Actualities: Mithras in Malta

This volume, Looking for Mithra in Malta (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion, 10, 2009, 121.p Peeters Publishers.) by Claudia Sagona is the 10th volume in the series of the upper named religious studies. 

The book of Sagona is a good supplementum of the great work of Vermaseren (CIMRM) which now gradually lost it's actuality. In Vermaseren's corpus Malta doesn't appear (from the Italian islands only Sicily). Sagona lists more than 30 Maltan places, where the cult of the Roman mystery God, Mithras appear. This corpora reflects a new tendency and an urgent need in the research of mithraism begun (but still not accomplished) by Richard Gordon: supplements for CIMRM for every province (an other good example for this is the work of Tóth István about the mithraic sources from Pannonia).

About the book: "Many aspects of the mystery cult of Mithra remain enigmatic. It was a belief system that touched the hearts and minds of all manner of people, rich and poor, in the early centuries AD. Secretive, private and exclusive enclaves of believers infiltrated numerous regions of the Roman Empire, assembling in caves and cellars, where strange, sometimes terrifying, initiation rites were carried out. 

Never before has the evidence for the mysteries of Mithra been traced to the Maltese archipelago. This group of islands in the central Mediterranean fell under Roman domination, but their somewhat isolated location may have appealed to followers of Mithra. Cult artefacts and possible places of Mithraic worship in the islands have been presented here fore the first time (loc. cit.)

Actualities: Associations in the Greco- Roman World

The work edited by John Kloppenborg and Richard Ascough, Greco-Roman Associations: Texts, Translations, and Commentary ( Volume 1. Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace), is the first volume of a project, which idea appeared as a result of a reading seminar of Greek texts at the University of Toronto. The corpus is not only a collection of the epigraphic heritage of the presented regions, but it present the importance of the phratriai, the associations and other guilds or clubs in the world of polis. 

The second volume will appear next year: Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook,  Philip Harland,  Richard Ascough and John S. Kloppenborg.  Baylor University Press / de Gruyter, forthcoming in 2012 (here)
About the book: "Private associations organized around a common cult, profession, ethnic identity, neighbourhood or family were common throughout the Greco-Roman antiquity, offering opportunities for sociability, cultic activities, mutual support and a context in which to display and recognize virtuous achievement. This volume collects a representative selection of inscriptions from associations in Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, published with English translations, brief explanatory notes, commentaries and full indices. This volume is essential for several areas of study: ancient patterns of social organization; the organization of diasporic communities in the ancient Mediterranean; models for the structure of early Christian groups; and forms of sociability, status-displays, and the vocabularies of virtue (loc. cit.)


Other books in this topic:

Actualities: Travel and Religion in Antiquity

The volume edited by Philip A. Harland, Travel and Religion in Antiquity. (Waterloo:  Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011.  Pp. xii, 289) is a part of the famous series of Studies in Christianity and Judaism/Études sur le christianisme et le judaisme. As every book or article of the named scholar, this volume has also a webpage too, with very useful information (HERE). 

A short description of the book and the topic: "Travel and Religion in Antiquity is a book by a group of scholars that explores the ways in which travel and mobility influenced, constrained, and facilitated religious activity and cultural interaction in antiquity, especially in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. This encompasses issues pertaining to ancient travel literature, ethnography, pilgrimage, topography of sacred space, occupational travelers, and migration. Discourses of travel and the function of journey motifs within narrative and other sources also occupy the contributions in this study. Although certainly not limited to studies of early Judaism and Christianity, the contributions shed light on how such topics relating to travel affected adherents, leaders, authors, and movements within these traditions.  The book is the outcome of a multi-year seminar within the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies (CSBS)". 

Content: 

INTRODUCTION

1 Pausing at the Intersection of Religion and Travel (Philip A. Harland)

HONOURING THE GODS

2 Religion on the Road in Ancient Greece and Rome (Steven Muir)
3 Going Up to Jerusalem: Pilgrimage and the Historical Jesus (Susan Haber)
4 Pilgrimage, Place, and Meaning-Making by Jews in Greco-Roman Egypt (Wayne O. McCready)
5 Have Horn, Will Travel: The Journeys of Mesopotamian Deities (Karljürgen G. Feuerherm)

PROMOTING A DEITY OR WAY OF LIFE

6 The Divine Wanderer: Travel and Divinization in Late Antiquity (Ian W. Scott)
7 Journeys in Pursuit of Divine Wisdom: Stories of Thessalos and Other Seekers(Philip A. Harland)

