ABSTRACT
The idea of State Religion is associated today with monolithic systems of belief, whether a variety of Christianity or Islam, Buddhism, Shinto or even Communism. Such faiths may be imposed on subjects of the State and at the very least they are privileged. In no society have the acts of politicians been so circumscribed by religious regulation as they were in ancient Rome. It has been demonstrated above that many aspects of this Italian religion-or conglomeration of cults-were taken to the provinces. Temples were certainly built with State encouragement. But was there a state religion in the medieval or modern sense? There was certainly no exclusive body of belief which encompassed all man’s emotional and ceremonial needs, but the stories of Christian martyrs which show them being punished for refusing to sacrifice to idols or to the Emperor’s genius should warn us against too hasty a dismissal of ‘State’ or ‘Official’ cults, even if they are not always easy to define.1
