Cicero’s De Divinatione in Religious and Historical Perspective

Authors

  • Elisabeth Begemann Max Weber Centre for Advance Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/2532-5353/7737

Abstract

The article argues that the imperial expansion of the Late Roman Republic is reflected in Cicero’s philosophical texts by example of De divinatione. The expansion of Rome made it necessary to consider what it meant to be Roman and what Roman practices are, especially confronted with other, alien practices that might seem similar. Cicero offers his texts as an admonition to consider religious practices – here: divination – the Romans might encounter in the provinces and how to deal with them, to consider their usefulness while also bearing in mind the latent danger in not doing them right or exceeding the religious need which upholds the pax deorum. Being put in the context of the expanding empire, the article makes sense of the multiple non-Roman examples cited especially in Book 1 of the treatise De divinatione.

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Author Biography

Elisabeth Begemann, Max Weber Centre for Advance Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt

Elisabeth Begemann (elisabeth.begemann@uni-erfurt.de) is research fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advance Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt. She is author of Schicksal als Argument: Ciceros Rede vom fatum in der späten Republik as well as a number of articles on religious issues in Cicero’s philosophy and speeches as well as the reception of Cicero’s philosophy in the 19th century. A second research focus lies on the letters and manuscripts of Georg Wissowa and the historiography of Roman religion in the late 19th and early 20th century in Germany.

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Published

2023-06-12

How to Cite

Begemann, E. (2023). Cicero’s De Divinatione in Religious and Historical Perspective. Ciceroniana On Line, 7(1), 69–93. https://doi.org/10.13135/2532-5353/7737

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2023): CICERONIANA ON LINE 2023 VII, 1

Section

Papers

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