The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire
What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion, and what motivated them to change those rituals? To these questions Clifford Ando proposes simple answers: In contrast to ancient Christians, who had faith, Romans had knowledge, and their knowledge was empirical in orientation. In other words, the Romans acquired knowledge of the gods through observation of the world, and their rituals were maintained or modified in light of what they learned....
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"A work of innovative spirit and great learning, stylishly argued throughout, and beautifully written."—Sabine MacCormack, author of The Shadows of Poetry: Virgil in the Mind of Augustine"Ando's intellectually daring work breaks through the traditional perceptions of Roman religion under the Empire."—Guy Stroumsa, author of Barbarian Philosophy: The Religious Revolution of Early Christianity
Preface ixAcknowledgments xixAbbreviations xxiReligion, Law, and Knowledge in Classical Rome 1The Limits of OrthopraxyIdols and Their Critics 21Interpretatio Romana 43Religion and Ius Publicum 59Gods of the Far-Flung EmpireA Religion for the Empire 95Religion and Imperialism at Rome 120The Palladium and the Pentateuch 149Bibliography 199General Index 221Index Locorum 225
\ From the Publisher"Will cause many people to reconsider what they think they know about the Roman religion."--New England Classical Journal\ "Contends that in contrast to early Christians who had faith, the Romans had knowledge that was empirical in orientation."--New Testament Abstracts\ \ \
