Sicilia

A study of Sicilia, the oldest Roman province, enables us to reconstruct religious communication from early imperial times up to the conclusion of the formation of the Roman Empire. Heike Kunz examines the social, political, legal and cultural manifestations of religion in the province of Sicilia. These include the religious policies of the governing elite, religious law, myths (for example the Aeneas legend), rituals in public and private cults, religious organization, the »fasti« of Taormina, individual sacred buildings, the form of local panthea as well as the origin and the growth of individual cults. With the meeting of Rome and Sicily, which was influenced by Greece and also by elements of Punic religion, there was a clash between two religious cultures whose behavior is studied as it was influenced by a newly created political region.