For centuries the Mediterranean world of the Roman period has captured the interest of historians, professional and amateur alike, as an era of transition and transformation. It involved, of course, the period and places in which Christianity formed and spread, and hence it constituted a kind of inter-regnum between Classical Greek civilization (a golden age for many scholars of antiquity) and the rise of Christianity, with all its prophetic passion, conviction, and mystery. Given these key transitions, the interpretation of religious life in this period and its various remains depends to a large extent on whether one sees this shift from Classical world to Christendom as a triumph or a decline. The great historian Edward Gibbon, of course, mapped out one perspective with great detail between 1776 and 1788 in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. But the inevitable ecclesiastical and theological interests of many ancient historians have pressed the ‘‘triumph’’ perspective with equal vehemence.
These biases, which we will shortly address in more depth, were not entirely preconceived but also responded to a curiosity in the data itself. For the historian of religion in the Roman period encounters a profusion of ancient writers, like Plutarch, Apuleius, and Lucian, who not only captured ancient religion in detail but also could convey a tone of satire and skepticism somehow recognizable to modern readers, directed especially towards the theatrical elements of traditional cult: priesthoods, oracles, ritual activities. Other ancient writers on religion seemed to promote a higher, almost pantheistic ‘‘spirituality’’ that belonged to no place or god but sought union with an ineffable Divine (e. g. Philo, lamblichus, Philostratus).
In a post-Reformation world, historians could find in these authors - anachronistically, to be sure - resonances of their own anti-ecclesiastic sentiments or spiritual aspirations. And thus they would construct a religious mentality of the Roman period
That conformed to some historical pattern they deemed necessary, such as the dawning awareness of Christian truth, the consolidation of superstition in Christian guise, the ethereal ascents of pure philosophy, or the indiscriminate blending of great classical traditions in popular ritual.
It is to alert the reader of this chapter to this legacy of scholarship on religions of the Roman Empire that we begin our survey of ‘‘traditional cult’’ by scrutinizing some of the biases and idealizations that have gone into past interpretations of this topic. Following this review of‘‘methodological pitfalls’’ will be a discussion of some more productive approaches available to historians.
World History
