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Religions of Rome: Volume 2: A Sourcebook

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Religions of Rome, volumes I &II by Doctors Beard, North and Price is an invaluable work that is a necessity for any student of Classical Civilization, as the Oxford Classical Dictionary and H.H. Scullard's Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. Throughout my years of study in the university, I have come to rely upon the work as a base for any research that I would embark upon. In this vein, I have to state that the exhaustive Chicago footnotes and bibliography are of extreme help when one needs to seek further primary and secondary source materials. In terms of the book's writing, I declaim with confidence that this is one of the few works to be written by committee and is better off for its. The text reviews subject matter in detail while remaining concise with subject matter placed into collection via topic related to epoch. Again, this work is the basis of any Classicist library and shall serve one diligently thought out one's life.

This book (volume 2 of a 2 volume work) is an excellent selection of passages writen by Romans and their contemporaries about Romans and their religions. Each translation is preceded by a short description of the context of the passage, and references. Included are paragraphs from books, quotes from lost works, inscriptions from monuments, publicly posted legal announements, and grafitti.

It was a breath of fresh air for me, since the contemporary source material in this subject is so sparse that most books on ancient religion are a doubtful parade of their authors' opinions. And although the passages from ancient writers are laden with their opinions, with the help of the editors of 'Religions of Rome, vol II' it's obvious and once exposed, revealing.

"Religions of Rome, Volume 2: A Sourcebook" is the companion volume to "Volume 1: A History", also written by Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price. This volume contains translations of many source documents referenced in Volume 1, though it does not attempt to include every piece of evidence for the history of Roman religion by any means. Most of the material is from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD, as literature and archeological evidence related to religion are most abundant from that period. The authors have chosen to focus primarily on Rome and Italy. In choosing which sources to include, their "guiding principle has been to use the texts we cite argumentatively, and to show that Roman religion was not a static body of doctrine, but a subject of debate, negotiation, definition and re-definition."

In contrast to Volume 1, this Sourcebook is organized thematically, not chronologically. This allows readers to compare religious ideas and practice over time on the same theme. Each of 13 chapters addresses a different topic: Earliest Rome, The deities of Rome, The calendar, Religious places, Festivals and ceremonies, Sacrifices, Divination and diviners, Priests and priestesses, Individuals and gods. Rome outside Rome, Threats to the Roman order, Religious groups, and Perspectives. Each chapter is divided into sub-sections, each with its own introduction and recommendations for further reading. The source materials are displayed in larger font with explanatory introductions and their own footnotes, so there is a lot more information than just the source material itself.

Most sources are literary, but there are also a fair number of inscriptions, paintings, sculpture, coins, bronze items and buildings cited. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of illustrations. My one frustration with this book is that some literary sources are not dated, neither for the period they refer to nor the date they were written, and it was puzzling to me that some were dated and some not. Perhaps readers are expected to be able to place the Roman and Greek authors in time as if it were second nature. At the end of the book, there is a glossary, list of deities and their epithets, bibliography, index of texts cited, and a general index. This Sourcebook is generally a well-conceived volume and, in conjunction with Volume 1, an excellent overview or starting point for serious study of Roman religion.