San Casciano dei Bagni, Bagno Grande. Testa votiva maschile Z127 in corso di scavo (foto di E. Ma... more San Casciano dei Bagni, Bagno Grande. Testa votiva maschile Z127 in corso di scavo (foto di E. Mariotti, Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni); San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Area di scavo. Veduta del sito da drone (foto di M. Ledda. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni); San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Dettaglio dell'iscrizione con dedica al Numen della Fonte (Foto F. Marsili. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni). p. 1: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Dettaglio dell'infante in fasce Z132 (foto di F. Marsili, Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni). p. 2: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Area di scavo. Veduta del sito da drone (foto di M. Ledda. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni). p. 6: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Area di scavo. Veduta da Sud (foto di C. Petrini. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni). p. 11: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Testa votiva maschile in bronzo appena estratta dallo scavo (foto di J. Tabolli. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni). p. 412: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Fasi di scavo dell'US 169 (foto di J. Tabolli. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni) p. 440: San Casciano dei Bagni. Bagno Grande. Area di scavo. Veduta da ovest (foto di L. Salerno. Copyright Soprintendenza ABAP-SI e Comune di San Casciano dei Bagni).
La mémoire dans la peau Les vestigia entre identité du « je » et pratiques religieuses collective... more La mémoire dans la peau Les vestigia entre identité du « je » et pratiques religieuses collectives dans les provinces romaines d'Afrique du Nord Valentino Gasparini « The body in pieces », « Bodies in pieces », « Body parts and bodies whole », « Dismemberment and devotion », « Votive body parts », « Corps antiques : morceaux choisis », « Corps en morceaux » : voici juste quelques titres d'ouvrages consacrés au cours des dernières années au « corps fragmenté », dans le contexte des pratiques funéraires préhistoriques ou des ex-voto anatomiques gréco-romains, ainsi que dans l'histoire de l'art du xviii e siècle ou encore dans certains récits fantastiques du xix e siècle 1. Toutes ces contributions ont abordé la notion du manque d'intégrité corporelle, en s'interrogeant sur une sorte de « poétique » des fragments physiques et ses « efforts désespérés » pour la réalisation d'une unité. Dans la contribution qui suit cette brève introduction, je souhaite analyser certains aspects de cette fragmentation, de cette « désintégration corporelle », en relation avec l'expérience synesthésique-individuelle ou partagée-du divin et la possible création d'une communauté sensorielle. En particulier, je voudrais aborder le thème de la dédicace dans l'Afrique romaine des dits « pétrosomatoglyphes », à savoir des représentations supposées des parties du corps humain (ou animal) sculptées dans la pierre. Comme exemple de la façon par laquelle un acte religieux pourrait activer dans l'Antiquité une excitation en même temps sensorielle, émotionnelle, cognitive et communicative, j'ai décidé de présenter l'étude de cas de la dédicace des dites vestigia, c'est-à-dire des représentations, principalement sur pierre, d'empreintes de pieds humains nus ou sandalés, ou de pieds nus représentés vus d'en haut 2 .
