The Religion of Senators in the Roman Empire: Power and the Beyond

by Zsuzsanna Varhelyi

This book examines the connection between political and religious power in the pagan Roman Empire through a study of senatorial religion. Presenting a new collection of historical, epigraphic, prosopographic and material evidence, it argues that as Augustus turned to religion to legitimize his powers, senators in turn also came to negotiate their own power, as well as that of the emperor, partly in religious terms. In Rome, the body of the senate and priesthoods helped to maintain the religious power of the senate; across the Empire senators defined their magisterial powers by following the model of emperors and by relying on the piety of sacrifice and benefactions. The ongoing participation and innovations of senators confirm the deep ability of imperial religion to engage the normative, symbolic and imaginative aspects of religious life among senators.

270 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2010

About the author

"I was born in Budapest, Hungary during the Communist era, an experience that has led me to a keen interest in how such circumstances may shape our lives. Having trained at ELTE (Budapest) and at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), I came to the United States to pursue a PhD in History at Columbia University in New York.

My scholarship focuses on the rich and complex evidence surviving from the late Republic and early Imperial Rome, a period that saw ideas emerge that are still with us today: questions about how one should live one’s life, among others by the Stoics, and the role of religion in it, both by “pagans” and by post-Second-Temple Jews and Christians (“Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice”). These issues have shaped my work on the Roman elite in a period of political oppression (cf. my monograph on the Religion of Senators), and guide my current research on individuality and selfhood in the Roman empire.

I have also published on human sacrifice and post-traumatic stress among Roman soldiers, gender and domesticity, and ancient literacy, among others. My teaching incorporates my research on both undergraduate and graduate level: my courses examine Roman history, Greek and Roman religions, Public virtues and private vices in the Roman Empire, and read Latin prose on all levels."