Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a quite different distribution pattern: she was a major goddess in Rome from a very early date, coming under some Greek influence, but seemingly only in and after the Hellenistic period. It shows that the character of the Roman god is specialised and very different from the cult as found elsewhere in Italy, despite the presence of elements of the Greek cult. The book deals with cults of a familiar Roman type where a god or goddess in the normal sense, receiving normal ritual attention, is simultaneously serving as a linguistic concept: Salus and Honos. It discusses the possibility that the Pompeian evidence might also be connected with the crisis, but concludes that there is no proof of any connection nor any sign of destruction of sacred shrines having occurred at the Sant’Abbondio site.