Si ringrazia inoltre il Nucleo Carabinieri Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale di Firenze per le atti... more Si ringrazia inoltre il Nucleo Carabinieri Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale di Firenze per le attività di controllo durante e dopo lo scavo Percorso museale realizzato in collaborazione con il Gruppo Archeologico "Eutyche Avidena" Sommario
This god is your god, this god is my god: local identities at sacralized places in Roman Syria 35... more This god is your god, this god is my god: local identities at sacralized places in Roman Syria 351 Rubina Raja Come and dine with us: invitations to ritual dining as part of social strategies in sacred spaces in Palmyra 385 Barbara E. Borg Does religion matter? Life, death, and interaction in the Roman suburbium 405 Section 4: Switching the code: meaning-making beyond established religious frameworks Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli Introduction to Section 4 437 Christopher Degelmann Symbolic mourning: the literary appropriation of signs in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome 447 Luca Arcari P.Oxy. 1.5 and the Codex Sangermanensis as "visionary living texts": visionary habitus and processes of "textualization" and/or "scripturalization" in Late Antiquity 469 Katell Berthelot To convert or not to convert: the appropriation of Jewish rituals, customs and beliefs by non-Jews 493 Contents VII Douglas Boin Emperor Julian, an appropriated word, and a different view of 4th-century "lived religion" 517 Katharina Bracht The appropriation of the book of Jonah in 4th century Christianity by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Jerome of Stridon 531 Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli Weapons of the (Christian) weak: pedagogy of trickery in Early Christian texts 553 Biographical Notes
This paper focuses primarily on a large concentration of inscriptions (83 items in total) carved ... more This paper focuses primarily on a large concentration of inscriptions (83 items in total) carved in the Cave of Taya (Ghar Djemaa, Guelma), and, to a lesser extent, on a concentration of a further 65 inscriptions found in the Cave of Zemma (Djebel Chettabah, Constantine). Both epigraphic contexts come from 3-century CE Numidia (eastern Algeria) and are characterised by a highly standardised pattern. Each year, the local magistrates of Thibilis and Phua carved into the rock of the cave their attestations to having willingly fulfilled their vow to a god: Bacax, in the first case, and an Valentino Gasparini rd 22/01/24, 20:09 Urban Magistrates, Country Sacralised Spaces, and the Wild. The Case of the Gods Bacax and GD in the Caves of Ancient Numidia Pagina 2 di 41
Recent research has significantly improved our knowledge about the foundation of the Roman city o... more Recent research has significantly improved our knowledge about the foundation of the Roman city of Barcino (Barcelona, Spain). However, while these studies have collected some encouraging evidence for a late-Republican chronology, the Augustan chronology traditionally granted to this foundation (around B.C. 10) has not been questioned at all. This article aims to analyse old and new literary, epigraphic, topographic, architectural, and archaeological data, to recover the Caesarean chronology (around B.C. 45-44), which was previously defended from the middle of the 19th century through to the end of the 1970s, and to draw from this study some more general historical conclusions on the process of the romanization of Catalonia.
* This text was initially presented at the university of erfurt in the form of an oral defense of... more * This text was initially presented at the university of erfurt in the form of an oral defense of my Habilitation as Professor of Religious Sciences (January 9, 2019). its final written form has been significantly improved by the linguistic editing of Paul Scade and by the thorough comments of Arys' anonymous peer reviewers.
This article analyzes three different case studies related to the Graeco-Roman cult of Anubis, lo... more This article analyzes three different case studies related to the Graeco-Roman cult of Anubis, located in different historical periods (Early, Middle, and Late Roman Empire) and approached by the study of different types of material (namely literary, epigraphic/archaeological, and iconographic sources). The goal of this study is to explore the social dimension of religious practice, stressing its variety, creativity, multiplicity, fluidity, and flexibility of identities, changes in forms of individuality, and spaces for individual distinction. By means of a detailed inquiry of Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Mische's schema of "disaggregation" of agency into three component elements (iteration, projectivity, and presentification), this analysis will stress the historical variability of religious agency and will show how, across time, emerging situations forced religious actors to select among alternative possibilities of action by recovering patterns belonging to past routines and creating new future options that responded to present hopes and fears. The results of this investigation will then be conceptualized according to the methodological framework of the Lived Ancient Religion paradigm.