8 “Danger in the Wilderness, Danger at Sea”: Paul and Perils of Travel (Ryan Schellenberg)

ENCOUNTERING FOREIGN CULTURES

9 Roman Translation: Tacitus and Ethnographic Interpretation (James Rives)

MIGRATING

10 Migration and the Emergence of Greco-Roman Diaspora Judaism (Jack N. Lightstone)

MAKING A LIVING

11 Religion and the Nomadic Lifestyle: The Nabateans (Michele Murray)
12 Christians on the Move in Late Antique Oxyrhynchus (Lincoln Blumell)

Detailed review of the book: HERE.

Related works:

Actualities: Ancient Angels

The volume Ancient Angels - conceptualizing Angeloi in the Roman Empire (BRILL, 2011, 181.p.) by Rangar Cline is probably the first monograph in this topic using a large amount of literary sources. This topic - angels in the Roman "Paganism" - was first researched by Franz Cumont in 1915 ,(“Les Anges du Paganisme,” Révue de l’histoire des religions 12:159–82.). This work analyzing the concept and various apparition of some minor or secondary deities, named after the II.century B.C. as "angeloi" or "angelus", word used also by ancient auctors (such as Homer) simply as "messeger". Using especially but not only literary sources (one of the most interesting archaeological sources used in this book are the Fountain of the Lamps at Corinth) Cline proved in his book, that angels  - messengers or avatars of Gods, deities or symbols of the soul- are omnipresent in the Roman Empire and not only in the Jewish or Christian contexts. 

About the book: "Although angels are typically associated with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ancient Angels demonstrates that angels (angeloi) were also a prominent feature of non-Abrahamic religions in the Roman era. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the study uses literary, inscriptional, and archaeological evidence to examine Roman conceptions of angels, how residents of the empire venerated angels, and how Christian authorities responded to this potentially heterodox aspect of Roman religion. The book brings together the evidence for popular beliefs about angels in Roman Religion, demonstrating the widespread nature of speculation about, and veneration of, angels in the Roman Empire"(loc. cit.)

Content of the book:

 List of Illustrations .................................................................. vii
Acknowledgements ................................................................... ix
List of Abbreviations ................................................................ xi
List of Epigraphic Sigla ........................................................... xiii
Preface ..................................................................................... xv
Chapter One Introduction: The Words of Angels ...................... 1
Chapter Two Angels of the Aether ........................................... 19
Chapter Three Angels of a Pagan God .................................... 47
Chapter Four Angels of the Grave .......................................... 77
Chapter Five Angels of the Spring: Variations on Local
Angelos Veneration and Christian Reaction .......................... 105
Chapter Six Angels of a Christian God: Christian Angelos
Veneration in Late Roman Anatolia ...................................... 137
Conclusion ............................................................................ 167
Bibliography ...........................................................................169
Index ..................................................................................... 179

Other or similar books in the topic:

     

                                                                   

Actualities: Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire

 One God - Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire (2010, pp.239., Cambridge University Press) by Stephen Mitchell and Peter Van Nuffelen is the conference volume of an international research which begun in July of 2006 with the Conference about Paganism and monotheism in the Roman Empire at the University of Exeter, UK following the famous work of Michael Frede and Polymnia Athanassiadi, Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity, 1999. 

The two authors are the best experts in the field of this section of Roman Religion.The book answers some major questions, born as a dilemma at the conference and in the secular research: how should pagan monotheism be defined? what is the difference between pagan monotheism and judeo-christian monotheism? There is an other study of Mitchell about Theos Hypsistos, a kind of answer for Belayche (De la polys´emie des ´epicl`eses: Hypsistos dans le monde gr´eco-romain, 2005).

A short presentation of the book by the authors: "Graeco-Roman religion in its classic form was polytheistic; on the other hand, monotheistic ideas enjoyed wide currency in ancient philosophy. This contradiction provides a challenge for our understanding of ancient pagan religion. Certain forms of cult activity, including acclamations of 'one god' and the worship of theos hypsistos, the highest god, have sometimes been interpreted as evidence for pagan monotheism. This book discusses pagan monotheism in its philosophical and intellectual context, traces the evolution of new religious ideas in the time of the Roman empire, and evaluates the usefulness of the term 'monotheism' as a way of understanding these developments in later antiquity outside the context of Judaism and Christianity. In doing so, it establishes a new framework for understanding the relationship between polytheistic and monotheistic religious cultures between the first and fourth centuries AD."

