Religious affiliation and political belonging from Cicero to Theodosius

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The essay analyzes the language used by Classical and Christian Romans to describe individual religious affiliation. It contends that the dominant language employed to describe membership in a cultic community was that of citizenship. The Romans' mapping of the one domain (religious affiliation) by means of their understanding of the other (citizenship) has substantial implications for histories of Roman religion. Most significantly, it implies a broad understanding that political belonging had significant and universal entailments in matters of cult. The essay then traces the continuity of this language across eras of considerable change, as regards both the meaning of citizenship but also the radical diminution in life and politics of Classical religion and the rise to prominence and power of Christianity.