The Peace of the Gods: Elite Religious Practices in the Middle Roman Republic

The Peace of the Gods (Princeton University Press), by former Princeton Classics lecturer professor Craige B. Champion *93, examines religion in the Middle Republic circa 250 – 100 B.C. Champion focuses on Roman elite practices, from the structure of major Roman priesthoods to military commanders’ religious behaviors, rather than the writings of elites in the Republic. He posits that although previous scholars held that Roman elites used religion to control the masses without holding to the customs themselves, Roman elites, in fact, tried to maintain Rome's good fortune through a pax deorum or “peace of the gods.”