This book is the first comprehensive work focusing on lived ancient religious communication in Roman Dacia. Testing for the first time the ?Lived Ancient Religion? approach in terms of a peripheral province from the Danubian area, this work looks at the role of ?sacralised? spaces, known commonly as sanctuaries in the religious communication of the province. 0The author analyses the role of space sacralisation, religious appropriation, embodiment and the social impact of religious communication in urban contexts (Apulum), military contexts (Porolissum and Mehadia), and numerous examples from rural (non-urban) environments (Ampelum, Germisara, Ad Mediam, and many others). The book concentrates not only on the creation and maintenance of sacralised spaces in public and secondary locations, but also on their role at the micro-level of objects, semi-micro level of spaces (settlements), and the macro-level of the province and the Danubian region as a whole. Innovatively as regards provincial archaeological research, this book emphasises the spatial aspects of lived ancient religion by analysing for the first time the sanctuaries as spaces of religious communication in Dacia. The work also contains a significant chapter on the so-called ?small-group? religions (the Bacchic, Mithraic and Dolichenian groups of the province), which are approached for the first time in detail. The study also gives the first comprehensive list of archaeologically-epigraphically- attested, and presumed sacralised spaces within Dacia.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Contents Page
• List of Figures
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations
  • I. Introduction
    • I.1. Space sacralisation and the Lived Ancient Religion approach
    • I.2. Rethinking sacralised spaces in Roman Dacia: a research history
    • I.3. The material: sources of the book
  • II. Sacralising the space in urban context
    • II.1. Urbanism and religious communication
      • Urbanism in Roman Dacia: general and local specificities
      • The city, as a religious agent
      • The city as religious agent in Roman Dacia
    • II.2. Walls and religious experience
      • Walls in Roman Dacia: some short remarks
      • Apulum
      • Colonia Sarmizegetusa
    • II.3. The Roman fort and its sacralised spaces
      • The fort as a space of religious communication
      • The case of Apulum: the topography of the fort and its finds
      • The Principia as sacralised space in Apulum: some notes
      • The Eagle and its officers in peace and war: religion and military morale
      • Between moral individuality and lived experience: further case studies
    • II.4. The omnipresent god: locating Jupiter
      • Jupiters everywhere: the topography of the finds
      • Jupiter and the memory of the place: two case studies
    • II.5. Sanctuaries and spectacles
      • Amphitheatres as places of religious communication
      • Sacella of Nemesis: analogies from Dacia and the Danubian provinces
      • The archaeological record from Apulum: topographic and iconographic aspects
      • A case study: Nemesis in the camp?
    • II.6. Monopolising space: religious competition and the power elite
      • Religion and competition in Apulum: the urban elite
      • Religion and the senatorial elite in Apulum
      • Hidden religion: the Praetorium Consularis
      • The ‘visible’ senators: the accessibility of the socio-political elite
      • Providing religion: priesthood beyond the titles
      • Sacerdotes: beyond religious specialization
      • Social networks between urban and provincial
      • Read the liver to be famous – the case study of Caius Iulius Valens
      • Religious specialists of small religious groups
      • Conclusions
    • II.7. The Asklepieion in Apulum: a regional centre for healing
      • Creating sacred landscapes: transformation and manipulation of the natural environment
      • Choreography and commemoration: actions and events from the healing sanctuary of Apulum
      • Individual options in the Roman health-care system of Apulum
    • II.8. Lived religion in secondary spaces
      • Discovering Liber Pater in Apulum: a short overview
      • From sanctuary to dining room: redefining the space of small religious groups
      • Limits of a lived ancient religious experience: the shrine of Liber Pater in Apulum
