R. M. O gilvie, The Ro mans and their Gods. London, C hatto
and Windus, 1969. pp. viii + 135, £1.05 (paperback 50p). U.K.
John F erg u so n , The R e l i g i o n s of the Roman Empire. London,
T ham es and Hudson, 1970, pp. 296, £2.50. U.K.
Two s e r i e s , T ham es and H u d so n ’s ‘A s p e c ts of Greek and
Roman L if e ’ , and the newer ‘A ncient Culture and S o c ie ty ’,
is s u e d by C hatto and Windus, have given us books on religion
in the Roman world; although they are quite different in aim
and ch a ra c te r, it i s perhaps a d m is s ib le to d e a l with them
under one heading.
T he aim of O g ilv ie ’s book, which i s a t tr a c tiv e ly produced
and y e t s e l l s a t a very low p rice , i s to show w hat the trad­
itional religion (he omits alto g eth er the ‘O ri e n ta l’ religions)
meant to a Roman of the A ugustan a g e , and what part it
p lay ed in h is life — though he rightly po in ts out that g e n e r a l­
iz atio n is p articula rly dangerous in a field such a s th is . His
primary a ttitu d e i s that ‘concern for religion did go deep into
Roman s o c i e t y ’, and that ‘most Romans did b e lie v e in (the)
e f f ic a c y ’ of r elig io u s a c t i v i t i e s . He is a ls o c o n v in ce d that
there w as a s p o n ta n eo u s relig io u s rev iv a l in the time of
A u gu stus, which he a ttrib u te s la rge ly to a s e n s e of guilt,
a fee lin g that the d i s a s t e r s and a g o n ie s of the y e a r s p re ­
ceding Actium could be due to the n e g l e c t of the gods; after
quoting the opening lin e s of H orace, Odes 111,6, he comments:
‘Horace is not here mouthing some party lin e . It is a general
and genuine b e l i e f . ’ And y e t it i s extremely difficult to g u e s s
at the re ligious c o n s c i o u s n e s s of t h e ‘a v e r a g e ’ Roman, simply
b e c a u s e the bulk of our ev id en c e com es from a highly a rticu ­
la te and in te llig e n t minority.
, An opening ch a p te r e n t itle d ‘T he G o d s ’ s e t s the s c e n e .
T he Rom ans had an a s to n is h in g m ultiplicity of gods and
s p ir its , quite s e p a r a te from the more or l e s s G ra ec ize d
Olym pians. V irtually no human a c tiv ity se e m s to have been
without its presid in g deity, from ploughing to opening and
clo sin g doors, and numina a l s o p ro liferate d in connexion
with s p r in g s , woods and other n atura l o b je c ts , a way of
thinking which the author s e e s partly a s a s u b s t itu te for
s c ie n t if i c enquiry: ‘A s c ie n t if i c law w as not an a b s tra c tio n
but a c o n c rete m a n ifestation of div ine a c t i v i t y . ’ He a ls o
60
m akes the point, v ita l for u n d ersta n d in g the s u b je c t , th a t
‘Roman religion w as concerned with s u c c e s s not with s i n ’ —
the gods were involved with m aterial e v e n ts and were not in
the l e a s t in te r e s te d in the s t a t e of a m an’s s o u l. However,
th e ir influe nce could be se e n in every sin g le m a terial even t,
and here O gilv ie c a lls in the Stoic w orld-soul, w hich, he
c la im s with some ju s t if i c a tio n , h elped to make the traditio n al
religion, with its s p ir its everyw here, in te lle c tu a lly r e s p e c t ­
able.
