| Plan of this and following lectures. The formalised Roman religion
meets with perils, material and moral, and ultimately proves
inadequate. Subject of this lecture, the introduction of Greek
deities and rites; but first a proof that the Romans were a really
religious people; evidence from literature, from worship, from
the practice of public life, and from Latin religious vocabulary.
Temple of Ceres, Liber, Libera (Demeter, Dionysus, Persephone);
its importance for the date of Sibylline influence at Rome.
Nature of this influence; how and when it reached Rome. The
keepers of the "Sibylline books"; new cults introduced by
them. New rites: lectisternia and supplicationes, their meaning
and historical importance
| [248]-269 |