      • More equal among equals: various identities within a religious group
      • Communal identity as mental constructions in small-group religions
      • The lost lamps of the eternal god: a curious case study
      • Spatial aspects and cultural identities in small-group religions
      • Sacralisation and spatial dynamics of identities: some analogies
    • II.9. Mithras in Apulum: between local and universal
      • Appropriation and religious bricolage between local and universal
      • Creating, maintaining and ending a Mithraic sanctuary
      • Mithraic groups in Colonia Aurelia Apulensis
      • Mithraic groups in Municipium Septimium Apulense
      • The Mithraeum: religious network and local appropriation
      • The building: between pragmatism and religion
      • The group and its individuals: power, hierarchy and religious communication in the mithraeum
      • Representing Mithras in Apulum: some considerations on iconography and production
      • Final remarks
    • II.10. The missing church: questioning Christianity in Apulum
      • A critical re-assessment of the so-called Early Christian artefacts from Apulum
      • Christianities in Romanian historiography
      • Early Christianity before AD 313 in provincial contexts
  • III. Sanctuaries and networks in military settlements: Porolissum and Praetorium
    • III.1. The ‘plateau of the sanctuaries’ in Porolissum: an overview
    • III.2. The Dolichena from Porolissum and Praetorium: a comparative study
      • The Dolichenum from Porolissum
      • Praetorium (Mehadia): some further remarks
  • IV. sacralised spaces in the countryside
    • IV.1. Landscape of Dacia: between myth and reality
      • Tales about Dacia: the imaginary landscape of the province and its inhabitants
      • Geography of Dacia: some recent results
    • IV.2. Memory of the sacred: on the continuity of pre-Roman sacred spaces
    • IV.3. Transformation of the natural environment: Ad Mediam and Germisara
    • IV.4. Deep in religion: space sacralisation in the mining settlements of Ampelum and beyond
      • Discovering and forgetting Ampelum: a brief history of research
      • Religion outside the mines: case studies of religious appropriation
      • Religious entrepreneurs from Commagene: Syrians in Ampelum
      • Mithras for your home: a particular case study from the private sphere
      • Religion in mining settlements: further case studies
    • IV.5. Religious appropriation in rural contexts: further case studies
      • Mithras in rural Dacia
      • Production and religion in the countryside
  • V. Beyond Lived Ancient Religion in Dacia
    • Facts and results: how ‘lived’ was Roman religion in Dacia?
      • The story of Dacia: culture, religion and memory
  • VI. Annexes: Sanctuaries of Roman Dacia
    • VI.1. Archaeologically attested sanctuaries of Roman Dacia
    • VI.2. Epigraphically attested sanctuaries of Roman Dacia
    • VI.3. Presumed sanctuaries of Roman Dacia
  • VII. Összefoglaló
  • VIII. Bibliography
• Figure 1. Altar dedicated by Dasas and Dazurius in Alburnus Maior (source: AE 1990, 831=ILD 363, lupa 15241)
  • Figure 2. The LAR space taxonomy in Roman Dacia
  • Figure 3. Roman Empire and it’s spaces in D. Clarke’s space theory
  • Figure 4. Map of Dacia with the archaeologically, epigraphically attested and presumed sanctuaries (map based on Schäfer 2007, 357, abb. 1. with the kind permission of the author)
  • Figure 5. Map of Roman Dacia with the urban settlements (after Höpken et al. 2016).
  • Figure 6. Urban plan of Colonia Sarmizegetusa (after Boda 2015a, 304, fig.1.)
  • Figure 7. Map of the legionary fort of the XIII Gemina in Apulum (based on http://castrul-apulum.ro/)
  • Figure 8. Topography of Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (with the contribution of L. Korodi-Vass)
  • Figure 9. Urban plans of cities with archaeologically identified walls (from left to right: Municipium Septimium Apulense, Romula, Napoca and Sarmizegetusa).
  • Figure 10. Plan of the aedes principiorum from Apulum (based on http://castrul-apulum.ro/)
  • Figure 11. Excavations in the aedes principiorum from Apulum in the autumn of 2011 (photo: author)
  • Figure 12. Figurative representation of an Aquila on an architrave from the principia (photo: author)
  • Figure 13. Plan and reconstruction of the Principia with the aedes signorum from the legionary fort of Potaissa (after Bărbulescu 1994, 40).
