The Cults of the Roman Empire

This book is about the multiplicity of gods and religions that characterized the Roman world before Constantine. It was not the noble gods such as Jove, Apollo and Diana, who were crucial to the lives of the common people in the empire, bur gods of an altogether more earthly, earth level, whose rituals and observances may now seem bizarre. As well as being of wide general interest, this book will appeal to students of the Roman Empire and of the history of religion.

Introduction. Externa Superstitio. 1. The Great Mother and Her Eunuchs. 2. Isis of the Many Names or Our Lady of the Waves. 3. The Orontes Pouring into the Tiber. 4. Beneath the Rocks of the Persian Cavern. 5. Horsemen, Mothers and Serpents. 6. Occultism and Theosophy. 7. Dionysus and Sabazius. Epilogue. Abbreviations. List of Plates. Figures. Historical and Mythographical Index. Index of Religious Particulars.