Roman Identity and Religion in Cicero. A Reading of De divinatione

MARÍA EMILIA CAIRO

Cambridge, MA

Seminario; Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome; 2016

At the beginning of De natura deorum II, Cicero points to religio as an area in which Romans are especially distinguished among other peoples: si conferre volumus nostra cum externis, ceteris rebus aut pares aut etiam inferiores reperiemur, religione, id est cultu deorum, multo superiores. As the anthropologist J. Assmann (2000: 57) has explained, religion and rituals are central in the reproduction of cultural identity. Therefore, an analysis of how Romanness is conceived at the end of the Republic should take into account not only legal, geographical and/or political aspects, but also religion as a central element. This is especially appropriate when we consider the theological debates taking place at the moment (cf. Beard 1986, Rüpke 2012). In this paper we propose a reading of De divinatione in which every aspect of religio ?i. e. rituals, priest colleges, the ways to communicate with the gods? is presented not only for descriptive reasons (as it is usually understood), but also as a means of defining Romans as a unique people and of distinguishing them from others. We examine the ways in which the religious component takes part in the formulation of what Cicero understands as ?Roman?. Our presentation is organized in three sections. In the first one, we present a bibliographical overview of identity studies and the way Roman identity has been treated in Cicero?s texts. Then, in ?Rome and the others?, we analyse the contrast between Romans and others ?i. e., how Roman divinatory practices are contrasted with foreign ones when it comes to the definition of Romanness. In the third section, ?We Romans?, we study the definition of this ?Wir-Identität? (as Assmann 2000 defines it) considering Cicero?s presentation of the Roman religious system as a model of pietas. In the final section, some conclusions are advanced.