CHAPTER THIRTY
Religion in the Roman East
Ted Kaizer
Religion in the eastern provinces of the Roman world was not, it seems, what one
would have called “Roman.” In the larger sites of Greece and Asia Minor the main
gods were those known since the days of Homer: Athena and Zeus in Athens, Artemis
in Ephesus, and Apollo at his oracles in Claros, Didyma, and Delphi. In the rural
areas of Anatolia, deities depicted on horseback, so-called “rider-gods,” were espe-
cially popular, including the Moon-god Men and a divine couple called Hosios kai
Dikaios(“the Pious and the Just”; Delemen 1999). Different sub-regions could be
characterized by peculiar forms of worship. In Lydia, the so-called “confession inscrip-
tions” emphasize how worshipers attempted to placate the fury of the gods follow-
ing sinful behavior (Petzl 1998; Rostad 2002). And in Phrygia, peasants’ sanctuaries
have revealed numerous small votive steles on marble, dedications of inscribed reliefs
to local gods such as Zeus Ampeleites (“of the grape vine”) and Zeus Thallos (“the
young branch”), recording the yearnings and hopes of the inhabitants of the coun-
tryside (Drew-Bear et al. 1999). The further east one goes, the more exotic the cults
become. In Rome’s real orient, the lands of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, wor-
ship often centered on deities with obscure names and attributes: Bel, Yarhibol, and
Aglibol in Palmyra, Azzanathkona in Dura-Europos, and Dusares in the Nabataean
realm (Eissfeldt 1941; R. Turcan 1996). Sacrifices were made on high places or
in indigenous sanctuaries which often followed ancient Mesopotamian plans, before
being adapted to Greek architectural models. Rites were conducted by priests with
peculiar headgear and dress. According to all outward appearances, religion in the
east looked very different from a Roman perspective. Semitic and other non-classical
languages (and their respective scripts) were used alongside Greek in the inscrip-
tions documenting the cults. And the gods and their worshipers were often depicted
in sculptures and other visual representations in hieratic fashion and with other
non-classical features such as a consistent frontality.