this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
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RoughRomanMemes

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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 5 points 23 hours ago

This is true - though such political considerations could also be leveled against native gods, such as the suppression of the cults of Bacchus-Liber in the 2nd century BCE.

Point of it being that the Romans (and Hellenic polytheism in general) were inclined to see "foreign" gods as more "our gods but seen from dirty, foreign eyes" rather than something divorced from their theology entirely. They aren't worshipping the wrong gods, they're just doing it in their own, non-Roman way.

How absolutely barbarous!

That being said, some specific gods were regarded, either permanently or just for a time, as 'new' entities, as given in your example with Isis, and in earlier (though more positive) instances with the cult of Magna Mater and the ritual of evocatio.