Religio

It had no synagogues, yeshivas, rabbis – or even a bible. Instead it had elaborate temple rituals, most of which involved sacrificing animals to a jealous sky god so that he would bless his people with seasonal rains and military victories.

À Rome, seul un clergé investi d’un savoir technique pointu pouvait décrypter le vol des oiseaux, interpréter l’appétit des poulets consacrés à Jupiter, deviser sur l’inclinaison d’un éclair de foudre sur l’horizon, lire dans les entrailles d’animaux sacrifiés, savoir si le craquement d’un meuble, dans un temple, était le signe ténu d’une exigence

unlike ancient Greece, where government and religion were separate realms, Roman religion was very much intertwined with politics. In fact, politicians often rose to power by becoming priests.

Religion does not seem at first to have had any connection with morals. Apparently (for we are merely guessing, or echoing Petronius, who echoed Lucretius) “it was fear that first made the gods”25 —fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, oceans, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, s

The same was true, in a sense, of Judaism. But to a remarkable and in some ways unexpected degree, the Jews managed to operate within Roman culture. For the Romans, Christianity was far worse. First, it had no ancestral home. In their ordered religious geography, Romans expected deities to be from somewhere: Isis from Egypt, Mithras from Persia, th