reading response 4

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Pennsylvania State University *

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101

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Political Science

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Oct 30, 2023

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2) On page 97, Orlin states that, "during the middle republic, the ruling elite balanced the scope for individual initiative with the need for collective control while maintaining the decisive authority over Roman religion..." What does he mean by this? How did elites maintain authority over religion? Be sure to discuss the role of the Senate. Religion was a large part of the Roman Republic, contributing to both culture and government. In fact, religious leaders of Rome were also the governmental leaders. The author discusses these leader’s abilities—specifically the senate—to manage individual ambition with collective authority when it came to politics. The author further applies this concept which he calls a “balance” to the realm of religion and is outlined in the question’s quote. Essentially, Orlin means to say that the senatorial aristocracy of Rome held religious authority in a similar way to political authority which allowed them to limit individual ambition while promoting common practices and beliefs. In this way, Roman ruling elites were playing on the republic’s reliance on religion and using it to bolster their own legitimacy or control. Elites maintained this authority over religion through structure. Firstly, religious power was delegated through colleges. These colleges consisted of multiple people and ensured that religion, at least formally, was a collective affair rather than an individual one. As Orlin puts it when talking of the religious bodies, “the gods did not reveal their will directly”, meaning that no one man was a direct link between the Roman people and the gods. Furthermore, the fact that the political elite were the same class of people as the religious elite meant that politics and religion were unbreakably tied. Those making decisions on economic or military matters could also have input on religious circumstances. This enhanced the power of the elites in using religion to their advantage and having authority over it. The senate specifically had a special authority over religion which made the whole Roman Republic reliant upon them. The senate made formal decisions on how to deal with religious matters like prodigies and making “peace with the gods”. If a natural disaster would take place, the senate was responsible for enacting actions to resolve supposed issues with the gods. Thus, everyone relied on the senate to almost ensure a positive relationship with deities—something that was important to the Roman people and elevated the supposed necessity of the senate. In fact, the senate would meet in “religiously consecrated” spaces which demonstrates the relationship between the senate and religion. The senate was also able to resolve matters of religious laws. The senate worked and cooperated with the religious colleges in a similar manner to when they acted on prodigies. As the author writes, this cooperation is another example of the elite managing control over religion while working with office holders in a balance that relates to their original statement in the stated question.

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