For the past five years (2012–2017), the Max Weber Center of Erfurt University has hosted a proje... more For the past five years (2012–2017), the Max Weber Center of Erfurt University has hosted a project on ‘Lived Ancient Religion: Questioning “cults” and “polis religion”’, financed by the European Research Council and embedded in the research group on ‘Religious individualisation in historical perspective’ (see Fuchs and Rüpke. [2015. “Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective.” Religion 45 (3): 323–329. doi:10.1080/0048721X.2015.1041795]). It was designed to supplement existing accounts of the religious history of the Mediterranean area at the time of the long Roman Empire, accounts traditionally centred upon public or civic institutions. The new model focuses on the interaction of individuals with a variety of religious specialists and traditions, taking the form of material culture, spaces and text. It emphasises religious experience, embodiment and ‘culture in interaction’. On the basis of research into the history of religion of the Roman Empire, this co-authored article sets out to offer new tools for research into religion by formulating three major perspectives, namely religious agency, instantiated religion and narrated religion. We have tried to illustrate their potential value by means of 13 short case studies deriving from different geographical areas of the central and eastern Mediterranean area, and almost all relating to the period 150 BCE to 300 CE. These short descriptions are summarising research pursued by the members of the team of authors, published or to be published in extended form elsewhere, as indicated by the references.
The focus of the article concentrates on the temple standing along the north side of the Civil Fo... more The focus of the article concentrates on the temple standing along the north side of the Civil Forum of Pompeii, of which are first summarized the history of the excavations and the different interpretations of its function and of the god the monument was dedicated to. The different architectural phases of the building are then described and commented
on the basis of a cross-analysis of the available archaeological data: topographical, architectural, stratigraphic, stylistic, epigraphic, numismatic, metrological and archaeometric.
It is therefore suggested the possibility of a transfer of the cult of Jupiter from the seat at the Casa della Colonna Etrusca to the most prestigious position in the Civil Forum during
the first quarter of the 2nd century bce, with important consequences related to the backdating of the new orientation that from that moment dictated the syntax of the forum’s
architectural fabric and in stark contrast to the recent trend to postpone the chronology of the forum at the Sullan time. Similarly, it is also proposed the backdating of the second
phase of the life of the sanctuary, when (probably during the last quarter of the second century bce), the temple of Jupiter was converted into a Capitolium. This second proposal
creates equally important historical consequences, since such changes would represent the only recorded case of the Republican era in which a city that still did not possess the
status of municipium or coloniawelcomes in its main square the most representative of the cults of Rome, parallel with the introduction of other typical Roman buildings such as
the Basilica and the temple of Isis. Finally, they are described the much less relevant changes linked with the third (Sullan) stage of the temple and the architectural consequences
that the deduction of the colony involved, to finally conclude with the minor Julio-claudian and post-seismic interventions. Finally the consistency of the presence of the worship of Jupiter is investigated, in the private and district contexts (domus, villae, shops, roads) of Pompeii.