Detailed presentation at Bryn Mawr: HERE

Related books:

                                                                                              

                   

     

Titans of the study of religion: Alföldy Géza

 It may seem an exaggeration to call professor Alföldy a "titan" of this field - even if his enormous bibliography  on Roman Studies made him one of the greatest classical scholars of our times. This short post wants to be first of all a memento for the recently died scholar, who's great contribution for the field of Roman Studies has religious aspects as well. In his first studies written in Hungarian, he wrote about the cults of Pannonia, many of his studies (especially about the religious life of Aquincum) being a milestone in the field. Being the student of a great generation of archaeologists and classical scholars (Alföldi András, Kerényi Károly, Szabó Árpád, Szilágyi János György) he studied Roman history holistically: written and material sources together, as a historian of ancient history, with German preciosity. 

The research of Alföldy's contribution as a historian and epigraphist became now a historiographical actuality.

A short list of his works about Roman Religion

1. Rez. von A. Bruhl, Liber pater. Origine et expansion du culte dionysiaque à Rome et dans le monde romain (1953). AnTan 4, 1957, 146-149.
2. Augustalen- und Sevirkörperschaften in Pannonien. AAntHung 6, 1958, 433-459
3. Mithras aquincumi kultuszához (Zum Mithraskult in Aquincum) AnTan 5, 1958, 73-74. – Deutsche Zusammenfassung: Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis 7, 1962, 125
4. Rez. von W. Deonna, De Télesphore au “moine bourru“. Dieux, génies et démons encapouchonnés“ (1955). AnTan 5, 1958, 123-125
5. Rez. von E. Gose, Der Tempelbezirk des Lenus Mars in Trier (1955). ArchÉrt 85, 1958, 224-225
6. Liber pater oltára Scarbantiából (Altar des Liber pater aus Scarbantia). Soproni Szemle (Ödenburger Rundschau) 13, 1959, 158-162. – Deutsche Zusammenfassung: Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis 7, 1962, 239-240.
7. Pannoniciani augures. AAntHung 8, 1960, 145-164 (deutsch). – AnTan 7, 1960, 37-52 (ungarisch). – Deutsche Zusammenfassung: Bibliotheca Classica Orientalis 7, 1962, 240. – Revidierter deutscher Text mit Nachträgen auch in Nr. 338.
8. Kelta gyógyító istenek tisztelete a római Pannoniában (Die Verehrung keltischer Heilgötter im römischen Pannonien]. Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár Közleményei (Mitteilungen der Staatlichen Medizinhistorischen Bibliothek) 7, 1960, 105-110.
9. Rez. von K. Kerényi, Die Herkunft der Dionysosreligion nach dem heutigen Stand der Forschung (1956). AnTan 7, 1960, 100-102
10. Geschichte des religiösen Lebens in Aquincum. AArchHung 13, 1961, 103-124. – Aquincum vallási életének története. Budapest Régiségei (Altertümer von Budapest) 20, 1963, 47-69
11. Rez. von P. Merlat, Jupiter Dolichenus (1960). AnTan 8, 1961, 300-302
12. Rez. von V. Wessetzky, Die ägyptischen Kulte zur Römerzeit in Ungarn (1961). ArchÉrt 90, 1963, 146-148
13. Zur keltischen Religion in Pannonien. Germania 42, 1964, 54-59
14. Rez. von K. Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte (1960). Eirene 3, 1964, 181-183.
15. Ein Denkmal des Serapis-Isis-Kultes in Pannonien. Alba Regia 4/5, 1963/64 (1965), 87-90.
16. Barbareneinfälle und religiöse Krisen in Italien. BHAC 1964/65 (1966), 1-19.
17.  Rez. von L. Zotović, Les cultes orientaux sur le territoire de la Mésie supérieure (1966). Gnomon 39, 1967, 317-318.
18. FLAMINES PROVINCIAE HISPANIAE CITERIORIS (Anejos de “Archivo Español de Arqueología“ VI), Madrid 1973, XV, 97 S.
19. Eine frühchristliche Inschrift aus Rom. Arheološki Vestnik 28, 1977 (1978), 455-462.
20.  Eine Mithras-Inschrift aus Aquileia (CIL V 805). ZPE 29, 1978, 157-160. – Überarbeitet auch in Nr. 436.
21. Ein Tempel des Herrscherkultes in Comum. Athenaeum 61, 1983, 362-373. – Überarbeitet auch in Nr. 436.
22. Epigraphica Hispanica VI. Das Diana-Heiligtum von Segobriga. ZPE 58, 1985, 139-159
23.  Die Mithras-Inschrift aus Riegel am Kaiserstuhl. Germania 64, 1986, 433-440.
24. Die Krise des Imperium Romanum und die Religion Roms. In: W. Eck (Ed.), Religion und Gesellschaft in der römischen Kaiserzeit. Kolloquium zu Ehren von Friedrich Vittinghoff, Köln – Wien 1989, 53-102. – Mit Nachträgen auch in Nr. 338.
25.  DER OBELISK AUF DEM PETERSPLATZ IN ROM. EIN HISTORISCHES MONUMENT DER ANTIKE (SitzBerHAW 1990, 2), Heidelberg 1990, 114 S. – Zusammenfassung: JHAW 1989 (1990), 85-86.
26. Una inscripción funeraria de Tarraco del Bajo Imperio. In: Miscel.lànica arqueològica a Josep M. Recasens, abril 1992, Tarragona 1992, 13-17.
27. Hadrian als magister der fratres Arvales. ZPE 100, 1994, 464-468.
28.  Inscripciones, sacrificios y mistérios: El santuario rupestre de Panóias/Portugal. Informe preliminar. MM 36, 1995 (Beiträge zur Fünfzigjahrfeier des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts in Madrid im Juni 1993), 252-258. – Vgl. Nr. 425 und 485.
29. Eine hadrianische Widmungsinschrift in der Area Sacra di Largo Argentina. In: Fülöp Gy. (Eds.), Festschrift für Jenő Fitz (Bulletin du Musée Roi Saint-Étienne B 47), Székesfehérvár 1996, 9-13. – Italienisch in Nr. 368.
30. Die Großen Götter von Gorsium. ZPE 115, 1997, 225-241.
31. Die Mysterien von Panóias (Vila Real, Portugal). MM 38, 1997, 176-246. – Vgl. Nr. 397; siehe noch Nr. 485.
32.  Zeus Theos Megistos en Segobriga (zusammen mit J. M. Abascal). AEA 71, 1998, 157-168.
33.  Zwei römische Statthalter im Evangelium: die epigraphischen Quellen In: E. dal Covolo – R. Fusco (Eds.), Il contributo delle scienze storiche allo studio del Nuovo Testamento. Atti del Convegno Roma, 2-6 ottobre 2002, Città del Vaticano 2005, 216-242.
34.  Eine umstrittene Altarinschrift aus Vindobona. Tyche 2012.

