L’introduzione del culto di Iside a Roma

Abstract

The period when Egyptian cults first appear in Rome is generally considered as being relatively late. However, a re-examination of the available data (literary, epigraphic and archaeological) in the light of the earliest relationships between Rome and Ptolemaic Egypt, allows us to reconsider this position. Various documents attest the presence, both at Rome and Ostia, of such cults from at least the 2nd century B.C., naturally in a private setting. This is the case of the temple of Isis Capitolina, built on the Capitolium at latest at the end of this century. As regards the creation of an official cult, there is no reason to dispute the precise indications of Dio Cassius, who records the foundation at Rome of a temple of Isis and Serapis, probably that of the Campus Martius, by the triumvirs in 43 B.C.