Worshipping in community: Jupiter and Roman religion in the early imperial period

In this dissertation, an examination of the role of Jupiter, the highest god of the Romans, in the worship by Italian communities serves as a case study that helps to elucidate the most significant ways public power structures exerted influence on Roman religion and to reintegrate the worship of non-elites into a fuller conception of Roman religion. This is accomplished through an exploration of how communities in Italy during the early imperial period (Augustus to Domitian) constructed the ideology and resulting worship of the Roman god Jupiter.;As a framework within which to conduct the investigation, a new model for religion practiced in the Roman Empire is proposed. This model aids in conceptualizing how individual communities in Italy, composed of members from various status groups in both the public and private spheres, cultivated Jupiter. This approach contrasts with the currently dominant polis-religion model, which tends to focus narrowly on public modes of worship espoused by the elite classes. In recognition of the importance of communal worship to the Romans, the alternative model entails a study of an interconnecting web of communities involved in cultivating a proper relationship with the gods.;Within this framework, this examination treats a community as the location of religious action and the conceptions of the god that frequently determined the former's nature and shape; primary interest lies with the conceptions of Jupiter that were part of the system of ideas that led to religious action in a given community. In order to reconstruct the prevalent ideas/conceptions about Jupiter in a particular group, this dissertation investigates three important elements in the construction of the god. More specifically, this study compares and contrasts the functions, visual manifestations, and the cultic honors accorded to Jupiter among the citizens composing the civic community of Rome with those characterizing the following types of associations found in Italy during the early imperial period: civic communities of municipalities, urban communities, families and households.