Os Deuses foram honrados : o contributo da epigrafia votiva para o entendimento das manifestações religiosas no contexto da ocupação romana da Beira Interior Portuguesa

Abstract

The understanding of religious manifestations is assumed as one of the most relevant studies in the dynamics inherent to the process of acculturation occurred between indigenous and Romans in the Portuguese territory. The primary source for this view lies with the votive epigraphy, understood as a provider of divine names, rituals of worship, models of worshiping and forms of thought organization. The Portuguese Beira Interior, possessor a large number of epigraphic testimonies and repository of a remarkable diversity of theonyms and unique words in the region, appears as a singular area for the study of indigenous religious expressions and, consequently, for the study of pre-Roman communities. Taking into account this singularity and based on the joint analysis of the sum of votive monuments dedicated to indigenous deities; we have formulated a proposal of organization of the pre-Roman religious pantheon based on the degree of exclusivity from the theonyms recorded in the region under study. The ultimate goal focused the understanding of regionalism and religious thought established between the different deities, and the organization, in consequence, of the apparent disorder subsequent to such a marked diversity of theonyms. The result of this interpretation has expressed in the individualization of theonyms only mentioning in Beira Interior, in the particularization of regional theonyms which confirm to the possibility of a votive pantheon extended to adjacent regions, and in the distinction of these specifications in relation to a wider geographical scope of theonyms, i.e., in relation to the designations of the divine, widely represented in the rest of Hispanic territory. The proposed organization allowed us to perceive specific geographical areas of each of these groups, thus contributing to the definition of the fields of action of each evoked deities and the consequent definition of their attributes