ABSTRACT
Statues, votive tablets, coins, references on tombstones of traditional archaeology – all these have given us more than a mere hint of the depth and complexity of Roman London’s religious belief. Like many another London name, ‘La Belle Sauvage’ is derived from a name current in Roman times – in this case the linked names of a Celtic and a Roman divinity. The Galli castrated themselves, dedicated the separated genital organs to the goddess, and then – provided that they survived this brutal and dangerous mayhem – continued to serve the goddess, but dressed henceforward only as women. Roman religion, so deeply and intimately affecting the Roman people, could not have been otherwise than an affair of the Roman State. And this State religion, like everything else in the world of Rome, was organized with typical Roman efficiency.
