Studia Historica: Historia Antigua (Mar 2013)
War and religion: Lucian, the oracle of Alexander in Abonuteichos, and the military defeats of Sedatius Severianus against the Parthians, and Marcus Aurelius against Cuadi and Marcomanni
Abstract
Taking as a start point the opuscule by Lucian of Samosata entitled Alexander or The false Prophet, we call attention on some autophone oracles sent by this controversial oracular shrine in Abonuteichos: with singular attention to oracle given to imperial legate Sedatius Severianus, in war against the parthians (Luc. Alex. 27), and the so called «oracle of the two lions» (Luc. Alex. 48), requested by the emperor Marcus Aurelius shortly before the beginning of the military campaign against the barbarians Cuadi and Marcomanni. The rising of divinatory practices and the popularization of «holy men» in this time are symptoms -rather than having relation with crisisof spiritual changes in the religious beliefs of the period. In the case studies analyzed here, these changes are also transferred to the political field: the war in the frontiers, which also show or announced far-reaching structural changes, with barbarian attacks becoming more systematic and effective who harassed the Roman power across the natural barrier of the Danube. We relate the «oracle of lions» with the scene XII (destroyed, but preserved in a drawing of the XVII Century) of the Aurelian Column in Rome.
