1 Earliest Rome

1 0 . R O M E O U T S I D E R O M E
10.3 Republican reiations with foreign powers
The Romans did not systematically destroy the native religious traditions oi
their empire nor impose their own religion on those they had conquered.
Nevertheless, Roman conquest did regularly bring religious changes in its
wake: the establishment of particular cults ofloyalry to Rome in the conquered
territories and the 'Romanization" of various local traditions. Religion was one
of the means through which Rome regulated its relations with its foreign subjects
and displayed its power.
See further; Vol. I, 145-7, 158-60, ch. 7passim.
10.3a Roma the Goddess (Miletus, c. 130B.c.)
From the very early days of Roman rule in the East, Rome herself became a
goddess (Dea Roma - in Greek, Thea Rome) widely worshipped in Greek
cities. This Greek document from Miletus, on the west coast of Asia Minor,
mentions many institutions of the goddess' cult; it is our fullest source of information
about sacrifices to Dea Roma, describing month by month the duties
ot her priest. It is possible that the document records the decree that first established
the cult - or a subsequent reform to the calendar of sacrifices.
The inscription now consists of two fragments (A and B), with some text
missing in the gap; no doubt the calendar continued after the end of the surviving
text.
See further: Vol. 1, 158-60, 257-8; on the cult in general, Mellor (1975);
(1981); Fayer (1976); Price (1984) 40-7*; on this particular document,
Mellor (1975) 53-4, 135; Fayer (1976) 47-9; on rhe calendar of Miletus,
Samuel (1972) 114-15.
Sokolowski, Lois sacrées d'Asie Mineure no. 49
(A) With good fortune. The man who buys the priesthood of the Roman People and of
Roma 1
shall immediately give to the treasurers and kings 2
his nomination to the
priesthood of a man at least twenty years old. The man nominated, or another he may
offer as his substitute, shall serve for three years and eight months, beginning from the
month Metageirnton , during the term of office as
stephanephoros of Cratmos, 3
after being consecrated to Zeus Telesiourgos . He shall receive from the treasurer sixty drachmae each year, on the
first day of the month ofTaureon , and shall sacrifice a fully grown
victim on the first day of the month ofTaureon to the Roman people and to Roma. On
the eleventh day of the same month, there shall be another sacrifice of a fully grown
victim by the gymnasiarchs taking up office and by the ephebes; and yet another by the
gymnasiarchs laying down office, together with rhe ephebes who have completed their
training; 4
each group shall provide the priest with the
perquisites' as laid down.
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