the monument by local benefactors. These urban innovations paralleled an archi-
tectural reconsideration of the rural sanctuaries, often more ancient, as can be seen
in the particular architecture of the Romano-Celtic temples specific to the provinces
of the northwest. This plan, frequently encountered at archaeological sites and pre-
senting a portico surrounding a cella, does not correspond to any known Celtic model
and appears, indeed, to have been created during this period (Derks 1998; Van
Andringa 2002).
The changes noted in the rites performed are similar; notwithstanding the occa-
sional local peculiarity, Roman forms of animal sacrifice gradually took over. Martin
Henig, in an evocative passage, has reconstructed the ceremony performed at a
temple in the province of Britannia (Henig 1984): a procession penetrates into the
sanctuary, bringing the animals for sacrifice, invariably the three main domestic species
(oxen, sheep, pigs); the doors of the temple are open, revealing the silhouette of
the cult statue, carved from local limestone; the Latin used in the prayer is a bit
odd and the divinity has a local epithet, but one uses the pateraand oinochoefor
the praefatio, filled with wine from Gaul or Spain. Inside the sanctuary, vows are
uttered, others fulfilled in the form of sacrifice and offerings. Such a scene is, of course,
fictional – we do not possess any description of a ceremony – but the architectural
settings, as well as the acts described, are duly attested by the archaeological docu-
mentation. Moreover, it must be noted that, as regards the very forms of the cults,
the image presented is not that far off the one given by Pliny the Younger in rela-
tion to the sanctuary of Ceres on his property (Epist.9.39).
This rearrangement of religious space took place in parallel to the transformation
of the gods themselves via the interpretatio romana. This process of naturalizing
indigenous divinities which had taken on Roman names has its origins in similarities
noted between the physiognomy or sphere of action of the gods in question. As
demonstrated by the translations of Caesar and Tacitus of certain Gallic or Germanic
divinities which they describe, the choices regarding divine similarities could be
entirely personal (Caesar, Bellum Gallicum6.17; Tac. Germania43). Nevertheless,
epigraphic records of the Treveri or the Riedones (Gallia Belgica and Lugdunensis)
demonstrate that the process in question became official once it had been used for
the city’s public cults (Scheid 1991; Van Andringa 2002). Thus, the Treveri’s ancient
tribal divinity became Lenus Mars, his cult inserted into the city’s calendar. The
attribution of a flaminate and the construction, during the first centuryad, of a
large temple 500 meters outside the city crowned the cult’s transformation.
At Rennes, inscriptions from the reign of Hadrian show that there was a temple
dedicated to Mars Mullo either in the city or just outside it (AE1969/70, 405a – c).
It seems likely that the naturalization of the ancient local divinity (his name appears
in the patronage of three out of four pagi) took place during the first centuryad,
perhaps in relation to the city’s obtaining the ius Latinum. The composite name, in
which the indigenous epithet Mullo is connected with the Roman theonym, should
not deceive us: this was no hybrid deity, half Roman and half Gallic – religious lan-
guage, on the contrary, is very precise – but Lenus Mars or Mars Mullo were muni-
cipal deities whose powers were specific to the regions in question. The process that
took place was decisive, especially once an indigenous divinity adopted a Roman name.
Religions and the Integration of Cities 87