Romanization and some Cilician cults

Abstract

This paper focuses on two sites from central Cilicia in Anatolia, the Corycian Cave and Kanhdivane, to make some comments about religion and Romanization. From the Corycian Cave, a pair of early third-century AD altars are dedicated to Zeus Korykios, described as Victorious (Epinikios), Triumphant (Tropaiuchos), and the Harvester (Epikarpios), and to Hermes Korykios, also Victorious, Triumphant, and the Harvester. The altars were erected for 'the fruitfulness and brotherly love of the Augusti', suggesting they come from the period before Geta's murder, i.e. between AD 209 and 212. 1 These altars are unremarkable and similar examples are common elsewhere, so these altars can be interpreted as showing the homogenising effect of the Roman Empire. But behind these dedications, however, may lie a religious tradition stretching back to the second millennium BC. At the second site, Kanhdivane, a tomb in the west necropolis was accompanied by a funerary inscription erected by Marcus Ulpius Knos for himself and his family, probably in the second century AD. Marcus then added, 'but if anyone damages or opens [the tomb] let him pay to the treasury of Zeus 1000 [denarii] and to the Moon (Selene) and to the Sun (Helios) above 1000 [denarii] and let him be subject to the curses also of the Underground Gods (Katachthoniai Theoi). ' 2 When he wanted to threaten retribution, Knos turned to a local group of gods. As at the Corycian Cave, Knos' actions may preserve traces of pre-Roman practices, though within a Roman framework. Both examples show Romanization in the sense that the imposition of Roman state control had led to cultural changes in the region. The use of the term 'Romanization' has been questioned recently, especially with demands for greater political sensitivity, and in particular, the need to see the process from the perspective of the administered and non-elites. This is a reflection of modem cultures and differs from the way Romanization was discussed in 1