n Caria 126 Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum XXX 1073; Moretti (1980); Derow and
Forrest (1982), with arguments for a date atound 190-188 B.c. The religious founda-tions are focussed on the goddess 'Roma'; see below, pp. 159-60.
127 The dossier of republican texts, see ILLRP 174-81 (selections in Ä S 30-4); for dis
cussion and controversy over the precise dating, the form of the monument to which the texts were affixed and the circumstances of the dedications, Degrassi (1951-2);
Mellor (1975) 203-6; Lintott (1978).
128 / 1 5 3 1 = ILLRP 174
129 / / 5 3 0 = ILLRP 180; ILLRP 181
130 For example, the representation of Romulus and Remus at Chios was dedicated to Roma, and in the context of a festival of Roma (n. 126); a statue of Roma was dedi
cated by the Lycians on the Capitol (n. 128); note also the terms of the hymn to
158
3.6 Rome and the outside world
Fig. 3.4 T h i s seemingly a n o n y m o u s statue is, i n fact, one o f the earliest s u r v i v i n g statues — perhaps the earliest — o f the Goddess R o m e (late second c e n t u r y B . C . ) . F o u n d o n rhe island o f Delos, i t is i d e n t i f i e d b y an i n s c r i p t i o n w h i c h records t h a t i t is a dedication to the goddess ( i n thanks for her ' g o o d w i l l ' ) b y an association k n o w n as the 'Poseidoniasts'; this was a g t o u p o f tradets f r o m Beryrus (Beirur) n a m e d after, a n d presumably under the p r o t e c t i o n of, the g o d Poseidon.
( H e i g h t , as preserved, 1.54m.)
jg
and Miletus (all i n Asia M i n o r ) . A particularly vivid inscription from the temple at Miletus details the regulations for the priesthood of Roma, the fes
tival o f the Romaia, as well as the regulär sacrifices to be performed for the goddess. It shows that, at Miletus at least, these sacrifices were not only made on occasions specific to the cult o f Roma herseif, but that the regulär turn-ing points of civic life (such as the entry into office of new magistrates) were also marked by sacrifices to 'Rome and its People'.1 3 1
I t is not clear overall (or in any particular case, for that matter) what prompted the establishment o f the cult o f Roma in the cities o f the Greek
Flamininus, quoted above p. 146. T h e cult o f Roma i n general: M e l l o r (1975); Fayer (1976); Price (1984) 4 0 - 3 .
131 Sokolowski (1955) no. 49 = 10.3a; for Smyrna: Tacitus, ; 4 « « đ / i I V . 5 6 ; Alabanda: Livy X L I I I . 6 . 5 .
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world. No similar cult is known f r o m Rome itself until the reign of H a d r i a n ;1 3 2 so we cannot be dealing here w i t h Greek emulation of con
temporary Roman practice. I t may be that for some C i t i z e n s of the erstwhile independent Greek communities, the cult o f some abstract conception o f 'Rome' was a good deal more acceptable than the granting o f divine hon
ours to individual Romans; that Dea Roma provided a way o f recognizing (celebrating, i f need be) Roman power without treating the rapid turn-over of local governors as divine. I t may also be that i t was leading Romans themselves — as individuals or i n the senate - who let their Greek clients know that they took exception to the granting o f divine honours to indi
vidual members of their class. We simply do not know. What is certain is that a religious representation of Rome developed i n the Greek East side by side w i t h Roman dominance; that the Eastern cities gradually incorporated Roman power into their own religious and cultural world.
But to return finally to the city o f Rome itself. I n the last chapter, we looked i n detail at the introduction o f the goddess Magna Mater in 205 B . C . , and at the ambivalence o f Roman reactions to her cult: apparent dis-taste for the flamboyantly 'foreign' elements o f the cult (in particular, the self-castrated, self-flagellating, wild Phrygian priests, the gallt) at the same time as official incorporation within the cults o f the State.1 3 3 Magna Mater, as we observed, marked the last o f the great third-century series, starting w i t h Aesculapius, o f new deities and cults introduced from the Greek world into Rome by vote o f senate and people. Religious imports by no means entirely died out in the last period of the Republic (they never did at Rome). We can point, for example, to new cults of Isis and Sarapis, C o m i n g
ultimately from Egypt (though almost certainly strongly Hellenized by the time they reached Rome). But they were not 'voted in' by the State author-ities, as Magna Mater had been; nor were they the result o f a consultation of the Sibylline Books, which had prompted so many o f the earlier arrivals.
