Transforming Religion under the Roman Empire

This chapter presents a series of interrelated questions about the dynamics of cult in Roman Africa. These questions include: How did incorporation into the Roman Empire reshape the religious life? How contingent was cult on wider social changes? In answering these questions, the chapter demonstrates the deeper ways that Phoenician‐Punic and Roman imperialism and colonialism affected the religious life in North Africa from the eighth century bce to the fourth century ce. Recognizing distinct cultural strata in the religious life of later periods is impossible: Africa was always part of a networked oikumene . The widespread adoption of Latin names for gods in Africa demands explanation. One of the biggest changes observed in the religious life of North Africa was the end of child sacrifice in the tophets and tophet‐like sanctuaries. There have been many efforts to link so‐called courtyard‐temples with “native” gods, a pre‐Roman form, and cultural conservatism.