After Life in Roman Paganism
AFTER LIFE IN ROMAN PAGANISM
LECTURES DELIVERED AT YALE UNIVERSITY ON THE SILLIMAN FOUNDATION
BY
FRANZ CUMONT
NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON · HUMPHREY MILFORD · OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXXII
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
TO MY FRIEND
GEORGE LINCOLN HENDRICKSON
1888–1922
After Life in Roman Paganism" by Franz Cumont is a historical account written in the early 20th century. The work discusses the beliefs and ideas of Roman paganism regarding the afterlife, focusing on the conceptions of the soul's fate after death. This analysis highlights the evolving beliefs about immortality, punishment, and reward that characterized the religious landscape of ancient Rome. At the start of the text, the author sets the stage for the exploration of Roman beliefs about the afterlife, noting the contemporary relevance of these ideas given the horrors of recent conflicts (World War I).. Cumont indicates the need for a comprehensive investigation into the evolution of Roman eschatological thought, tracing how earlier notions of afterlife shifted as philosophical schools like Epicureanism and Stoicism influenced societal views. He touches on the importance of burial practices, the persistence of primitive beliefs, and the various conceptions of the nether world, all of which provide a framework for understanding how ancient Romans perceived death and life after it.
Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont (1868 - 1947) was a Belgian archaeologist and historian, a philologist and student of epigraphy, who brought these often isolated specialties to bear on the syncretic mystery religions of Late Antiquity, notably Mithraism.
III - Celestial Immortality