Abstract
The collective consciousness of the Romans produced many abstract deities, allegoric creatures without any mythological defi nition; they were based on the belief that everything in the world is permeated with the divine power; the Romans extracted special qualities from the general notion of this power and created special deities being personifi cations of abstract concepts. Many scholars think that the allegoric deities were empty rhetoric expressions of half-political and half-pantheistic religious phraseology. Moreover, while the fi rst component has been studied quite well in works dedicated to the history of political culture, state ideology and propaganda, many aspects of the second one remain out-of-sight. In fact, abstract deities have not still been incorporated in the theoretical model of reconstructed Roman religion. Most specialists in the spiritual life of ancient societies confi ne themselves to listing of divine personifi cations or paying attention to a dozen of the most popular virtues (Concordia, Felicitas, Honos, Iustitia, Libertas, Pax, Pietas, Providentia, Spes, Virtus) and do not analyze hundreds of numina. Obviously, such a selective approach is largely determined by the condition of our sources. This article represents a part of the research project aimed at conceptual consolidation of evidence from narrative, numismatic, epigraphic sources concerning the worship of Securitas. The twelve speeches of Roman orators of the 1st-4th centuries AD refl ect the quirites’ beliefs about security. Recurrent motives connected with securitas are found in the Panegyricus Traiani by Pliny the Younger and traced by the author to the eulogy for Theodosius written by Pacatus Drepanius. Their most important topoi are the following: the princeps guards the world like Hercules; security serves as a sign of the ‘Golden Age’ and is related to freedom; Augustus’ immunity rests on the citizens’ love to him; enemies of the Empire live in constant fear, since they are not covered by Caesar’s power.
Keywords
Ancient Rome, principate, propaganda, religion, panegyric, security
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