EMPEROR WORSHIP & ROMAN RELIGI

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-19-927548-9
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 428 Seiten, Format (B × H): 139 mm x 215 mm, Gewicht: 549 g

Reihe: Oxford Classical Monographs

While Roman religion worshipped a number of gods, one kind in particular aroused the fury of early Christians and the wonder of scholars: the cult of Roman emperors alive or dead. Was the divinity of emperors a glue that held the Empire together? Were rulers such as Julius Caesar and Caligula simply mad to expect such worship of themselves? Or was it rather a phenomenon which has only been rendered incomprehensible by modern and monotheistic ideas of what religion is
- or should be - all about?

This book presents the first study of emperor worship among the Romans themselves, both in Rome and in its heartland Italy. It argues that emperor worship was indeed perfectly in keeping with Roman religious tradition, which has been generally misunderstood by a posterity imbued with radically different notions of the relationship between humans and the divine.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gradel, Ittai

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen des Alten Orients
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Prähistorische Religionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Alteuropäische Religionen: Kelten, Germanen, Slawen, Balten

Über Autor(innen)

Ittai Gradel is Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Copenhagen.