Publisher's Synopsis
The conditions of our knowledge of the indigenous religion of ancient Rome can perhaps be best illustrated by a parallel with Roman archaeology. The visitor to the present-day Roman Forum, if he wishes to reconstruct the Forum of the Early Republic in his imagination, must not simply think of many layers of later buildings, but, we are told, must imagine a different orientation from the whole: the top layer of remains, which he sees in front of him, is in most cases not only unnecessary but misleading. Likewise, if we want to get a picture of true Roman religion, we cannot immediately find it in classical literature; we must banish from our mind all that is due to contact with the East and Egypt, and even with the other races of Italy, and we must imagine, so to speak, a different mental orientation before the great influx of Greek literature and Greek thought, which gave a whole new turn to Roman ideas in general, and in particular revolutionized religion by the introduction of anthropomorphic notions and sensual representations. But in this difficult search, we are not left without indications to guide us. In the writings of scholars of the Late Republic and the Empire, and the Augustan poets, so biased in their interpretations by Greek tendencies, a great wealth of ancient customs and rituals is embodied, which becomes significant when we have once obtained the key to its meaning. More direct evidence is provided by a large number of inscriptions and monuments, and especially by the surviving calendars of the year of the Roman festivals.
