Augustus Polonus. The Image of the Emperor in Polish Historiography in Inter-War Period. Preliminary Remarks

The figure of the first Roman emperor in many ways had an impact on the Polish culture, especially in historiography and literature. In my paper I focus on some issues connected with the subject. I discuss the ideas presented by Tadeusz Zieliński, one of the most eminent researchers of the ancient world in Europe in the first part of 20th century. He devoted a significant part of his opus to present his own vision of Augustus seen as a reformer of the Roman state religion. Zieliński built the emperor’s image as the saviour of the Roman world in the face of „the end of times”. This term played significant role in Zieliński’s thinking about Roman history at the end of the Republic. For the Polish scholar celebration of the secular game in 17 BC was the final task done by Augustus. This task Zieliński defined as the sacred mission and connected with the figure of Sibyl and the impact of the Etruscan theory of saeculum. For Zieliński, Augustus belonged to the most important men of providence in Roman history. In the same way I discuss the ideas presented by Ludwik Piotrowicz and Mieczysław St. Popławski. Both scholars analised the question of imperial cult in depth. Popławski expressed original view on Augustus apotheosis seen as the development of imperial cult in transcendental perspective. Piotrowicz instead saw this problem as a purely political phenomenon. Last part of my paper is devoted to short resentation of the echos of Augustus’ bimillenium in Polish scholar activity

Cultural paraphrase in Roman religion in the age of Augustus. The case of the Sibyl and the Sibylline books

In my paper I examine the use of Sibylline Books during Augustus’ reign. I discuss the role of the Sibyl as well as the collection attributed to her in terms of cultural changes and cultural paraphrases. According to my opinion the prophetess had mainly cultural, not ritual significance. I argue for treating the interventions onto corpus of official Sibylline Books made by Augustus in the category of creating the new cultural identity for the inhabitants of the Empire

Foucault i matrony. Kobiety w religii rzymskiej: między potestas a potentia

The author considers the role of a woman by refereeing to the paradigm created by Michael Foucault in The History of Sexuality and based on the principal of passive and active sexual attitude as a key to analyse the social relations. Taking this paradigm to a higher level of generality and applying it to the analysis of the role of a woman in the Roman religion the author came to a conclusion that gender was not the reason for discrimination or diminishment of the role of women in the sphere of the public religion. It was merely a criterion for assigning women certain roles within the frames of which their actions were routine and their rights the same as that of men. The author thinks that considering the links between religion and politics in the ancient Rome, an attempt should be made to redefine the role of women in a spirit of affirmative humanism by demonstrating that if potestas belonged to men, potentia, which characterised women, allowed them significantly greater participation in the religious and political life of Rome than it has been so far presented in the literature

Flaminat Juliusza Cezara – alternatywny sposób kariery patrycjuszowskiej?

In my paper I examine the case of Julius Caesar who was appointed as the flamen Dialis  in 84 BC. I emphasize not so much the attempt to determine whether Caesar was in fact a flamen but rather reflect on the role which this priestly office could have had on the career of patrician. I belive that the position of flamen Dialis with the claim of being a part of the Senate was tempting and so this office could have been quite important for patricians especially from the minor gentes

Ofiara i rytuał w religii rzymskiej we współczesnych badaniach. Rekonesans

Sacrifice and ritual in contemporary studies on Roman religion. Some remarks (Summary) This article is devoted to the analysis of the contemporary theories on the role of sacrifice and ritual in Roman religion. After the short discussion of the great sacrificial theories of Walter Burkert, so-called École de Paris (Paul Veyne, Marcel Detienne) and René Girard, the author devotes his attention to the contemporary point of view on the title issue. He tries to grab the changes in the understanding of the problem in the last twenty years. The author concludes that in the present scientific literature we can observe a clear shift in the current paradigm. In the centre of Roman religion the sacrifice existed in various forms, not only in bloody ones as it has been thought hitherto

The Nature of Renaissance Antiquarianism: History, Methodology, Definition

The aim of this work is to provide a possible definition for Renaissance antiquarianism. This cultural pathway, which influenced the way the past was interpreted between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, represented a methodological perspective which involved the cross-referencing of heterogeneous sources, strongly linked to mankind’s perception of time and that helped shape a renewed historical consciousness. Focus will be devoted to a possible history of the phenomenon and a general explanation of its methodolog