  • Figure 14. Statue base of L. Aninius Firminus from the fort (photo: author)
  • Figure 15. Altar or statue base of P. Catius Sabinus from the fort of Apulum (photo: author)
  • Figure 16. Statue base or altar of Olus Terentius Pudens Uttedianus (photo: Ortolf Harl - lupa 6737)
  • Figure 17. Altar or statue base of Caius Aurelius Sigillius (photo: Ortolf Harl - lupa 11522)
  • Figure18. Principia buildings from Dacia: aedes with apsidal and rectangular forms (based on Marcu 2009)
  • Figure 19. Statue of Jupiter from Apulum (photo: Ortolf Harl - lupa 17354)
  • Figure 20-21. The dedications of the Tapetii from the Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (photo: Ortolf Harl - lupa 11504, 11505)
  • Figure 22. Dedication for Diana from the Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (photo: Ioan Piso, EDH)
  • Figure 23. Construction plaque of a sanctuary from Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (photo: Ioan Piso, EDH)
  • Figure 24. Monumental statue of the Capitoline Jupiter from the territory of the Municipium Septimium Apulense (photo: author)
  • Figure 25. Altar dedicated in a bidental (photo: lupa 12241)
  • Figure 26. Plan of the Nemeseion from Porolissum (after Wittenberg 2014, 111, fig. 30.)
  • Figure 27. Plan of the Nemeseion from Colonia Sarmizegetusa (after Schäfer 2007, 381, abb.29.)
  • Figure 28. Statue of Nemesis (after Alexandrescu 2013)
  • Figure 29. Marble plaque erected by Publius Aelius Rufinus in the Asklepieion (lupa 10943)
  • Figure 30. Inscription from the time of Volusianus in Colonia Aurelia Apulensis Chrysopolis (lupa 10937)
  • Figure 31. Plan of the Palace of Governors (praetorium consularis) from Apulum (after Schäfer 2014b, 273, abb. 281)
  • Figure 32. Sacralised space within the palace of governor from Apulum with the altar dedicated to Minerva Victrix (photo after Szabó 2016a, fig.89)
  • Figure 33. Construction plaque of a Dolichenum from Apulum (photo: Ioan Piso, EDH 038325)
  • Figure 34. Geophysical survey results of the Asklepieion area from Apulum (Source: http://foto.cimec.ro/cronica/2004/030/rsz_0.jpg)
  • Figure 35. Construction plaque of a Roman bridge near the Asklepieion of Apulum (lupa 11021)
  • Figure 36. Dedication plaque with anatomical representation from the Asklepieion of Apulum (lupa 10968)
  • Figure 37. Statue base dedicated to Glykon from Apulum (lupa 11284)
  • Figure 38. Preliminary plan of the Liber Pater sanctuary (after Schäfer 2014a, 49, pl.I.1.)
  • Figure 39a-b-c: statues of Liber Pater from its sanctuary from Apulum (lupa 19339, 19340, 19341)
  • Figure 40. construction plaque of the Liber Pater sanctuary from Apulum (photo: Ioan Piso, EDH 38362).
  • Figure 41. Bronze statuette of Artemis Ephesia form Apulum (photo: MNUAI, Szabó et al. 2016a).
  • Figure 42. Map of the Municipium Septimium Apulense (photo: author)
  • Figure 43. Funerary monument of Neses, son of Ierheus from Palmyra buried in Tibiscum (photo: lupa 15016)
  • Figure 44. Plan of the Palmyrene sanctuary from Colonia Sarmizegetusa (after Piso-Țentea 2011, 114, fig.2.)
