Religious Mobility in the Roman Empire

Price, Simon

doi:10.1017/s0075435812000056

Cited by 51 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…I had previously expressed the sentiment that Dura is "potentially our best case study for social and religious life in a normal Near Eastern small town under the early and high empire", 66 but was called to task by Simon Price in his stimulating posthumous article on 'Religious mobility in the Roman empire'. 67 He challenged us "to raise the question of how typical Dura was, and so how far, and in what ways, we can generalize from it" and he put forward the view that "in some respects, Dura should perhaps be seen as more comparable to Mediterranean port towns, like Puteoli or Ostia, than to ordinary small towns in the Roman East." 68 In fact, David Kennedy (in his significant review article on Millar's The Roman Near East) had already argued that Dura-Europos was "hardly typical of cities of the Roman Near East", a statement that was followed by a question: "But perhaps there was no such thing as a typical city of the Roman Near East?"…”

Section: Dura-europos: a Typical Small Town?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Or to quote Price, "Dura certainly had a significant local economy of its own." 71 In addition it is now commonly acknowledged that the town functioned as some sort of regional centre for a number of minor settlements along the Euphrates; in other words, that Dura-Europos was the focal point for a nearby 'world of villages'. I have borrowed the latter phrase from Millar's The Roman Near East, 72 though I am aware of Kennedy's warning that "until we have far more evidence from intensive surveys, we cannot speak knowledgeably about settlement patterns" and that "the 'world of villages' may in fact have been peculiar to specific places and/or times."…”

Section: The 'World Of Villages' Along the Middle Euphratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Empire, Community, and Culture on the Middle Euphrates. Durenes, Palmyrenes, Villagers, and Soldiers

Kaizer

2017

Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

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The focus of this paper is on the Middle Euphrates: Dura-Europos as its best-known urban settlement; a series of villages known mostly from two papyrological dossiers situated along the river; and the military stations on the Euphrates. The paper asks questions about the impact (or lack of it) of the culture of Palmyra on the region's communities. It is argued that Dura-Europos remains our best case study for social and religious life in a Near Eastern small town under the Roman empire, and that the only evidence that actually makes the town look potentially ‘untypical’ is the idiosyncratic source material related to its Palmyrene inhabitants. The paper also questions the traditional periodization of Dura's history and puts forward the hypothesis that at two points during the so-called ‘Parthian phase’ Palmyrenes took advantage of a power vacuum along the Middle Euphrates and became the dominant military factor in the region.

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Section: Dura-europos: a Typical Small Town?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The 'World Of Villages' Along the Middle Euphratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empire, Community, and Culture on the Middle Euphrates. Durenes, Palmyrenes, Villagers, and Soldiers

Kaizer

2017

Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

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“…11 Sulle divinità tracie a Roma, si vedano Mateescu 1923;Durry 1938;Giacchero 1981Giacchero e 1983Granino Cecere -Ricci 2009. 12 Numerosi gli interventi su questo tema. Ci limitiamo a segnalare Haynes 1993;Bérard 2005 (origine dei soldati); Le Roux 2002;Price 2012; in generale, numerosi contributi in Wolff -Le Bohec 2009 (come Saddington 2009, per la Britannia). 13 Roymans 2009.…”

Section: Militari Traci DI Romaunclassified

Divinità provinciali nel cuore dell’Impero

Dana¹,

Ricci²

2014

mefra

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Divinità provinciali nel cuore dell'Impero. Le dediche dei militari traci nella Roma imperialeNell'ultimo secolo, i segni monumentali ed epigrafici che indicano la presenza dei Traci al di fuori della loro terra d'origine sono stati ripetutamente oggetto d'indagine 1 . Con riferimento alla città di Roma, gli studiosi ne hanno cercato le tracce tra la popolazione servile, tra gli ostaggi e il personale al servizio della casa imperiale, tra i soldati della guarnigione urbana 2 . Ancora poco indagati restano tuttavia alcuni aspetti legati alle forme d'integrazione dei Traci nel tessuto e nella società urbana; mentre la loro religione è stata analizzata insieme a quella degli altri soldati, senza ricevere un'attenzione specifica. La base d'indagine a disposizione è costituita, quasi esclusivamente, da testimonianze epigrafiche e archeologiche: fonti parziali dunque, anche se numericamente non irrilevanti. E proprio la presenza, cospicua e significativa, dei Traci nelle truppe urbane ci è sembrata meritevole di essere ancora una volta considerata. Il nostro obiettivo, in questa sede, è quello di dare evidenza, in primo luogo, al modo specifico trace di « dare un nome » alle divinità, inserendoci dunque in un dibattito particolarmente attuale presso la comunità scientifica 3 ; e, in secondo luogo, 1 Il presente contributo rappresenta la versione espansa di un precedente intervento elaborato, sempre a quattro mani, per un volume collettaneo sul tema della traduzione (Dana -Ricci 2013).Pur rappresentando l'esito di un lavoro comune, le pp. 1-12 sono da assegnare a C. Ricci; le pp. 12-28 a D. Dana. Desideriamo entrambi ringraziare vivamente la dott.ssa Daniela Velestino per la consueta generosità e i Musei Capitolini che hanno messo a disposizione le immagini fotografiche delle dediche pubblicate nel contributo.

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“…The topic of religious mobility, to name but one example, is typically analysed in terms of the movement of existing cults, without much consideration of the rôle and interests of the individual actors who were likely inseparable from many of these processes. See the important treatment of this topic by Simon Price (2012), whose insights are otherwise entirely compatible with the lens of freelance expertise.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ea Superstitione:Christian Martyrdom and the Religion of Freelance Experts

Wendt

2015

J. Rom. Stud.

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This paper situates Roman actions undertaken against Christians amidst an unofficial pattern of measures employed throughout the imperial period to manage the expanding influence of freelance religious experts. Questions about the historical circumstances of martyrdom or persecution tend to proceed from the assumption that Christians were perceived and dealt with as a distinct religious community. However, the penalties alleged by writers such as Paul and Justin were more commonly issued against self-authorized individuals (magi, astrologers, prophets, diviners, philosophers, and so forth) than against undifferentiated religious groups. Thus, I propose that Roman motivations for investigating and punishing Christians, at least in the first and second centuries, are best understood in relation to the wider phenomenon of freelance expertise and the range of concerns that it engendered.

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Religious Mobility in the Roman Empire

Cited by 51 publications

References 33 publications

Empire, Community, and Culture on the Middle Euphrates. Durenes, Palmyrenes, Villagers, and Soldiers

Empire, Community, and Culture on the Middle Euphrates. Durenes, Palmyrenes, Villagers, and Soldiers

Divinità provinciali nel cuore dell’Impero

Ea Superstitione:Christian Martyrdom and the Religion of Freelance Experts

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