sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 1

Thomas Blank: Religiöse Geheimniskommunikation in der Mittleren und Späten Römischen Republik

At the heart of this hefty book lies an intriguing question: What did Romans know about the practices of foreign cults in Italy? Blank explores this question with a focus on two religious movements that arrived in Italy in the late third century BCE: the cult of the Magna Mater and the cult of Bacchus. This book is thereby situated in a rich and growing body of work on communication about religious actions in the Roman world and its role in identity formation. [1]

Blank's book falls into three parts. The first three chapters establish a methodology for discussing the communication of religious ideas and review the differences between Roman and foreign cults. While the discussion is thorough and rests on a firm foundation in the bibliography, some readers may miss an engagement with the paradigms of emic and etic communication in approaches to ancient religions. [2]

The next two chapters turn to the evidence for the cult of the Magna Mater and the cult of Bacchus in the Roman Middle Republic. Readers will find all relevant textual material presented in the original and translation. There is also a discussion of the relevant archaeological and visual evidence. The book therefore provides a useful launching point for future scholarship on these two religious movements. In addition to laying out the evidence, Blank's main concern in this part of the book is to ask why the Romans reacted so differently to the two cults. The cult of the Magna Mater, after all, became an important part of Roman state religion, whereas authorities attempted to suppress the cult of Bacchus. In Blank's argument, both cults represented a fundamental challenge to Roman values, especially family dynamics and gender norms. Those involved in the cult of the Magna Mater, however, were transparent about their activities and welcomed Romans to witness and participate in their worship practices. The cult of Bacchus, on the other hand, remained closed to outsiders and relied on secrecy. Those looking for information about the cult therefore had to rely on rumor and speculation rather than firsthand evidence. As a result, Roman audiences imagined the worst, which cumulated in the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186 BCE prohibiting the activities of the cult in Italy and Livy's exaggerated and inaccurate account of the investigations that led to the decree in Book 39 of Ab urbe condita. Blank's line of reasoning fits well with scholarship on Roman fears about secrecy and conspiracies in other contexts. [3]

The SC de Bacchanalibus and Livy's narrative have long held a privileged position in accounts of Roman religion as our only substantial sources for the activities of worshippers of Bacchus in the Middle Republic. It is therefore welcome that the last part of Blank's study (chapters 6 to 8) complicates this view. Through a close reading of scenes from several Plautine plays (especially Aulularia, Amphitruo, Menaechmi, Bacchides, and Casina), Blank shows that the playwright, too, had thoughts about the role of the cult of Bacchus (and, to a far lesser extent, that of the Magna Mater) in Roman society. Strikingly, the allusions in the plays present us with opinions and prejudices close to those found many years later in Livy. Livy's account is therefore not solely conditioned by the moral concerns of the Age of Augustus, but looks back at a long history of conflict between Roman values and the cult of Bacchus that casts those involved in the religious movement as threatening outsiders looking to overthrow society. Through his close analysis of relevant passages, Blank models how Plautus can be read for commentary on contemporary religious debates and concerns and thereby sheds light on a previously largely underappreciated aspect of the playwright's oeuvre. Finally, a brief conclusion rounds out the book as a whole.

In sum, for specialists in the study of Roman religion, Blank offers a fruitful complement to current work on religion and communication. His demonstration of how Plautus can be mined for information on religious knowledge and prejudices will prove particularly useful for those looking for Roman reactions to the cult of Bacchus beyond the SC de Bacchanalibus and Livy and may prompt scholars explore Roman comedy for further commentary on religious debates.

Notes:

[1] For example, Dan-el Padilla Peralta: Divine Institutions: Religion and Community in the Middle Roman Republic, Princeton 2020; Jacob Mackey: Belief and Cult: Rethinking Roman Religion, Princeton 2022. The latter was published too close to the book under review for readers to expect engagement with it, but specialists will find it productive to read it alongside Blank.

[2] A useful general orientation to relevant debates and approaches can be found in Till Mostowlansky / Andrea Rota: A Matter of Perspective?: Disentangling the Emic-Etic Debate in the Scientific Study of Religion\s, in: Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 28 (2016), 317-336. For discussions of the emic/etic divide in Roman religion, in addition to Jacob Mackey (n. 1), see, foundationally, Celia Schultz: Roman Sacrifice, Inside and Out, in: Journal of Roman Studies 106 (2016), 58-76.

[3] For example, Victoria Pagán: Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History, Austin 2002.