Roman Myth & Religion M.A. Reading List

Be sure to check with advisor about updates to this list.

The following list offers required readings and choices for the M.A. in Classical Antiquity, Special Field examination in Roman Mythology & Religion. Students are expected to consult with an advisor by March 1 and finalize a list which will form the basis of their special field examination by May 1 or the end of their second semester.

Primary Readings

All readings may be done in English. Note that the list assumes that you will devote most of your effort to literary sources. If you wish to devote substantial time to art and archaeology as sources for myth and religion, you may discuss modifications with an advisor.

  • Cicero, De Divinatione, De Natura Deorum
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Books 1-2
  • Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book 1
  • Firmicus Maternus, On the Error of Profane Religions
  • Virgil, Aeneid
  • Lactantius, Divine Institutes
  • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History
  • Ovid, Fasti
  • Plutarch, Isis and Osiris
  • Apuleius, Metamorphoses, Book 11
  • Minucius Felix, Octavius
  • Augustine, City of God, Books 4-7, Confessions
  • Beard, Mary, John North, Simon Price, Religions of Rome, Vol. II: A Sourcebook (Cambridge 1999).

Introduction: Mythology

A. Required

  • M. Grant, Roman Myths (New York 1971).

B. Choose at least one

  • Bremmer, J. and N.M. Horsfall, Roman Myth and Mythography (London 1987).
  • Cornell, T. J., The Beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 B.C.) (London 1995)
  • Wiseman, T. P., Remus: A Roman Myth (Cambridge 1995).
  • Wiseman, T. P., Unwritten Rome (Exeter 2008).

Introduction: Roman Religion

A. Required

  • Beard, Mary, John North, Simon Price, Religions of Rome, Vol. I: A History (Cambridge 1998).

B. Choose at least one

  • Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G., Continuity and Change in Roman Religion (Oxford 1979).
  • Rüpke, J., ed., A Companion to Roman Religion (Oxford 2007).
  • Scheid, J. An Introduction to Roman Religion (Edinburgh 2003).

Topics in Roman Religion

Choose three items (spanning two different categories) in consultation with an advisor.

A. Republican Religion

  • Beard, M., The Roman Triumph (Cambridge, Mass. 2007).
  • Michels, A. K., The Calendar of the Roman Republic (Princeton 1967).
  • Orlin, E., Temples, Religion and Politics in the Roman Republic (Leiden 1997).
  • Scullard, H.H., Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (London 1981).
  • Vermaseren, M. J., Cybele and Attis: the Myth and the Cult (London 1977).
  • Takacs, S. Vestal Virgins, Sibyls and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion (Austin2008).
  • Weinstock, S., Divus Iulius (Oxford 1971).

B. Religion in the Empire

  • Ando, C. The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire (Berkeley, 2008)
  • Ferguson, J., The Religions of the Roman Empire (Cornell 1970).
  • Gradel, I. Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford, 2002)
  • MacMullen, R. Paganism in the Roman Empire (New Haven 1981).
  • Potter, David, Prophets and Emperors: Human and Divine Authority from Augustus to Theodosius (Cambridge MA and London 1994).
  • Price, Simon, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge 1984).
  • Rives, J. B., Religion and Authority in Roman Carthage from Augustus to Constantine (Oxford 1995).
  • Rives, J. B., Religion in the Roman Empire (Oxford 2007).

C. Eastern Cults

  • Beck, R., The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (Oxford 2006).
  • Burkert, W. Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge, Mass. 1987).
  • Cumont, F. The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago 1911).
  • Takacs, S. Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World (Leiden, 1995)
  • Turcan, R., The Cults of the Roman Empire (Oxford 1996).
  • Witt, R.E., Isis in the Ancient World (Johns Hopkins 1997).

D. Late Paganism

  • Elsner, J. and I. Rutherford. Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and early Christian antiquity: seeing the gods (Oxford, 2005)
  • Frede, M. and A. Fowden, eds. Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 1999)
  • Lane Fox, R., Pagans and Christians (London 1986).