Truth

In Rome the priesthood was a political power.By declaring days fasti or nefasti:lucky or unlucky(roughly) it could block the decisions of the popular assemblies.A previous member mentioned the dictum of Polybious about the use of religion to control the multitude.Although Tom Holland in Rubicon which I am just now reading after having bought a second time questions this view of religion as the manipulative instrument of a cynical upper class claiming an attachement of the Romans to their Gods-I do not think that those two facts are mutually exclusive.Religion comes from the Latin verb religo-to hold together and that was its' function in Rome. If you have seen Rome the series you would have observed Caesar's effort to include young Octavian, his nephew in the priesthood-making him a flamen dialis(I think)In western europe there existed the alliance of Throne and Altar-The red and the black to reffer to Stedhal's famous novel. The Romans were the precursors of this system. Patrician families made careers in the priesthood and in the Army.Roman law also included many elements of ritual which made its transactions similar to religious rituals.In the past I have read the book by Lilly Ross Taylor "Party Politics in the Age of Caesar".Of course the term political parties is an anachronism but there is also a book "Romische Aldeispartien"(approximately since I do not know German)which uses the term parties to describe alliances beetwen noble factions. I venture to introduce the bold idea that the combination of war-lords and priests was for Rome what the industrial-military complex is for USA today.

Hi Ursus, Do you know how Caesers comunication worked? In other words (I'm guessing) Caeser in Rome would send a messenger to tell a govenor in Corinth how to run the city, collect taxes, etc...? Also, when Mithrasism was declared the state religion of Rome, what did that mean? Everyone had to worship Mithras? or was it that Mithras just happened to be what Caeser (the Pontifus Maximus) wanted to worship for himself at a particular time? Do you know of any resources dealing with these subjects? I am new to this area, but I am interested in studying it. Truth

Hello, I am new to this forum and I am interested in the governmental structure and internal politics that Roman Caesers played in Rome and throughout the empire especially concerning religious worship of gods or God and informing people throughout the empire. My suspicion is that the Caeser would control the masses or empire by sending governmental emissaries to speak at public "places of worship" or gatherings becuase it was the easist way at the time to spread political news. I think this was one of the reasons "the good news" was called the good news was because all news was delivered by the Roman government to places of worship. There was probably plenty of "bad news" too. The Roman empire did not have radio or TV, nor was paper ever used nearly as much it is today. What role did the Caeser played in controlling religion through poltics be it when Mithras was the state religion or christianity was the state religion? Truth