Stealing from the Gods
Stealing from the Gods investigates how authors writing between the first century BCE and second century CE addressed the issue of temple robbery or sacrilegium. As a self-proclaimed empire of pious people, the Romans viewed temple robbery as deeply un-Roman and among the worst of offenses. On the o...
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| Format: | Online |
| Idioma: | anglès |
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University of Michigan Press
2026
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| Accés en línia: | ONIX_20260107T143059_9780472905416_2 |
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| _version_ | 1869527304127905792 |
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| author | Köster, Isabel K. |
| author_browse | Köster, Isabel K. |
| author_facet | Köster, Isabel K. |
| author_sort | Köster, Isabel K. |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Stealing from the Gods investigates how authors writing between the first century BCE and second century CE addressed the issue of temple robbery or sacrilegium. As a self-proclaimed empire of pious people, the Romans viewed temple robbery as deeply un-Roman and among the worst of offenses. On the other hand, given the constant financial pressures of warfare and administration, it was inevitable that the Romans would make use of the riches stored in sanctuaries. In order to resolve this dilemma, the Romans distinguished sharply between acceptable and unacceptable removals of sacred property. When those who conducted themselves as proper Romans plundered the property of the gods, their actions were for the good of the state. In contrast, the temple robber was viewed as a stranger to the norms of Roman society and an enemy of the state. Ancient authors including Cicero, Caesar, Livy, Appian, and Pausanias present isolated, grotesque individuals whose actions have no bearing on the conduct of Romans as a whole, rendering temple robbery not a matter of collective responsibility, but of individual moral failure. By revealing how narratives of temple robbery are constructed from a literary perspective and how they inform discourses about military conquest and imperial rule, Isabel K. Köster shines a new light on how the Romans coped with the more pernicious aspects of their empire. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-170846 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | University of Michigan Press |
| publisherStr | University of Michigan Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1708462026-01-08T05:21:49Z Stealing from the Gods Köster, Isabel K. Roman religion, Roman plundering, Roman invective, Roman insults, Roman impiety, Roman conquest, Roman warfare, Roman imperial administration, Roman decadence, Roman greed, evocatio, sacrilegesacrilegium, Cicero, Livy, Caesar, Appian, Pausanias, Gaius Verres, Lucius Mummius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDA European history: the Romans thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JK Social services and welfare, criminology::JKV Crime and criminology Stealing from the Gods investigates how authors writing between the first century BCE and second century CE addressed the issue of temple robbery or sacrilegium. As a self-proclaimed empire of pious people, the Romans viewed temple robbery as deeply un-Roman and among the worst of offenses. On the other hand, given the constant financial pressures of warfare and administration, it was inevitable that the Romans would make use of the riches stored in sanctuaries. In order to resolve this dilemma, the Romans distinguished sharply between acceptable and unacceptable removals of sacred property. When those who conducted themselves as proper Romans plundered the property of the gods, their actions were for the good of the state. In contrast, the temple robber was viewed as a stranger to the norms of Roman society and an enemy of the state. Ancient authors including Cicero, Caesar, Livy, Appian, and Pausanias present isolated, grotesque individuals whose actions have no bearing on the conduct of Romans as a whole, rendering temple robbery not a matter of collective responsibility, but of individual moral failure. By revealing how narratives of temple robbery are constructed from a literary perspective and how they inform discourses about military conquest and imperial rule, Isabel K. Köster shines a new light on how the Romans coped with the more pernicious aspects of their empire. 2026-01-08T05:21:48Z 2026-01-08T05:21:48Z 2026-01-07T13:43:36Z 2026 book ONIX_20260107T143059_9780472905416_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/109658 9780472905416 9780472133673 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/170846 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/109658/1/9780472905416.pdf University of Michigan Press University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.14532107 10.3998/mpub.14532107 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 bd2e760f-1a0c-4ab3-bfa8-288b3b245110 9780472905416 9780472133673 University of Michigan Press 258 [...] open access |
| spellingShingle | Roman religion, Roman plundering, Roman invective, Roman insults, Roman impiety, Roman conquest, Roman warfare, Roman imperial administration, Roman decadence, Roman greed, evocatio, sacrilegesacrilegium, Cicero, Livy, Caesar, Appian, Pausanias, Gaius Verres, Lucius Mummius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDA European history: the Romans thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JK Social services and welfare, criminology::JKV Crime and criminology Köster, Isabel K. Stealing from the Gods |
| title | Stealing from the Gods |
| title_full | Stealing from the Gods |
| title_fullStr | Stealing from the Gods |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stealing from the Gods |
| title_short | Stealing from the Gods |
| title_sort | stealing from the gods |
| topic | Roman religion, Roman plundering, Roman invective, Roman insults, Roman impiety, Roman conquest, Roman warfare, Roman imperial administration, Roman decadence, Roman greed, evocatio, sacrilegesacrilegium, Cicero, Livy, Caesar, Appian, Pausanias, Gaius Verres, Lucius Mummius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDA European history: the Romans thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JK Social services and welfare, criminology::JKV Crime and criminology |
| topic_facet | Roman religion, Roman plundering, Roman invective, Roman insults, Roman impiety, Roman conquest, Roman warfare, Roman imperial administration, Roman decadence, Roman greed, evocatio, sacrilegesacrilegium, Cicero, Livy, Caesar, Appian, Pausanias, Gaius Verres, Lucius Mummius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDA European history: the Romans thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DB Ancient, classical and medieval texts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JK Social services and welfare, criminology::JKV Crime and criminology |
| url | ONIX_20260107T143059_9780472905416_2 |
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