and Severans. It is in the very specific context of municipalization that the cult of
Iuppiter Optimus Maximus spread through the western world. As god of public oaths,
he was the appropriate guarantor of the cities that had become local republics.
At Chaves (Aqua Flavia) in Hispania Citerior, he was even known as Jupiter of
the Municipium (Iuppiter municipalis, AE1992, 992). This civic Jupiter provided
also the ideal means for any one community that wanted to express its political
rapprochement with Rome.
It is in this same context of political rapprochement with Rome that the so-called
“oriental” cults established themselves, as these were the Roman forms of the cults.
The spread of the cult of Magna Mater throughout the west fromad 160 onward
testifies to this phenomenon. Yet the instigation for this came rather from Rome,
which instituted the rite of the tauroboliumfor the security of the empire. The tau-
roboliumof Lyon, dated December 9, 160, actually commemorates the investiture
of a local priest by the quindecemviral college of Rome (CIL13.1751). Therefore,
this was no response to the attraction of a new, “oriental” cult, but a partaking in
a common interest, that of the safeguarding of the empire, through the installation
of a cult defined in Rome itself. The growing success of the cult of Mithras at this
time had nothing to do with any public impulse in Rome or the cities, but rather
fell within the framework of a broadening of religious options typical of polytheism.
The installation of a mithraeumin the enclosure of the Altbachtal sanctuary at Trier
or in the shade of the enclosure wall of the great temple of the vicus of Nuits-Saint-
Georges also demonstrates this. In both cases, the cult openly implanted itself in the
religious district of the civic group, city or vicus, without entering into competition
with the traditional religion, which continued to be largely dominated by the great
communal cults.
This was not only a question of collective behavior, as individuals could also pro-
mote these deities. A man from the provinces, once he gained Roman citizenship,
embraced a new homeland – Rome – and was expected, in principle, to respect its
gods. Inad 137 in Salona (Dalmatia), Iuppiter Optimus Maximus was invoked in
the public square to ensure the safety of the magistrates, the members of the muni-
cipal council, the citizens of the colony, and also women and children (CIL3.1933).
Among the Consoranni of the province of Aquitaine, Valerius Iustus consecrated
two altars in two different locations, one to Iuppiter Capitolinus, the other to Fortuna
Augusta. Obviously, religious language founded on the cults of Jupiter and the emperor
was enough to forge a common identity, even if the local dimension, again and neces-
sarily, was not forgotten. In the same region, among the neighboring Convenae, a
great landowner worshiped the topical gods installed on his land in a sanctuary in
which Iuppiter Optimus Maximus was present: L. Pompeius Paulinianus thus made
a gift of an altar to Idiatte in the sanctuary of Saint-Pé-d’Ardet for the health of his
family, while another member of that family – unless the same person is concerned
- consecrated a monument to Artahe, the local goddess (CIL13.65, 70). Being a
citizen did not mean renouncing the ancestral gods; on the contrary, piety
demanded that cults be perpetuated. Thus, we see the man from Bordeaux who went
to consult the Sybil of Tibur, who, though far from his homeland, had no other
gods but his local goddess, Onuava (CIL13.581):
90 William Van Andringa