The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium
Sacrifice and the Materiality of Roman Religion

This book reorients the study of sacrifice, examining the locus of ritual action - the altars of Republican Rome and Latium.

Claudia Moser (Author)

9781108451130, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 May 2023

225 pages
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.2 cm, 0.431 kg

In this book, Claudia Moser offers a new understanding of Roman religion in the Republican era through an exploration of sacrifice, its principal ritual. Examining the long-term imprint of sacrificial practices on the material world, she focuses on monumental altars as the site for the act of sacrifice. Piecing together the fragments of the complex kaleidoscope of Roman religious practices, she shows how they fit together in ways that shed new light on the characteristic diversity of Roman religion. This study reorients the study of sacrificial practice in three principal ways: first, by establishing the primacy of sacred architecture, rather than individual action, in determining religious authority; second, by viewing religious activities as haptic, structured experiences in the material world rather than as expressions of doctrinal, belief-based mentalities; and third, by considering Roman sacrifice as a local, site-specific ritual rather than as a single, monolithic practice.

1. The organization and boundaries of sacred places
2. The economy of ritual: the site-specificity of votive offerings
3. The seasonality of ritual: animal sacrifice
4. Material memory.

Subject Areas: Worship, rites & ceremonies [HRLF], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of architecture [AMX]