Actualities: Religious interferences

Religioni in contatto nel Mediterraneo antico. Modalità di diffusione e processi di interferenza (2008, pp. 376),  is the final volume of the papersfrom the conference «Le religioni orientali nel mondo greco e romano», hold in Loveno di Menaggio (Como), 26-28 May 2006, edited by Corinne Bonnet, Sergio Ribichini and Dirk Steuernagel.

As a result of one of the most important conferences in the topic, this volume is an interesting synthesis of religious interferences.  Written in four languages (English, French, German and Italian) the articles are grouped in four topics.  Notable, that Christianity and Judaism are included again in the large and controversial (also semiologic) category of "oriental" cults and religions (about the problem of the word see: J. R. Carbó Garcia, Studying Roman Cults of Eastern Origin in Roman Dacia, pp. 61- 62., In: Ephemeris Napocensis XX., Cluj, 2010.)

The main contribution of this volume is to share some new approaches in the study of the fusion and spread of the Roman cults, as a socio- cultural and religious phenomena.

Content

S. Ribichini, Religioni in contatto. Introduzione.Elenco delle abbreviazioni.

 Parte prima. Percorsi e diffusione: 

  J. Rüpke, Medien und Verbreitungswege von Religion im Römischen Reich. Thematische Einführung;

E. Sanzi, La trasmissione dei sistemi religiosi complessi nel secondo ellenismo. Qualche esemplificazione dall'XI libro de Le Metamorfosi di Apuleio; 

L. Bricault, Fonder un lieu de culte; V. Gasparini, Santuari isiaci in Italia: criteri e contesti di diffusione; A.-K. Rieger, Lokale Tradition versus überregionale Einheit: der Kult der Magna Mater; 

