Customer Reviews

The Cults of the Roman Empire (Ancient World)

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Turcan has given us the needed updating on Franz Cumont's work. The Cults of the Roman Empire, for the most part, avoids the unwarrented history-of-religions inferences Cumont made. Turcan sticks mainly to geographical evidence and iconographic description and analysis. This book is a necessary companion to Keith Hopkins' "A World Full of Gods" in that is conveys the individual and collective power of the so-called Oriental cults, which, in fact, were Romanized when they reached their zenith in the Antonine Age. According to Turcan the oriental gods who had the greatest following were Magna Mater (Cybele) and Isis. Mithras occupied a second tier in the popularity pole as did Jupiter Dolichenus. Other deities interested primarily local cultists. The chapter on Dionysus and his rites is especially interesting in that the author details the ritual and presents instructive data on the belief in afterlife. Turcan does stray from the positivist historian to offer his psychological explanations for the victory of christianity over the cults. While sympathizing with his views, I think he has glossed over the more important socio-political explanation: episcopal christianity alone provided the strongest social cohesiveness enforced by ecclesiastical sanctions. It was this strength that moved Constantine to attempt to co-opt the episcopal church rather than throw the future of his empire in with Mithras or Isis. The Cults of the Roman Empire is a must for students of christian origens. If they ignore the evidence contained in this volume, they will not fully appreciate some of the dynamic possessed by the victor.

This book contains copius information regarding the geographic spread of various pagen "Gods" not members of the original Roman pantheon. If you need this information, the book becomes indespensible and should be in any serious students library who is concerned with the religious atmosphere of the Roman World circa 300 BCE to 400 CE. This being said, that is the long and the short of it. The translation from French is not the best. The deeper insights one might expect are largely missing. And the explanation of the triumph of Christianity as presented is shallow and of little value. This book, one of a series of translations and reissues in the English language, commissioned by the University of Manchester, hangs its hat on the fact that it is an update of the classic work of Franz Cumont. For the generalist, the book is a loss and confusing. For the specialist, who needs a travelogue of certain Gods, the book is indespensible. Expect to work hard for what you get. Expect the prose to flow like mud, and where the translation breaks down expect confusion. I stress that this was a necessary read for my interests. There is much to be gained here. You only have to decide if you wish to pay the price.

I used this text in preparing a 4 session workshop on ancient mystery religions (www.lukeion.org). I appreciate that this text is thourough and attempted a balanced position on the death of these religions and the rise of Christianity. I believe Turcan did a better job with task one than with task two. The primary drawback to this text is that it has the less-than-stimulating literary style of an older encyclopedia. Final summation: great reference work if you know the larger issues up for debate on Roman Cults. Excellent, scholarly, one-stop shopping for most cults of interest.

As the cliche goes, this book often loses the forest for the trees. Full of boring and mind-numbing detail, it belongs in every scholarly or specialist library, but if you are neither a scholar or a specialist then you will probably be much happier with Burkert (Ancient Mystery Cults, Harvard U. Press, 1987) or Godwin (Mystery Religions in the Ancient World, Thames & Hudson 1981). Twenty years later (2008), I do feel that the time is ripe for a new popular survey of this subject, and hope that someone else will pick up the ball!

The book was delivered in remarkably quick time.
Well worth the search. The section on horse cults was very useful to my research. The extensive bibliography is also of great assistance in casting the net wider and deeper.

For anyone seeking the true history of religion, especially in regards to the melting pot of deities that bore the Christian faith, this book is a fascinating journey. Do not expect to be entertained or coddled; but seekers of detailed translations of lesser known religious movements in the classical period will be rewarded.

If you're looking for a wealth of information with every detail listed then this is an excellent choice. The book is perhaps better used in the way of an encyclopedia: read up on a particular item that interests you; reading the book front to back is a bit tough as the text doesn't flow well and there's too much information to keep it all in mind.

Some great primary texts are The Life of Apollonius of Tyana and The Syrian Goddess: De Dea Syria.