space, a border marked by the pomerium. The information gleaned by the taking of
auspices was vitiated if the magistrate crossed the pomerium(see e.g. Cic. Nat.2.10 –12).
The pomeriumfunctioned similarly in other contexts, to distinguish Roman civilian
space as essentially removed from war. So, when receiving embassies, the senate met
only those from friendly and allied states within the pomerium; those whose status
was hostile or unknown were met outside (Bonnefond-Coudry 1989: 137–51).
Perhaps the most trenchant evidence comes from the correspondence between
Pliny the younger and the emperor Trajan during the former’s stint as governor of
Bithynia-Pontus. Pliny several times consulted Trajan on matters of pontifical law,
and in every case Trajan demurred, urging that pontifical law did not apply because,
in essence, provincial lands were fundamentally not Roman, and so exempt (for bet-
ter or worse) from the operations of Roman religious law. For example, when Pliny
wrote to ask Trajan whether he could safely approve the moving of the Great Mother’s
temple in Nicomedia, he expressed concern that he could not locate a lex– a statute,
a written set of regulations – for the temple. He diagnosed the problem as deriving
from the fact that “the method of consecration practiced in Nicomedia was alium
apud nos, different from that practiced among us.” Trajan responded that Pliny could
be “without fear of violating religious scruple,” as the solum peregrinae civitatis capax
non sit dedicationis, quae fit nostro iure, as the “soil of an alien city cannot receive
consecration as it is performed according to our law” (Epist.10.49f.).
In another case, Pliny wrote regarding the desire of “certain persons” to move
the remains of their relatives. “Knowing that in our city cases of this kind are cus-
tomarily brought before the college of pontifices,” Pliny thought he should consult
Trajan as pontifex maximus. Trajan responded by suggesting that “it would be a bur-
den to enjoin provincials to approach the pontificesif for just reasons they want to
move the remains of their relatives from one place into another place” (10.68 –9).
What Trajan does not explain here, but which emerges from other evidence, is that
the authority of the pontificesin particular, but that of other colleges, too, was expand-
ing in geographic extent (see e.g. ILS1792 fromad 130, which records a grant of
permission by the pontificesto transfer a corpse into Italy from without; or ILS 4037
fromad 213, which records the restoration of an altar to Circe at Circeii, south-
west of Rome, in accordance with a decree of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis).
An early piece of evidence for this concerns an attempt by the equestrian order at
Rome to dedicate a statue to Fortuna equestris, Equestrian Fortune. At first they
were unable to find a temple to that goddess in Rome. When they did find one, in
Antium, repertum est, “it was discovered that all the rites, temples and idols of the
gods in the towns of Italy were iuris atque imperii Romani, under the law and power
of Rome” (Tac. Ann.3.71.1). But there progress stopped, the provinces destined
forever to remain, as a matter of law, religiously not Roman.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me concentrate on three issues raised by the material above.
These are, first, the problem of concentrating on civic rather than private corporateExporting Roman Religion 443