D. Steuernagel, Hafenstädte – Knotenpunkte religiöser Mobilität ? 

Parte seconda. «culti orientali», paganesimo, giudaismo, cristianesimo: 

N. Belayche, E. Rebillard, «Cultes orientaux» et pluralisme religieux. Introduction thématique; 

E. Tagliaferro, A proposito della Self-Presentation dell'Ebraismo: presenze e assenze nelContra Apionem; L. Renaut, Les initiés aux mystères de Mithra étaient-ils marqués au front? Pour une relecture de Tertullien, De praescr. 40, 4; 

A. Van den Kerchove, La voie d'Hermès, la question des sacrifices et les «cultes orientaux»; 

M. Zago,L'emploi des noms divins dans la Kosmopoiia (PGM XIII); 

C. Macris, Les «hommes divins» et leurs dieux: le cas des cultes «orientaux».

 Parte terza. Interferenze e interazioni, integrazione e rifiuto, conversione e proselitismo: 

C. Auffarth, S. Ribichini, Pluralität, Pluralismus und Exklusivität. Thematische Einführung; 

M.-F. Baslez, Du culte de Cybèle au christianisme phrygien: approches d'une identité religieuse régionale; 

M.-Y. Perrin, De quelques homologies entre ralliements confessionnels en régime chrétien et adhésions au christianisme dans l'Antiquité tardive; 

I. Tanaseanu Döbler,Befreiung aus der Finsternis: Kaiser Julian und die orientalischen Kulte; 

W. Löhr, Konversion und Konversionserzählung. Beobachtungen zur konstruktion des Religionswechsels in der Spätantike am Beispiel Augustins; 

B. Clausi, Gli spazi del confronto: ascetismo cristiano e «religioni orientali» in Ambrogio e Gerolamo; C. Auffarth, Religio migrans: Die «Orientalischen Religionen» im Kontext antiker Religion. Ein Theoretisches Modell.

Actualities: The Religion of the Senators in the Roman Empire

The new book of the famous Hungarian born American scholar, Zsuzsanna Várhelyi , The Religion of  the Senators in the Roman Empire: power and the beyond,

• 270 pages, Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (June 7, 2010) is a great synthesis about the religion of Roman high society, the ordo senatorius. 
• In her book, Várhelyi analyses not only the role and the evolution of the senatorial order from Augustus to the end of the III. century in the mirror of power and state , but also in a theological context. 



Zsuzsanna Várhelyi

• About the book in Bryn Mawr: "This book examines the religious life of senators in the Roman empire from Augustus to Severus Alexander. Focusing on the nexus between social status, political authority, and what she calls “imperial religion,” Várhelyi shows that senators during this period were active participants in the construction of a new imperial order that was defined, at least in part, in religious terms, and suggests that it was largely through religious practice and its attendant discourses that senators forged a strong identity (both corporate and individual),expressed their own public power and authority, and engaged with problems of symbolic order and the meanings of life and death. Despite some analytical imprecision and the absence of a central thesis, this study makes a valuable contribution to the history of the senatorial order, religious practice and thought, and the political culture of the early Roman empire" (loc. cit.)

Presentation in the Classical Review's latest issue: HERE.
Related books in this topic:

Actualities: Druids reloaded

After a library scale bibliography, there is another book about druids, the mysterious priesthood of the Galls.

Miranda Aldhouse-Green's new book Caesar's Druids: an ancient priesthood (Yale University Press, Apr 05, 2010 , 352 p., 6 1/8 x 9 1/4,80 b/w) is giving a new perspective of this social and religious class  - similar to that of J. L. Brunaux (Les Druides, Seuil, 2006) - where druids appear also as "philosophers" of the Celtic world.

An other work of the author

A short description of the book at the page of Yale University Press: "Ancient chroniclers, including Julius Caesar himself, made the Druids and their sacred rituals infamous throughout the Western world. But in fact, as Miranda Aldhouse-Green shows in this fascinating book, the Druids’ day-to-day lives were far less lurid and much more significant. Exploring the various roles that Druids played in British and Gallic society during the first centuries B.C. and A.D.—not just as priests but as judges, healers, scientists, and power brokers—Aldhouse-Green argues that they were a highly complex, intellectual, and sophisticated group whose influence transcended religion and reached into the realms of secular power and politics. With deep analysis, fresh interpretations, and critical discussions, she gives the Druids a voice that resonates in our own time" (loc. cit.).

Other books about this topic: