Introducing new, re-interpreting old gods. Religious pluralism and agency in Africa Proconsularis and Numidia (146 B.C.-235 A.D.).

• Applicant: Valentino Gasparini, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies ; Ancient History
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 219038186

The project claims to show the way how, in the Roman provinces of Africa Proconsularis and Numidia, the shifting social networks influenced the religious preferences and interests of the individual actors. From the end of the Third Punic War to the end of the Severan dynasty (146 B.C.-235 A.D.), new deities were experienced by the social fabric in North Africa. This process determined, on the one hand, the introduction of new cults, while, on the other hand, it led to the re-interpretation of the old deities: the local African, Phoenician and Punic gods were integrated and reshaped in a new Roman version and, at the same time, they enriched the profile of the traditional Roman Gods, by producing e.g. new iconographical attributes, new theonyms and new epiclesis. The gradual enrichment of cultic options reflected and conditioned the multiplication of individual and collective identities. An interdisciplinary study of these “cults in motion” (involving ancient literature, numismatics, epigraphy and archaeological evidence) requires the analysis of the possible relation between the different social components and the degree of Romanization of the contexts they were embedded in. Through historicizing the different conditions and circumstances of religious agency in North Africa, the project aims to extrapolate causes and consequences of the general models and the local variants in the African cultic development.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants