CHAPTER FIVE
Urban Religion in the Middle
and Late Republic
Eric Orlin
Religion and the Res Publica
Roman religion in the middle and late republic, a period stretching from the begin-
ning of the Punic Wars in the early third century to the death of Julius Caesar and
the ascension of the first emperor Augustus in the late first century bce, concerned
itself with the city of Rome. This statement may seem to be a truism, but it actu-
ally expresses the two fundamental features of Roman religion: that the Roman reli-
gious system concerned itself primarily with the health of the Roman community,
and that it was a religion of place. The primary purpose of the public religious sys-
tem was to protect and enhance the community of the Romans; the modern notion
of a separation of church and state would have been unthinkable to the Romans.
The welfare of the city and its inhabitants was ensured by a series of rituals by which
the Romans attempted to secure the goodwill of the gods, and the primary role
of the religious authorities in Rome was to ensure that these rituals were performed
in the proper way, at their proper time, and in their proper place. The second point
follows from the first: Roman rituals were performed in specific places around the
city of Rome in order to protect the city. Some of these places had been considered
sacred from time immemorial, while others had gained their status over the years,
but each location had its specific ritual that needed to be performed on that spot,
and at a specified time of the year. Religion permeated almost every element of both
space and time for the inhabitants of Rome, leading the Romans to believe them-
selves the most religious of all people and to ascribe their military success to their
superior cultivation of the gods (Cic. Har. resp.19).
To ensure the favor of the gods, the Romans relied on the correct performance
of ritual (orthopraxis). Questions of belief or morality were not central to the reli-
gious system, though this statement should not be misinterpreted as meaning that