Sono atteso a Porta Nocera […]. Scendo per la nuova rampa del terrapieno nel profondo fossato fra... more Sono atteso a Porta Nocera […]. Scendo per la nuova rampa del terrapieno nel profondo fossato fra le mura e le tombe, e mi par quasi un sogno di aver potuto togliere l'immane coltre di terra che nascondeva le mura, sormontava le torri e seppelliva il fornice della porta e quella lunga fila di mausolei allineati a perdita d'occhio. Le mura che, appena un anno fa, con quei pochi filari di blocchi sembravano così umili e basse da non capire che cosa avrebbero potuto difendere, oggi, al di sopra del ciglio del banco di lava scalzato fino alla base e tagliato anch'esso come un muro di fortezza, sovrastano e sfidano qualsiasi minaccia […]. Spuntano dietro le tombe i primi cipressi e i primi oleandri e, fra qualche anno, questo vallone disseccato come il letto d'un torrente, dove gli autocarri affondano nel sabbione polveroso, sarà una valletta ombrosa dove si potrà riposare dalla calura delle vie della città dissepolta. A. Maiuri, Le vittime di Porta Nocera, settembre 1956.1 valentino gasparini · josé uroz sáez di Stabia; ben poco della Porta Marina".1 Sin embargo, la ubicación de Porta Nocera se siguió conociendo gracias a las muchas plantas que se publicaron durante el siglo xix.2 Giuseppe Fiorelli fue el primero en sugerir la existencia de un viario de conexión entre la supuesta "Porta Capua" y Porta Nocera [ .b] y utilizó este eje como línea de demarcación (en el sistema de división territorial de Pompeya que él mismo diseñó) entre las seis regiones orientales de la ciudad (v, ix y i al oeste, iv, ii y iii al este). Paradójicamente, fueron precisamente estas dos puertas las únicas que quedaron excluidas de las investigaciones arqueológicas del ilustre pompeyanista.3
CRONOLOGIA ED ARCHITETTURA DELL'ISEO DI POMPEI: UNA PROPOSTA DI SCHEMA VERIFICABILE V G l'introdu... more CRONOLOGIA ED ARCHITETTURA DELL'ISEO DI POMPEI: UNA PROPOSTA DI SCHEMA VERIFICABILE V G l'introduzione in Italia dei cosiddetti 'culti egizi' o 'isiaci' risalga ad epoca repubblicana è un dato di fatto. Pur nel silenzio delle fonti letterarie antiche, basta a dimostrarlo incontrovertibilmente la cosiddetta lex parieti faciendo (nota n dall'anno ), la quale documenta a Pozzuoli la presenza di un tempio dedicato a Serapide già nel a.C. Tuttavia, nel corso degli ultimi anni, la critica si è dimostrata spesso reticente nei confronti di questa posizione, non aderendovi unanimemente e talvolta rigettando l'ipotesi dell'esistenza di santuari isiaci pubblici in Italia prima dell'età augustea. Ciò -ma solo in parte -può essere stato vero a Roma: nella capitale, infatti, il riconoscimento u ciale dei culti egizi andò incontro a dure e ripetute resistenze politiche (manovrate da una parte della classe senatoria ai danni dei populares) che, come sappiamo da Cassio Dione, vennero superate solo nel a.C. con l'edi cazione di un Iseo nel Campo Marzio. Arnobio poté così commentare: «Vos Aegyptiaca numina, quibus Serapis atque Isis est nomen, non post Pisonem et Gabinium consules [ a.C.] in numerum vestrorum rettulistis deorum?».
Reams and reams have been written by scholars about the demonological and henotheistic features o... more Reams and reams have been written by scholars about the demonological and henotheistic features of the Isiac cult. The role played by Isis in Apuleius' Metamorphoses as supreme and primigenial Goddess and, at the same time, as demon has been recently interpreted by N. Méthy as an effort to create a "mythical image," a literary character who personifies the myth joining philosophical and religious demands. R. Turcan prefers to interpret this feature of Apuleius' and Plutarch's work as a result of a substantial philosophical change within Middle Platonism: they renounced demonology to the advantage of "Isis' feminine henotheism," an answer of a certain paganism to the theological crisis typical of the second century a.d., an "Age of Anxiety." But, as shown by G. Sfameni Gasparro, Isis' henotheistic role is not a product of the imperial theological crisis, but has its roots in the Hellenistic epoch (see aretalogistic literature). An inscription of Thessalonica gives us the pretext for bringing up this issue once more and investigating how the Egyptian religion (and in particular its demonological and henotheistic connotations) had to be imbued with Hellenistic Greek philosophy, and how Plutarch's and Apuleius' propagandistic choice of Isis and Osiris as personifications of a religious and philosophical Supreme Being was first of all an attempt at reconcilement among different cultural and philosophical systems.
