Sacred Travels: Religious Identity and its Effect on the Reception of Travelers in the Eastern Roman Mediterranean

There are two contradictory pictures of society in the Roman Mediterranean of the first through third centuries. One view presumes a universal set of cultural values and beliefs, freely drawn on by any residents within the Roman territories. The other considers the Mediterranean to be a world divided by local interests and competing ideas of community and identity. Both views, however, offer a static picture of an Imperial Roman society that underwent a sea change only after the Empire became Christianized in the fourth century. This dissertation offers a new assessment of these topics in order to help create a better understanding of cultural unity, community, and religious change within the Roman Empire.;I focus this study on two essential elements of Roman society which cross these topics: travel and religious identity. In pursuing this investigation I employ sources which document the experiences of individual travelers in the Eastern Mediterranean. These sources range from firsthand accounts to intentional fictions and demonstrate the role of religious identity in forming attitudes of and towards travelers. What becomes quite clear is that not only did religious attitudes inform the purpose of travel and the choice of destinations before the fourth century, but also that they offered a means by which travelers could negotiate the communities with which they came into contact. Although particular practices and deities varied by civic community or within a city, ancient travelers relied on a common understanding of religious structures and practices in order to align themselves with the various communities of the Mediterranean.;When evidence from the first three centuries is put alongside that provided by Christian pilgrims in the fourth and fifth centuries, it is clear that ideas of hospitality did not significantly change after Rome officially adopted Christianity. Although Christian ideology has often been considered crucial to religious and social changes in the fourth century, creating a "universal" Roman Empire, this study recommends a reassessment of this view. The travelers' tales I consider give good evidence for a current of universalism within the Roman Empire prior to the full literary expression of Christian ideology.