  • Figure 45. Album of the cultores of Malagbel from the Syrian sanctuary from Colonia Sarmizegetusa (after Piso-Țentea 2011)
  • Figure 46. Statue of Mithras Tauroctonos from Apulum (Lupa 17291)
  • Figure 47a-b. Column and altar dedicated by Dioscorus in Apulum (photos: Szabó et al. 2016b, fig.1 and 3.)
  • Figure 48. Statue base dedicated by Statorius mentioning the rebuilding of a mithraeum from Apulum (lupa 12244)
  • Figure 49. Mithraic relief from the so called mithraeum of Oancea (lupa 19324)
  • Figure 50. The mithraeum discovered in 2008 in Apulum (photo after: Rustoiu et al. 2015, 260, fig. 1.)
  • Figure 51: The ‘road of the sanctuaries’ on the southern part of the Municipium Septimium Apulense. The mithraeum is marked in red (I.7.). Photo: author.
  • Figure 52. Large Mithras relief from Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (photo after: Szabó 2015a)
  • Figure 53. Cautes with a bucranium from Apulum (photo: author)
  • Figure 54. Mithras Petrogenitus from Apulum (lupa 17355)
  • Figure 55. Mosaic from Apulum (after Snogov 1996: 37-38)
  • Figure 56. Cross-marked pottery fragments (after Moga 2007)
  • Figure 57. Gemstone discovered in Apulum (after Nemeti 2013b, fig. 133a).
  • Figure 58. Menas ampulla from Apulum (after Moga 2000).
  • Figure 59. Sucidava belt-buckle from Apulum (after Moga 2007)
  • Figure 60. Late antique lamp with cross-mark (MNUAI, photo: author)
  • Figure 61a-b. The fort of Porolissum and its environment with the so called road of sanctuaries (after Opreanu et al. 2013, 104, fig. 20 and 24)
  • Figure 62. Construction inscription from the Dolichenum of Porolissum (after EDH 043639)
  • Figure 63. Plan of the dolichenum from Porolissum (photo: author, after Gudea-Tamba 2001)
  • Figure 64. Column from the Dolichenum in Mehadia with a local iconography (after Boda-Szabó 2011)
  • Figure 65. Relief representing Jupiter Dolichenus and Juno Dolichena from Porolissum (photo by Dan Deac, Museum of Zalău)
  • Figure 66. Map of the Dacian Kingdom with possible pre-Roman sacralised spaces (after Pescaru 2005)
  • Figure 67. Map of Ad Mediam drawn by Griselini (after Benea-Lalescu 1998)
  • Figure 68. The modern site of Germisara (photo: Aurora Pețan)
  • Figure 69. Gold plaques from Germisara (after Rusu 1994 and Ardevan-Cocis 2014)
  • Figure 70. Topography of Roman Germisara and its sites (after Pescaru-Alicu 2000)
  • Figure 71a-b. Monumental inscription dedicated by C. Sentius Iustinus in Germisara (after Piso 2015)
  • Figure 72. Healing sites and sacralised spaces in Roman Dacia (map based on Schäfer 2007, 357, abb. 1. with the kind permission of the author)
  • Figure 73. The gold and iron mines of Roman Dacia (after Hirt 2010)
  • Figure 74. Topography of Roman Ampelum (after Pătrășcanu 1967): purple – cemetery; red – civilian settlement; nr. 1 – Jupiter temple/Capitolium; nr. 2 – Asclepeion; nr.3 – Fortuna Salutaris sanctuary; nr. 4 – dolichenum (map after Pătrășcanu 1967)
  • Figure 75. Jupiter Verospi head from Ampelum (after Diaconescu 2014)
  • Figure 76. Mithraic sanctuaries in Roman Dacia (map based on Schäfer 2007, 357, abb. 1. with the kind permission of the author)
  • Figure 77. Plan of the mithraeum from Marosdécse/Decea Mureșului (after Takács 1987)
  • Figure 78. Mithras Petrogenitus from Romula (after Sicoe 2014, cat. nr. 236)