R e lig io u s o b se rv a n c e w as a m atter of ce re m o n ie s not
b e lie f s , and many of tho se ce rem o n ie s could be performed
by one p r ie st on behalf of the p o pula tion in g en e ral — y e t
the ‘s e c u l a r ’ nature of the Roman p r ie s th o o d s p rev e n te d the
r ise of a p rie stly c l a s s . It w as im portant th a t the gods s h o u ld
be approached, and there were three w ays of doing th is
(whether publicly or p riv ately ), prayer, s a c r if ic e and d iv in a ­
tion; th e se are the s u b j e c t s of the next three c h a p te rs . Here
a large amount of m aterial i s d ig e s te d , to give f a s c in a tin g
and coherent a c c o u n ts of the p r a c tic e s in q u e s tio n , and the
vario us d if fic u ltie s , h a z a r d s and c o m p lic a tio n s a tte n d a n t on
them; this part of the book is extrem ely v alu ab le , and sh ow s
that there was a real m eaning in p ro ce d u re s that to u s often
seem either su p e rf ic ia l and s e n s e l e s s or g ro te sq u e . T here
follow s the lo n g e s t c ha pte r of the book, on the relig io u s
year. Here we follow the Roman through h is r e lig io u s f e s t i ­
v a l s month by month (n aturally with c o n s id e r a b le help from
Ovid a s far a s June ), in a Vivid and re a d a b le ac co u n t. P riv a te
religion and the p rie sth o o d s are briefly covered before a
ch a p te r on religion in the time of A u g u stu s and a short con­
clu sio n ; the s u b je c t of Emperor worship i s d e a lt with d i s ­
appointingly briefly.
T here are f a u lts in th is book. T he r e s tr ic tio n s of s p a c e
were d o u b tle ss imposed by the p u b lis h e r rather than by the
author, but the result is that th ere are too few so u rce refer­
e n c e s , and the reader finds it im p o s sib le to p u rsu e some of
th e a u th o r’s most p rovoca tive and in te r e s tin g s ta te m e n ts .
E ven if the books in this s e r i e s are intended mainly for the
‘g eneral r e a d e r ’ (whoever he may be), it i s a pity if they are
thereby to be made l e s s u se fu l for the s p e c i a l i s t . I d e te c te d
one inc o rrec t referenc e (p. 21 — Satires I, 114 sho u ld read
Satires I, VI, 114); and like A ris to tle , if with l e s s j u s t if i c a -
61
ion, O gilvie se e m s to rely on h is memory for q u o ta tio n s —
the suffe re rs are Housman (p. 9) and S h a k e s p e a re (p. 77).
But th e s e are triv ia l, if irritating fa ilin g s in a book that
show s real in s ig h t into a difficult s u b je c t .
F e r g u s o n ’s book. The R e l i g i o n s of the Roman Empire, is
com pletely different; he i s co n c ern ed more with the e x t e r n a ls
of religion and in s t e a d of in v e s tig a tin g the mind of the Roman
he gives a su rv ey of the vario u s r elig io n s and c u l ts which
were to be found in the empire around a ‘n o tio n a l’ date of
200 A.D. The book might be c r it ic iz e d on the grounds that
the ‘wood’ i s l o s t sig h t of in the w ealth of d e ta ile d informa­
tion about the ‘t r e e s ’ — but there is no doubt of the v alue
of th is d e ta ile d inform ation. F e rg u so n ta k es h is s u b je c t
ap art, and most of the book c o n s i s t s of c h a p te rs dealin g
with particu la r r e lig io n s or d e i t i e s . T h u s we s t a r t with the
G reat Mother and the S k y-F ath e r, and the bew ildering multi­
plic ity of their m a n if e s ta tio n s , from B ritain to E g ypt. A
c h a p te r on the Sun-God show s how th is deity ro se in favour
until in the third century A urelian w as ab le to u s e him a s a
suprem e deity under whom to unite the empire; and C o n ­
s t a n t i n e ’s C h ristia n ity had stro n g r e li c s of s o la r w orship in
it, to sa y no more. T h e s e three d e i t i e s tended tow ards mono­
theism; but the numina which had been so im portant to the
Romans were s ti ll powerful, and their e f fe c t w as in the oppo­
s i t e d ire c tio n . A ch a p te r on T y ch e p r e c e d e s an exam ination
of Emperor w orship, tre a te d ( a s in d e e d it was) more a s a
p o litic a l than a s a r e lig io u s phenomenon.
