by Horatius Piscinus on Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:47 am
Salve bene Aule Catte
Oh, Lanciani, yes, still a valuable source of information, and Mommsen is still a starting point, if not always agreed with today. Modern sources...erh, well, a good little book to include is R. Ross Holloway, The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium, 1994. Not a book on the religio Romana but some excellent observations on the use and misuse of Roman archaeology when trying to interpret certain aspects of the religions of Roma antiqua. A book I recomend is The Religions of Rome, by Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price, 1998. I also like Beard's work on Roman Priests and North did an article on Roman sacrifices, I forget exactly where, but those three authors are some of the best in English today on Roman religious institutions. T. J. Cornell's The Beginnings of Rome, is an interesting read. Read Holloway along with Cornell, though. Cornell is an historian rather than an archaeologist, and he takes a position that Livy is essentially accurate. Livy records what were the Roman traditions of his own time, using sources that even Livy questioned sometimes. Livy I take as traditional, what we might call the mos maiorum in a certain sense, but he is not historically accurate in a modern sense. Lanciani has to be taken with a grain of salt, too, and so Holloway's observations will help balance out older authors like Lanciani who assumed too much about Livy as a source. John Scheid is a good modern author to read on the religion of Rome. (I don't always agree with the way he puts some things.) If you begin to research on the religio Romana you are bound to run into George Dumazil, still, with all his fallacious arguments. He remains popular with people on the Internet, so a lot of misinformation is repeated. Best to read Momigliano, too, the major opponent of Dumazil's fallacies. Carandini is currently heading the latest excavations in Rome itself, making exciting discoveries. I haven't been able to read much of Carandini as he is not readily available over here in the boonies of Ohio. I have read some of his work, and some papers by his students and colleagues, although my Italian is not quite up to understanding all of what I read from them. J. M. C. Toynbee's Death and Burial in the Roman World, 1971, is still the best available book on that subject. There are two books available on the Roman calendar, H. H. Scullard, following Dumazil, wrote Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, 1981. I prefer W. W. Fowler's The Roman Festivals of the Republic, 1899, a bit old, out of date, but I prefer his approach of comparative religion, taking after Frazer, rather than Dumezil's fantasies about a mythological base of Roman religion in a mythical Indo-European culture that never existed! (Don't get me started.) There is not a lot available yet, as the subject is still relatively new, but Roman traditions developed out of the same cultural base as the traditions of the Italic tribes. I just think if one is going to make comparisons one should look at the Italic tribes rather than create tenuous links to India and its religious traditions. Unfortunately, in English, E. T. Salmon's Samnium and the Samnites, 1967, might be the only thing you'll find in a public library, and he relies on Livy, but covers Samnite religion well enough to give some insight to Roman traditions as well. And for insight, Robert Turcan's valuable little book, The Gods of Ancient Rome, translated in 2000, and some of his other books as well. Sometimes Turcan defers to the opinion of Dumezil, but I think Turcan is perhaps the most insightful author on the religio Romana. And another author who I especially enjoy is Ramsey Marshall. His Paganism in the Roman Empire, 1981, is another that cautions against the assumptions of some historians in the face of archaeological evidence. BPL or the universities in your area should have those titles, and they can lead you on to other sources.
Some of our European sodales can recommend other books as well. I haven't heard of some of the authors that have been recommended to me. They're just not available where I live, but might be in Boston.
Currently what I am reading is T. Habinek's The World of Roman Song: From Ritualized Speech to Social Order,, 2005, from John Hopkins University. Quite interesting, at least to me, as he touches on a subject that I have tried to explain in some classes I've taught. Maybe when I am through his book I will be better able to explain. Difficult reading though.
Bonam habe fortunam. Vale optime
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!