Tanta religio et ea magna ex parte externa(25.1.6-12). Foreign Cults and Religious Crisis in 213 BC

Abstract

Thereligio externacrisis examined in the article belongs to Rome’s religious framework and presents the relationship between the national interest and new unofficial trends. The facts refer to the end of 213, that is, to a still critical phase of the Second Punic War. New rites of an external origin unleash a political case when they leave the private dimension and express themselves in public. Themagistrati minoresare overwhelmed by the crowd of newcomers; the intervention of thepraetor urbanusis needed, who orders the confiscation of the new religious materials. Among these emerge two texts in verse (theCarmina Marciana), containing the post quem prophecy of the defeat of Canne and the prescription of theludi Apollinares, as a religious and political remedy to the present crisis. Order and national harmony are re-established, without repression and with partial attention paid to new religious and social demands.