of Isis, seems to echo that of these gods in numerous other imperial provinces. It
must also not be forgotten that, in Egypt as elsewhere, religious life was pervaded
by feasts organized in honor of the emperor. In one example, from Apollinopolis
Heptakomia, the accession of Hadrian to the imperial throne resulted in sacrifices
and processions coupled with a play, of which part of the text survives (Papyrus Gissensis
3). In it, Phoebus announced to the demosof Apollinopolis the new sovereign’s acces-
sion to the empire!
One must admit that, in the western provinces, religious integration took other
forms. In Asia Minor, Greece, or the Greek cities of Egypt, the gods already wore
togas and were conversant with civic life; in the west, the gods changed and adapted
in response to the changes imposed by the spread of the civic system (Van Andringa
2002). There were exceptions: in Italy or in provinces long since conquered, such
as Baetica, where people had been Roman for some time, the cults, despite a vari-
ety which reflected the history of each community, were all Roman. Consider what
we find as revealed by the chance discovery of inscriptions of various periods:
Hercules, Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, and Pietas Augusta at Tucci; Diana, Venus,
Libertas Augusta, Mars Augustus, and the Lares Augustorum at Singili Barba; Apollo
and Aesculapius Augustus – the two healing deities – in the company of Fons divina
and the Genius municipiat Nescania; Iuppiter Optimus Maximus and Victoria Augusta
at Cortijo del Tajo; Bonus Eventus, Mars, and Pietas at Astigi. The impression given
is no different in one of the cities of the Levant, again in Hispania: Aesculapius
Augustus, Isis Pelagia, Mars Augustus, Mercurius Augustus, the Lares Augusti, and
Diana Maxima, the patron goddess of the city mentioned by Pliny (Nat.16.216),
rule over Saguntum. The contrast with other regions of Hispania only recently
conquered and pacified is striking, as in the case of the northwest, integrated into
the empire under Augustus, which had pantheons composed mainly of indigenous
gods (Tranoy 1981): at Lugo, it is true that inscriptions of the second and third
centuries mention Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, but most of the texts refer to Lahus
Paraliomegus, Poemana, Rea, Rego, and Veroca (or Verora) in the city and, in the
country, to Bandua Boleccus, Cohvetena, or rather peculiar Lares, because these,
unlike those in Rome, guarded not the crossroads (Lares Compitales), but roads (Lares
Viales).
These colorful pantheons are the result of communal processes triggered by the
organization of the indigenous peoples into cities. In several regions, from north
Africa to Britannia and the frontier regions along the Rhine–Danube axis, municip-
alization was the catalyst for the progressive recomposing of the religious systems
already in place. With the autonomy of the cities defined and framed by Rome, it
is easy to understand that the changes in question, encouraged by the cities them-
selves, hinged on the religious expressions of Roman power, the inevitable point of
reference. Integration was inseparable from control of the provinces, as noted by
Price.
In fact, from the first century on, the town centers of the new civitatesdeveloped
around tripartite forums which included a temple dedicated to Augustus or the
imperial family, very frequently with a time-lag between the planning of the urban
network, which set aside a location for the forum, and the actual construction of
86 William Van Andringa