A Bonus Ancient Artefact of the Day: To unite #AAOTD with #MuseumsUnlocked - a bronze sistrum, ca. AD 50-150, a cultic rattle typically associated with eastern religions, such as that of the deities Isis and Serapis.
Image: British Museum (1756,0101.541)
Image: British Museum (1756,0101.541)
The cult of Isis was not always a popular one in Rome, despite this sistrum being found in the environs of Rome, and certainly under the Julio-Claudian emperors, the cult was one of a number of foreign religious practices that were oppressed.
We may recall that Suetonius (Augustus 93.1) claimed that while Augustus showed respect for ancient foreign rites, he despised the rest; Tiberius abolished foreign cults at Rome, forcing the initiates to burn their vestments and accessories (Suetonius, Tiberius 36.1).
Gaius looted the temples of Greece for statues to adapt for his own honour (Suetonius, Gaius 22; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.7-9) and threatened to despoil the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in a similar way (Philo, Embassy to Gaius 186-188).
Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome and abolished what Suetonius terms “the Druidic cult”, but equally attempted to transfer the Eleusinian Mysteries from Athens to Rome (Suetonius, Claudius 25).
Nero persecuted the Christians, “a sect professing a new and mischievous superstition” (Suetonius, Nero 16), although obviously showed tremendous affection for Greece.
The circumstances changed in AD 69 when the Flavian Dynasty secured the imperial position. Their attitude to foreign cults, with the notable exception of Judaism - as the suppression of the Jewish Revolt was a cornerstone of their image, was one of more than mere acceptance.
The Flavians acknowledged that they were the heads of a global empire that encompassed many polytheistic cults. This, combined with the family's own rise to prominence in the eastern provinces and Egypt, entailed a celebration of foreign cult.
Vespasian emblazoned his coinage with the Temple of Isis, such as this sestertius of AD 71, and the Flavians promoted an association with Isis, Vespasian and Titus resting at the Temple of Isis before the Jewish Triumph (Josephus, Jewish War 7.123).
Image: RIC 2.1 Vespasian 117
Image: RIC 2.1 Vespasian 117
Likewise Domitian, in AD 69, had disguised himself as a devotee of Isis in order to escape Vitellius’ troops when the Capitoline Temple was set aflame (Suetonius, Dom. 1). It is interesting to note that here Suetonius describes the cult of Isis as “a rather questionable order”.
The cult’s popularity grew, peaking in the late first century AD and early second century AD, during which period Plutarch wrote his de Iside et Osiride, which some have speculated may have been prompted by an imperial enthusiasm for the cult.
For Domitian his favouritism of foreign cult became yet another means for his condemnation in antiquity, with Pliny the Younger remarking that Domitian’s banquets were marked by the attendance members of foreign cults with accompanying “obscene behaviour” (Panegyric 49.8).
Thus the Flavians very much moved away from the Julio-Claudian precedents of Augustus and Tiberius, the latter of whom persecuted the priests of the Temple of Isis in Rome, following a scandal, and threw the cult image into the Tiber (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.3.4)...
...while the former was hostile to the Egyptian cults, most likely due to his vilification of Cleopatra, with both he and Marcus Agrippa persecuting the cult of Isis (Cassius Dio, Roman History 53.2.3; 54.6.6). #AAOTD
