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30 - Religious Change and the Use of Religion in Greek and Roman Cities

from Part VII - Urban Societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2026

Maarten Prak
Affiliation:
Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Penelope J. E. Davies
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Christina G. Williamson
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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Summary

Volume I offers a broad perspective on urban culture in the ancient European world. It begins with chronological overviews which paint in broad brushstrokes a picture that serves as a frame for the thematic chapters in the rest of the volume. Positioning ancient Europe within its wider context, it touches on Asia and Africa as regions that informed and were later influenced by urban development in Europe, with particular emphasis on the Mediterranean basin. Topics range from formal characteristics (including public space), water provision, waste disposal, urban maintenance, spaces for the dead, and border spaces; to ways of thinking about, visualising, and remembering cities in antiquity; to conflict within and between cities, economics, mobility and globalisation, intersectional urban experiences, slavery, political participation, and religion.

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References

Further Reading

Arnhold, M., Maier, H. O. and Rüpke, J. (eds), Seeing the God: Image, Space, Performance, and Vision in the Religion of the Roman Empire (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruit Zaidman, L. and Schmitt Pantel, P., Religion in the Ancient Greek City (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasparini, V., et al. (eds), Lived Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Approaching Religious Transformations from Archaeology, History and Classics (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georges, T., Albrecht, F. and Feldmeier, R. (eds), Alexandria, Civitatum Orbis Mediterranei Studia 1 (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2013).Google Scholar
Kaizer, T., Leone, A., Thomas, E. and Witcher, R. (eds), Cities and Gods: Religious Space in Transition (Leuven, Peeters, 2013).Google Scholar
Mikalson, J. D., Athenian Popular Religion (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, 1983).Google Scholar
Parker, R., Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford, Clarendon, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, R., On Greek Religion, Townsend lectures/Cornell studies in classical philology (Ithaca NY, Cornell University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Raja, R. and Rüpke, J. (eds), A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World (Boston MA, Wiley, 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rau, S. and Rüpke, J. (eds), Religion and Urbanity Online (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020–), at www.degruyter.com/database/urbrel/html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rüpke, J., Pantheon: A New History of Roman Religion (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Rüpke, J., Urban Religion: A Historical Approach to Urban Growth and Religious Change (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rüpke, J. and Woolf, G. (eds), Religion in the Roman Empire, Religionen der Menschheit, vol. 16.2 (Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 2021).Google Scholar
Scheer, T. S., Mythische Vorväter: Zur Bedeutung griechischer Heroenmythen im Selbstverständnis kleinasiatischer Städte, Münchener Arbeiten zur Alten Geschichte 7 (Munich, Maris, 1993).Google Scholar
Steinhauer, J., Religious Associations in the Post-Classical Polis (Stuttgart, Steiner, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens Falcansantos, R., Constantinople. Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial Capital, Christianity in Late Antiquity (Oakland, University of California Press, 2020).Google Scholar
Urciuoli, E. R., La religione urbana: come la città ha prodotto il cristianesimo (Bologna, edb, 2022).Google Scholar
Urciuoli, E. R., Citifying Jesus: The Making of an Urban Religion in the Roman Empire (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2024).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Andringa, W., Quotidien des dieux et des Hommes. La vie religieuse dans les cité du Vésuve à l’époque romaine, Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (Rome, Écoles Françaises de Rome, 2009).Google Scholar
van Nuffelen, P., ‘Playing the ritual game in Constantinople (379–457)’, in Grig, L. and Kelly, G. (eds), Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity, Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012), 183–200.Google Scholar
Williamson, C. G., Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 196 (Leiden, Brill, 2021).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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