Understanding Elites’ Religious Behaviors in the Middle Roman Republic

Abstract

This chapter discusses some theoretical positions and methodologies in order to elucidate the religious behaviors of republican elites in the Middle Roman Republic. Using the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance, it considers what the elites were doing in creating, practicing, and maintaining the state religion. To better understand the Roman ruling elite's religious behaviors, the chapter examines the military juncture during the First Roman–Syrian War, and particularly the action of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus at a critical moment in the campaign against Antiochus III. It also looks at the tradition of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus' supposed evocatio of “Juno Caelestis” before the fall of Carthage before concluding with an analysis of accumulative civic polytheism and the idea of a dominant-cultural paradigm, arguing that both Roman elites and nonelites were held together only sporadically and tenuously as far as religious culture went.