MEDITERRANEA quaderni annuali dell'istituto di studi sulle civiltà italiche e del mediterraneo an... more MEDITERRANEA quaderni annuali dell'istituto di studi sulle civiltà italiche e del mediterraneo antico del consiglio nazionale delle ricerche già «quaderni di archeologia etrusco-italica» iv · 20 07 p i s a · r o m a fabrizio serra editore mmviii iv · 20 07 MEDITERRANEA issn 1827-0506 RELIGIONI IN CONTATTO NEL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO a cura di corinne bonnet · sergio ribichini dirk steuernagel MEDITERRANEA Rivista annuale diretta da Prezzo del fascicolo singolo € 1.155,00 I pagamenti possono essere eff ettuati tramite versamento su c.c.p. n. 17154550 o tramite carta di credito (American Express, Visa, Eurocard, Mastercard)
Πλατώνειά τε καὶ Σωκράτεια. identidad y comunión en el seno de las comunidades platónicas del hel... more Πλατώνειά τε καὶ Σωκράτεια. identidad y comunión en el seno de las comunidades platónicas del helenismo tardío Marco Alviz Fernández
This god is your god, this god is my god: local identities at sacralized places in Roman Syria 35... more This god is your god, this god is my god: local identities at sacralized places in Roman Syria 351 Rubina Raja Come and dine with us: invitations to ritual dining as part of social strategies in sacred spaces in Palmyra 385 Barbara E. Borg Does religion matter? Life, death, and interaction in the Roman suburbium 405 Section 4: Switching the code: meaning-making beyond established religious frameworks Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli Introduction to Section 4 437 Christopher Degelmann Symbolic mourning: the literary appropriation of signs in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome 447 Luca Arcari P.Oxy. 1.5 and the Codex Sangermanensis as "visionary living texts": visionary habitus and processes of "textualization" and/or "scripturalization" in Late Antiquity 469 Katell Berthelot To convert or not to convert: the appropriation of Jewish rituals, customs and beliefs by non-Jews 493 Contents VII Douglas Boin Emperor Julian, an appropriated word, and a different view of 4th-century "lived religion" 517 Katharina Bracht The appropriation of the book of Jonah in 4th century Christianity by Theodore of Mopsuestia and Jerome of Stridon 531 Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli Weapons of the (Christian) weak: pedagogy of trickery in Early Christian texts 553 Biographical Notes 581 Index 587 VIII Contents Valentino Gasparini
It is a given that finding a satisfying balance between research and popularization poses a signi... more It is a given that finding a satisfying balance between research and popularization poses a significant challenge due to the intrinsic di"erences between the two endeavors. Academic research is characterized by its systematic approach, aimed at generating new knowledge or, at least, validating existing theories. Researchers on ancient history analyze primary sources of significantly di"erent nature, requiring di"erent specialized approaches (ranging from epigraphy to numismatics, philology to archaeology, etc.), delve into specifics, explore and problematize nuances, and address their peers with methodological rigor and technical language. In contrast, popularization aims to make scientific knowledge intriguing and engaging to the general public. In addition to "make History", popularization requires the ability to "tell a story", which often necessitates simplifying concepts, omitting technical details, and focusing on the broader implications or more sensational aspects of the study. Scholars
Rivista di Storia delle Religioni 14 | 2020 Varia Laurent Bricault-Corinne Bonnet-Carole Gomez (e... more Rivista di Storia delle Religioni 14 | 2020 Varia Laurent Bricault-Corinne Bonnet-Carole Gomez (eds.), Les mille et une vies d'Isis. La réception des divinités du cercle isiaque de la fin de l'Antiquité à nos jours
Peer-review. Articoli e note inviati per la pubblicazione alla rivista sono sottoposti -nella for... more Peer-review. Articoli e note inviati per la pubblicazione alla rivista sono sottoposti -nella forma del doppio anonimato -a peer-review di due esperti, di cui uno almeno esterno al Comitato Scientifico o alla Direzione. Nel secondo fascicolo delle annate pari è pubblicato l'elenco dei revisori.
Cultic praxis is a very efficacious instrument of coagulation and definition of social groups and... more Cultic praxis is a very efficacious instrument of coagulation and definition of social groups and "collective identities". This is especially true for the Imperial epoch, when the Roman civitas-religion was organized b y and received financial support basically from the elites, and, consequently, the synergy of political authority and senatorial religion revealed a peculiar dynamic capacity in representing the power and shaping the social order.
