RELIGIO AND SUPERSTITIO
Religio and superstitio were two key terms with which the Roman elite debated, consolidated or rejected different forms of rituals and attitudes towards the gods. Religio was a cornerstone in the Roman self-description, characterizing properly observed Roman cult.
This includes correct religious behaviour and interpretations of divine matters, that is, interpretations and rituals which are ordered or approved by the priesthoods and the Senate. By contrast, the term superstitio signifies improperly observed, often foreign, cult which includes “misinterpretations” of divine matters, that is, religious ideas and rituals that do not - explicitly or indirectly - have the approval of the Senate and the priesthoods. A typical example of this would be Cicero’s comparison in his work De divinatione (11.76), referring to Roman augury as a science and part of Roman religio, while characterizing foreign augury as superstitio. Similarly, concerning the year 213 BCE Livy (25.1.11-12) describes how people increasingly paid heed to foreign rites as a result of unrest during the Second Punic War. He emphasizes that Roman rites were being neglected especially by the women of the city. At one point the magistrates attempted to clear the crowd out of the forum and impound the foreign ritual objects. This attempt nearly ended in violence, and the affair led to a Senate decree commanding anyone in possession of books with prophecies, prayers or instructions for rituals to hand them over to the praetor urbanus before the first of April. In addition, no one was allowed to perform sacrifices according to new or foreign rituals in any public or consecrated locations. This example demonstrates how superstitio was perceived as a threat toRoman society and was eradicated by the Senate. In this way the flexible concepts of religio and superstitio were important mechanisms in the ongoing (re)construction of Roman identity, centred around the ritualized relationship between humans and gods.
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