El ejercito romano altoimperial: Un instrumento de integracion de los cultos y divinidades provinciales

Abstract

The Roman Empire constitutes a reality in which individuals not only from diverse backgrounds, cultures or social statuses coexist, but also from different legal categories. This generates a context marked by inequality and the superiority of inhabitants endowed with Roman citizenship —civitas—over those who do not possess it —peregrini—. In turn, during the Early Empire, this situation would lead to the domination of the Italians over the inhabitants of the provinces. Thus, the new circumstances would prompt a recourse to the provincial sphere to meet the needs of Roman society —such as participation in the army—creating a framework that promotes the process of provincial integration. In this study, we will focus on how the Roman army of this period not only becomes an instrument for the legal integration of provincials, but also for cultural and religious integration, i.e., their local cults and deities. To achieve this, we rely on the political, social, economic and cultural characteristics of the Early Empire, as well as the distinctive features of the military sphere that make this process possible, resorting to various epigraphic texts to demonstrate how it manifests through real examples.