A t this period, however, the surviving evidence draws our attention not so much to the first arrival of the new cults, but to the ways — once they had arrived - such recognizably 'foreign' cults operated w i t h i n the society, cul
ture and religion of Rome and Italy.1 3 4 Patt of that Operation is a story of tension and conflict. Although we have no case so well documented as the crisis over the worship o f Bacchus in the early second C e n t u r y ,1 3 5 it is clear
132 Beaujeu (1955) 128-36; Mellor (1975) 201; below, pp. 257-8.
133 Above, pp. 96-8.
134 It all depends, of course, on what you mean by 'foreign'. The inverted commas here are crucial. They refer to the conventional Roman representation ofthose cults as foreign - which has no necessary connection with the political or ethnic origin of those involved in the cults. To put it at its simplest: the cult of Magna Mater was insistently paraded by Roman writers as a 'foreign' cult; the majority of those participating in its rituals were no doubt as 'Roman' as anyone in Rome in the first Century B.c., and on.
See further below, pp. 164-6.
135 See above, pp. 91-6.
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that attempts at the control of some cults and practices continued through the first C e n t u r y B . c . We have almost no evidence at ali for the circum-stances that led to the destruction of the shrines of Isis i n (probably) 59, 58, 53, 50 and again in 48 B . C . ; nor, for that matter, for those that led to the expulsion o f the astrologers (Chaldaei) from Rome in 139 B . C .1 3 6 But we can make a plausible guess at one or two factors that might have lain behind such action. The cult of Isis, w i t h its independent priesthood and its devo-tion to a personal and caring deity could represent (like the Bacchic cult) a potentially dangerous alternative society, out o f the control o f the tradi
tional political elite.1 3 7 Likewise astrology, w i t h its specialized form o f reli
gious knowledge i n the hands of a set of religious experts outside the priestly groups o f the city, necessarily constituted a separate (and perhaps rival) focus o f religious power. A I though it d i d not offer a social alternative i n the sense of group membership, it represented (as we have seen i n other areas before) a form of religious differentiation which threatened the undif-ferentiated politico-religious amalgam of traditional Roman practice.1 3 8
But the role and significance o f 'foreign' cults at Rome was much more wide-ranging and complex than any such simple narrative o f acceptance and incorporation versus control and explusion might suggest. To conclude this chapter we shall look at two late republican representations of these cults (a painting representing the cult o f Bacchus/Dionysus and a poem on the self-castration o f Attis, the mythic 'ancestor' o f the self-castrating priests of Magna Mater) - to explore further some o f the ways these cults had, by the first Century B . C . , entered the Visual, cultutal and intellectual repertoire o f the Roman world.
The best known Roman painting o f all that survive from the ancient world depicts the god Dionysus, w i t h a female companion, probably Ariadne — i n a composition that includes other scenes which seem to rep
resent various elements o f the god's cult. It was painted towards the end o f the period we have been considering i n this chapter, probably between 60 and 50 B . C . , i n a villa just outside the town o f Pompeii, the so-called 'Villa of the Mysteries' (taking its modern name from the ostensible subject of the painting).1 3 9
136 Shrines of Isis: Tertullian, To the Gentiles 1.10.17-18 (quoting Varro); Cassius Dio XL.47.3-4; XLII.26.2; Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 13 A (with Malaise (1972b) 362-77). Astrologers: Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings\33\ Livy, SummariesUV; with Cramer (1951). As we shall emphasize below, pp. 230-1, we have no idea how, or how effectively, or by whom such expulsions were put into force.
137 The potential of the cult of Isis to devclop into an independent focus of loyalty is illus-trated by the account of the cult in Apuleius, Metamorphoses (for example, XI.21-5;
(21 =8.8). Below, pp. 287-8.
138 Below, pp. 231-3.
139 Füll documentation: Maiuri (1931). Discussion, different approaches and extensive bibliography: Seaford (1981); Ling (1991) 101-4; Henderson (1996).
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This painting (the 'Villa o f the Mysteries frieze' ) runs all round one room o f the villa (over 20 metres i n total length) (Fig. 3.5), and shows a series o f flgures on almost human scale, set against a rieh red background:
men, women, gods, mythical creatures... A t the centre o f one o f the short sides (the other is largely taken up w i t h a wide entrance-way) Dionysus reclines i n a woman's lap; and the couple are flanked on the left by a group of three mythical flgures (a Silenus holds up a bowl into which two satyts peer intently, one o f them holding up a Silenus mask, over the Silenus' head); and on the right by a near naked woman, who kneels down to draw back a veii from what may be a giant phallus - while next to her, at the Cor
ner of the room, a winged female figure wields a large whip. She seems to be whipping a woman i n a State of ecstasy or trance at the end of the adja-cent long side of the room, who kneels down to expose her naked back, her head resting i n the lap o f another (clothed) female figure. A naked female dancer twirls behind. Almost all the rest o f this long side is occupied by a window; but on the long side opposite, there is a series of flgures who point us in the direction of Dionysus. Moving from the far end (after a small doorway) we pass from a scene where a naked boy reads from a scroll, through a series of women (one carrying a tray o f (perhaps) cakes, a group gathered around a table) up to a Silenus playing a lyre, two young satyrs (one of whom is suckling a goat) and finally (next to the short wall that car-ries the tableau o f Dionysus) another female figure starting backwards - as i f in fright at something she has seen on the end wall.
