Laurent Bricault

Un phare, une flotte, Isis, Faustine et l'annone

Une nouvelle inscription alexandrine attribue a Faustine la Jeune les epithetes de Sosistolos et de Pharia. C’est un nouvel element a ajouter au dossier de l’identification de l’imperatrice a Isis. L’epithete Pharia, a l’origine synonyme d’“alexandrine” sous la plume des poetes augusteens, devient a l’epoque antonine le qualificatif d’Isis (et de Faustine) en tant que protectrice de la flotte frumentaire d’Alexandrie. La fete du Sacrum Phariae du 25 avril lui est consacree, apres que Commode a choisi de sacrifier a la deesse et a son paredre Sarapis pour remercier les dieux d’avoir mis fin a la terrible famine de 189. On retrouve encore Isis Faria, symbole de vie et de prosperite, au droit des monnaies emises par l’aristocratie romaine au IVe siecle et distribuees a l’occasion des Vota Publica.

1 Isis and Empires

This is the introductory chapter of the book, which describes and studies constructions of symbolic meaning through power and religion concerning the cults of Isis in the Hellenistic and Roman period. Between the beginning of the Hellenistic era and the end of the 4th century AD, the expectations and needs of the people living in the Hellenistic and Roman world changed significantly. Both Isis and Sarapis fitted the new preoccupations of the inhabitants of the Empires better than (some) other deities. Sarapis acquired a status and an image that allowed him to become part of the universal trinity of Zeus-Helios-Sarapis. It is crucial to recognise, moreover, that the couple Isis and Sarapis introduced by the Ptolemies at the beginning of the 3rd century BC was very different from the one that oversaw the destiny of the imperium romanum six centuries later. Keywords: Hellenistic era; Isis; Roman period; Sarapis

Power, Politics and the Cults of Isis

In the Hellenistic and Roman world intimate relations existed between those holding power and the cults of Isis. This book is the first to chart these various appropriations over time within a comparative perspective. Ten carefully selected case studies show that “the Egyptian gods” were no exotic outsiders to the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean, but constituted a well institutionalised and frequently used religious option. Ranging from the early Ptolemies and Seleucids to late Antiquity, the case studies illustrate how much symbolic meaning was made with the cults of Isis by kings, emperors, cities and elites. Three articles introduce the theme of Isis and the longue duree theoretically, simultaneously exploring a new approach towards concepts like ruler cult and Religionspolitik.

Isis en Occident

In this volume, 16 contributions by specialists of political and religious history of Antiquity give a precious general overview of the diffusion of Egyptian cults in the Western Roman World.

CULTES ISIAQUES EN PROCONSULAIRE

In this volume, 16 contributions by specialists of political and religious history of Antiquity give a precious general overview of the diffusion of Egyptian cults in the Western Roman World.