515 120 Altare sacro a Iside Da Roma (1719), Santa Maria sopra Minerva (regio IX) Marmo greco Alt... more 515 120 Altare sacro a Iside Da Roma (1719), Santa Maria sopra Minerva (regio IX) Marmo greco Alt. cm 87, largh. cm 52 Roma, Musei Capitolini, inv. 1526 Età adrianea
515 120 Altare sacro a Iside Da Roma (1719), Santa Maria sopra Minerva (regio IX) Marmo greco Alt... more 515 120 Altare sacro a Iside Da Roma (1719), Santa Maria sopra Minerva (regio IX) Marmo greco Alt. cm 87, largh. cm 52 Roma, Musei Capitolini, inv. 1526 Età adrianea
T ito Flavio Vespasiano nacque sul far della sera del 17 Novembre dell'anno 9 d.C. Svetonio, che ... more T ito Flavio Vespasiano nacque sul far della sera del 17 Novembre dell'anno 9 d.C. Svetonio, che ci tramanda la notizia, aggiunge che il futuro imperatore [FIG. 02] venne alla luce a Falacrinae, un modesto villaggio (vicus modicus) dell'alta Sabina, non lontano dall'antica Rieti. La posizione del borgo è meglio conosciuta grazie a due itinerari antichi (l'Itinerarium Antonini e la Tabula Peutingeriana) [FIG. 03] che lo collocano lungo la via Salaria, all'altezza del 78° miglio da Roma, nei pressi dunque della vallata dell'attuale comune di Cittareale. Questo era tutto quanto sino ad ora era noto di Falacrinae. Ma, a partire dal 2005, una serie di campagne archeologiche, tuttora in corso, condotte dalla British School at Rome e dall'Università degli Studi di Perugia in collaborazione con la Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio, ha notevolmente arricchito queste scarne notizie. L'esposizione, inaugurata il 18 Luglio 2009 nel neonato Museo Comunale di Cittareale e nel vicino Auditorium di Santa Maria, si propone di celebrare il genetliaco dell'imperatore, 2000 anni dopo la sua nascita, presentando i primi risultati di queste indagini raccolti in un apposito catalogo a corredo della mostra, di cui si offre ora una breve anticipazione.Vari convegni e visite agli scavi saranno poi organizzati nel prossimo futuro.
The conference challenges and advances ongoing discussions by specifically focusing on the materi... more The conference challenges and advances ongoing discussions by specifically focusing on the material aspects of religious and cultural developments across the Mediterranean basin during the Imperial period. Against the focus on gods, religious symbols, and religious tenets that are seen as competing for new adherents or as instruments for intra-and inter-group competition, the conference will focus instead on the role of objects and object-related practices in the formation of groups as well as a hindrance to or blurring of boundaries implicit in group formation. In the context of urbanization, we will look at processes of change. Urban conditions of life, division of labor and, above all, urbanity accelerate the production of objects that stimulates the formation of groups while also thriving beyond urban space.
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on the basis of a cross-analysis of the available archaeological data: topographical, architectural, stratigraphic, stylistic, epigraphic, numismatic, metrological and archaeometric.
It is therefore suggested the possibility of a transfer of the cult of Jupiter from the seat at the Casa della Colonna Etrusca to the most prestigious position in the Civil Forum during
the first quarter of the 2nd century bce, with important consequences related to the backdating of the new orientation that from that moment dictated the syntax of the forum’s
architectural fabric and in stark contrast to the recent trend to postpone the chronology of the forum at the Sullan time. Similarly, it is also proposed the backdating of the second
phase of the life of the sanctuary, when (probably during the last quarter of the second century bce), the temple of Jupiter was converted into a Capitolium. This second proposal
creates equally important historical consequences, since such changes would represent the only recorded case of the Republican era in which a city that still did not possess the
status of municipium or coloniawelcomes in its main square the most representative of the cults of Rome, parallel with the introduction of other typical Roman buildings such as
the Basilica and the temple of Isis. Finally, they are described the much less relevant changes linked with the third (Sullan) stage of the temple and the architectural consequences
that the deduction of the colony involved, to finally conclude with the minor Julio-claudian and post-seismic interventions. Finally the consistency of the presence of the worship of Jupiter is investigated, in the private and district contexts (domus, villae, shops, roads) of Pompeii.