The I n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f these extraordinary images is extremely difficult.
Most art historians have agreed that the painting as a whole depicts aspects of the Bacchic/Dionysiac cult — intermingled, aecording to some, with the initiatory rites of a marriage; but there is almost no agreement about how it works i n detail. So, for example, some have i t that the satyrs and Silenus on the end wall are practising a form of divination (lecanomancy — where images are read out o f a cup o f liquid); others that they are witnessing a Dionysiac miracle, as the bowl fills spontaneously w i t h w i n e .1 4 0 Some see the winged figure w i t h the whip as an agent o f I n i t i a t i o n , flagellating the kneeling girl as a mark o f her entry into the cult; while others would deny that she is whipping the kneeling figure at all, but rather tutning i n aversion from the (cultic) revelation o f the phallus behind her - a demonic figure, not an agent of the cult at a l l .1 4 1 Such detailed problems o f I n t e r p r e t a t i o n
are connected to the broader issue o f how the frieze is t o be read. One view suggests that we are following the initiatory progress o f a single woman (whether into the cult o f Bacchus, o r into marriage), who re-appears i n dif
ferent scenes through the frieze; that i t is i n other words a Visual narrative o f initiation. Others argue, by contrast, that i t is a n impressionistic mon-tage o f discrete images, that have n o natrative connection one w i t h 140 Mudie Cooke (1913) 167-9; Zuntz (1963) 184-6; Sauron (1984) 171.
141 J.Toynbee (1929) 77-86; Lehmann (1962); Turcan (1969).
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3.6 Rome and the outside world
I
Fig. 3.5 A section o f the ' V i l l a o f the Mysteries frieze', P o m p e i i c . 6 0 - 5 0 B.C. (height, 3 . 3 l m . ) . O n the short w a l l ( r i g h t ) ; (i) D i o n y s u s t e c l i n i n g i n a w o m a n ' s lap, p t obably A r i a d n e ; (ii) Silenus a n d satyrs. O n rhe l o n g w a l l , f r o m the left:
(iii) w o m e n a r o u n d a rable; (iv) Silenus p l a y i n g a lyre;
(v) t w o satyrs;
(vi) ' f r i g h t e n e d w o m a n ' .
another; or even that i t shows the simultaneous initiation of several women into the cult o f Bacchus.1 4 2
There is equally fierce disagreement about the purpose ofthe room dec-orated by these images and the history of the paintings themselves. I t could be a Dionysiac cult room, w i t h the images on the walls closely reflecting the activity that took place w i t h i n those walls. O r that at least might have been the origin o f the scheme, when the villa was i n the hands (let's imagine...) of a devotee o f the cult. Years later the images could have remained as 'just decoratioh, or a quaint reminder of some ancestor's religious enthusiasms.
They might, on the other hand, have been 'just decoratioh all along: a Ver
sion, perhaps, o f some famous Greek painting, chosen by the villa's owner out of the local painter's book of patterns, a testament to his enthusiasm for Greek art rather than religion. Expensive wallpaper, i n other words.1 4 3
It w i l l obviously make a difference to how we understand these images
142
143
M a i u r i (1931) 128, for example, sees i t as a montage o i simultaneous events;
J.Toynbee (1929) reads i t as a narrative o f i n i t i a t i o n into marriage; Clarke (1991) 9 4 - 1 1 1 argues against any attempt to ' p i n d o w n the meaning(s) o f the frieze'.
Different views o f the room's function and the 'originality' o f t h e frieze: Little (1972) 3 - 5 , 9 - 1 0 , 13-16; Grant (1971) 103 (the painter as a 'devotee' o f the cult); M c K a y (1977) 148 ('the festival halL.designed for Dionysiac feastings').
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whether we choose to think o f them as the specifically religious icons o f a specifically religious room or as an extravagant attempt to replicate an o l d Greek masterpiece on Italian soil. But those differences should not obscure a much more important (and certain) point that this painting raises for any history o f the religious world o f Rome and Italy i n the first Century B . C . Even (or especially) i f we do choose to classify the frieze as 'decorative', it attests to an entirely new range of possibilities i n the religious experience of this period: the visual repertoite o f the Dionysiac cult, that is, has recog-nizably entered the repertoire o f even domestic decoration; and w i t h it, o f course, the representation o f an emphatically personal k i n d o f religious commitment. The images that people saw around them, even i n their homes, now included the visual icons of a cult that a hundred years earlier had been rigorously controlled by the Roman authorities. The boundaries of what was recognizable and acceptable as religious were widening - as we shall see too i n our final example.
Among the poems of Catullus is a poem o f almost a hundred lines that
Among the poems of Catullus is a poem o f almost a hundred lines that