Quod voverat, nunc somnio admonitus posuit: Dreams Concerning Vows in Greek and Roman Religions of the Empire

Although the votive aspects of Greek and Roman religion have been well established, the occasional role that dreams played in the making or fulfilment of vows has not previously received significant attention. Primarily employing Greek and Latin dedicatory inscriptions, this study surveys the evidence for this phenomenon, especially among the religions of the imperial period. As the sources reveal, individuals would sometimes fulfil vows in the aftermath of a dream in which they believed that a divinity had reminded them to do so, and there is also more limited evidence for vows having been made because of a dream. The fact that dreams would sometimes play a role in votive acts and that this was viewed as worth recording epigraphically shows that even a dream on as ordinary a matter as a vow could be viewed by an ancient worshiper as a noteworthy religious experience.