audiobook Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Culture and Society after Socialism) by Francine Hirsch in History

Description

When St. Paul and St. Peter reached Rome they encountered a state-sponsored religion that had been established for centuries. Amid the shrines and temples of Rome; the Romans sought to preserve and strengthen a religion especially suited to the ambitious city. But Roman religion had also proved permeable to many influences; from Greece; Egypt; Persia; and other parts of Italy. What then was truly Roman; and what had Romans done with their borrowings to stamp them with Roman character? By exhaustive study of texts; inscriptions; and archaeology of Roman sacred places; Dumezil traces the formation of archaic Roman religion from Indo-European sources through the development of the rites and beliefs of the Roman republic. He describes a religion that was not only influenced by the other religions with which it came into contact; but influenced them as well; in mutual efforts to distinguish one nation from another. Even so; certain continuities were sustained in order to achieve a religion that crossed generations and ways of life. The worship of certain gods became the special concerns of certain parts of society; all of which needed attention to assure Rome's success in war; civil administration; and the production of food and goods.