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Review
| An Introduction to Roman Religion, by John Scheid. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003. 240 pages. $59.95, cloth. $22.95, paper.
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| John Scheid is one of the leaders in a movement that has, over the past three decades, transformed the way in which we understand Roman religion. Whereas the previous generation of scholars viewed the Roman civic cult as a barren and empty system of rituals that Roman politicians manipulated for their own ends, Scheid and his contemporaries condemn scholarly practices that substitute value judgments for interpretation and that measure Roman religion using a Christian yardstick. This translation of La religion des Romans (Paris: Armand Colin, 1998) explains how religion functioned as an integral part of Roman civic life. |
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Scheid approaches his subject topically rather than chronologically and has divided his work into five parts. In part one he outlines his method. He discusses past interpretations of Roman religion and examines their strengths and weaknesses. He defines important terms such as pietas and religio, explaining the differences between the Latin roots and their modern cognates. He argues that the Roman religious system emphasized ritual action rather than belief, which means that the study of Roman religion must focus on rituals and their contexts rather than on what the Romans thought about their religious system. The second part discusses the structure of Roman religion. Scheid uses the Roman calendar and Roman religious architecture to explore how the Romans divided their religious life temporally and spatially. Part three discusses the rites themselves, explaining how the Romans conducted sacrifices and how they used divination to ascertain the will of the gods. Part four examines the priests and the gods. Scheid explains that priesthood as a vocation apart from secular life did not exist in Rome. Instead, community leaders had both religious and political duties. Scheid also emphasizes that the Romans perceived their gods as powerful but (usually) beneficent beings who were in a sense fellow citizens. Part five briefly discusses how the Romans themselves viewed their religion. |
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This text has a place in any class that discusses ancient religion. It is clear, concise, and well organized. It provides illustrative examples from ancient sources in boxes placed outside the flow of the text, where they are noticeable and easy to use. Charts give brief but clear explanations of the religious functions of priestly colleges as well as the names and functions of the Roman gods. Scheid provides appendices that contain a chronology, a list of important people, a glossary, and a guide for further reading. The book might, however, best be reserved in classroom use for advanced undergraduates. The work's concision leaves no room for discussion of other aspects of Roman life, so the reader who will get the most from the text must have some familiarity with Roman history and literature. Furthermore, the book compartmentalizes so rigorously that some concepts and terms are mentioned in early sections but only explained in later ones. A reader who is unfamiliar with the Roman world might find some passages hard to get through without repeatedly flipping back-and-forth between the body of the text and the index. Yet the instructor of a high-school or college survey course could use much of the valuable material from the text without assigning the entire work. The introductory chapter presents a compact discussion of past approaches to the study of Roman religion, and, paired with Scheid's assessment of these approaches, allows an instructor to provide a series of problems and debates that illustrate the difficulties of studying an ancient society. A history teacher could also use Scheid's list of the major principles of Roman religion as the starting point for a discussion about what religion is (and was) and how religion relates to other aspects of a culture. For instance, students could compare and contrast the inseparable connection between religion and politics in Rome, where the gods were consulted before every communal decision, with their own system which emphasizes the "separation of church and state.". Overall, Scheid's book provides a concise and up-to-date survey of Roman religion. Teachers and students of pre-modern and European history will find it very useful. |
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| The Ohio State University |
Jack Wells |
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