F e r g u s o n next d i s c u s s e s p e rso n a l religion, where he is
concerned mainly with the mystery relig io n s. Here the Greek
and oriental in flu e n ces are very stro n g , in a large s e le c tio n
of r e lig io n s that range from the E le u s in ia n m y s t e r ie s to
C h r is tia n ity . While h e a c k n o w le d g e s that ‘the im pe rsona­
l i t i e s of sta te -r e lig io n could not s a tis f y the r e lig io u s n e e d s
of the in d iv id u a l’, it i s a pity that he d o e s not pursue th is
s u b je c t , and ask why this sho u ld hav e been so, and why
th e s e relig io n s sho u ld have risen to su c h prominence and
im portance during the first c e n tu rie s of the C h ristia n era.
C o n n e cted with th is phenomenon are the i n c r e a s e in what
we can c a ll s u p e rs titio n and the flourishing of magical
p r a c tic e s , which are d e s c r ib e d in f a s c in a tin g d e t a il , in c lu d ­
ing w itc h e s from H orace, T ib u llu s , Ovid, L ucan and
62
A p u le iu s. A ch a p te r on b e lie f s
c o n c ern in g
the
so u l after
d e a th sh o w s how in th is period, a s in m ost, men sw ay e d
betw een the id e a s of ex tin ctio n and s u rv iv a l, and how the
ch a nge from cremation to inhumation w as r e sp o n sib le for
the w ea lth of s a rc o p h a g i th a t c a s t su c h light, with th e ir
d e c o ra tio n , on b e lie f s . M y stics and m ountebanks, from St
Anthony to A lexander of A b u n o teich o s, make an appe aran c e;
b u t’ p erh a p s the most in te r e s ti n g part of the book i s i t s la s t
two c h a p te rs. ‘P h ilo s o p h e rs and the G o d s ’ sum m arizes the
v ie w s of the prin cip al s c h o o ls of the age, d is c u s s i n g s e v e r a l
ind iv id u al p h ilo s o p h e rs (Marcus A u re liu s is h arsh ly judged)
and showing in particu la r the impact of P la to n is m on both
C h r is tia n and pagan thought. The l a s t ch a p te r is c a lle d
‘Syncretism and C o n fro n tatio n ’. A ncient r e lig io n s were on
the whole tole rant and ‘ac co m m odating’, and happily absorbed
f e a tu re s of each other; lo c a l d iv in itie s could u s u a lly be
id e n tifie d with some p e rso n a lity of the pantheon. T he ex ­
c e p tio n s were Ju d a ism and C h ristia n ity ; but even here the
influen ce of other re ligions can be se e n . T he Virgin Mary
t a k e s over tit le s and functio ns from I s i s and C y b e le ; Z e u s
was once w orshipped on many a h ill now d e d ic a te d to the
P ro p h e t E l i a s . And th e influence of G reek p h ilosophy is
obv ious. T he co n flict of C h r is tia n ity with p ag a n ism and
th e arguments u s e d by both s i d e s are briefly d e s c r ib e d , and
we s e e C h ristia n ity em erging triumphant — ce le b ra tin g the
S av iour’s n ativ ity on the S un’s birthday and his resurre ctio n
a t the f e s ti v a l of A ttis .
T h i s is a book full of information, some of it of general
i n te r e s t, some too d e ta ile d to be of u s e to any but the s p e c i a l ­
is t . It is well docum ented, with a s e p a r a t e bibliography for
each ch a p te r and p lentifu l re fe r e n c e s to a n c ie n t s o u r c e s ;
though one wonders how many r e a d e rs will sh a re the a u th o r ’s
‘id io s y n c r a tic d islik e for little num erals in the text a s w ell
a s for fo o tn o te s ’. T h e re are 32 p a g e s of p l a t e s , some of
m arginal r ele v an c e but all in te r e s tin g . In approach this book
could be describ ed a s com plem entary to O g ilv ie ’s , and much
of w hat one m i s s e s in the one can be found in the other.
R.S.W. Hawtrey
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