those in the mountain sanctuaries of the Convenae. At Thibilis in Africa in the third
century, every year the magistrates of the city made the 17-kilometer voyage to the
cave of the god Bacax in order to leave a dedication on the wall. The numerous
gods installed in the sanctuaries of the mountain Rosia Montana in Dacia near
Alburnus Maior dealt in the same way with the daily worries of the people who
lived in this mining district. From the numerous lead tablets found in the temples
of the province of Britannia, we learn that the main concern was the theft of per-
sonal property – a tunic, a purse, etc. However, limiting the religious phenomenon
to this type of activity would obscure the second essential function of religion in the
Roman world.
The gods, owing to their patronage of all types of things, places, activities, or human
groups, played an essential role in the communal definition of societies and power
relations as established within the city and between cities. That is already the gist of
the speech by Dio of Prusa quoted above, given near the end of the first century
ad for the gods of Nicaea. Essentially, it was just as important to ensure one’s own
preservation, or that of one’s household, through repeated vows to the local gods
as it was to participate in ceremonies or sacrifices whose goal was to preserve civic
concord. One understands, then, how the ever-increasing integration of provincial
communities in the empire came to be translated into an active participation in cults
that established a link with the imperial power. The accounts of the Capitolium of
Arsinoe for the period of January to June 215 reveal that the ceremonies celebrated
focused primarily on imperial birthdays and victories. Of course, one knows that,
from the beginning of the imperial era, attachment to the empire was symbolized
in the provinces by the consecration of altars to Rome and Augustus as well as
celebration of annual vows for the emperor (Tac. Agricola21; Pliny Epist.10.35– 6,
101–2). However, after the passing of a few generations, the meaning of these cults
had evolved in step with the Romanization of the people and institutions. In the
second century and well into the third century, the increasing number of altars erected
for the health of the emperor demonstrates that the annual official ritual of January
3, during which vows were made for the health of the emperor, was extended through
frequent and standardized acts of piety that involved the greater part of the popu-
lation. A profound conviction that the destiny of the empire, which linked Rome
with the provincial cities and depended on the ability of the emperor to take on his
enormous task, took its place beside official acts of piety. Was the emperor not known
as savior of the world, the sôter tou kosmou, in the cities of the eastern empire and
as the conservator orbisin the west?
The future and preservation of the city depended directly on the peace that the
sovereign imposed on the earth – this is what the numerous dedications and
sacrifices made to the gods for the health of the emperor indicate. At Heliopolis in
the province of Syria, Moralee counted 13 dedications to Jupiter Heliopolitanus for
the health of the emperor from the time of Hadrian to that of Gordian III (Moralee
2004). Each time, individuals acting on their own behalf signed the documents, such
as the plumber (plumbarius) who had a group of statues erected for the health of
the emperor that included Sol, Luna, and Victoria, Sol and Luna revealing the extent
Religions and the Integration of Cities 93