This book is a welcome contribution to the history of the ancient Mediterranean. In it, animal sacrifice during the Roman Empire (31 BC–AD 395) is used as a lens into broader social changes. Rives first establishes the pre-Imperial Graeco-Roman norms and significance of animal sacrifice and then traces the transformation of animal sacrifice in relation to the Roman Empire, with an emphasis on the role of Christianity in this process. The author masterfully analyses historical evidence of animal sacrifice during this period within a well-developed theoretical framework. Rives meets his goals of understanding the change in social function and cultural significance of animal sacrifice during the Roman Empire by pairing ample textual evidence that he contextualizes historically with clear, thoughtful interpretation.

The book is easy to follow, with consistent summaries of individual chapters and sections that the author relates to the broader arguments. He defines key terms such as ritual, power and communication, citing the work of theorists such as Catherine Bell (1997) and Michael Mann (2012). The author describes the social purposes of animal sacrifice: it displays piety, wealth, benevolence and adherence to cultural norms. Power is ‘the ability to pursue and attain goals’, specifically in relation to ‘mastery exercised over other people’ (p. 10, cf. Mann). Power can be categorized as diffused and authoritative. He mostly focuses on diffused power, in which power is decentralized and practice-driven, rather than the explicit and direct authoritative power. Rives identifies control of economic resources, and relatedly, control of physical forces, as key sources of social power in the Graeco-Roman World (p. 11). Again following Mann, Rives defines ideological power as either immanent power, in which existing hierarchies are reinforced, particularly in power structures based on resource control, or transcendent power that claims a privileged few possess knowledge of an absolute truth (p. 12). Rives makes a distinction between communication through practice (nonverbal) and discourse (verbal) (p. 13). He connects the different branches of ideological power with social status and forms of communication by arguing that those with control of economic resources (and therefore those with social power) tend towards practice to maintain immanent ideological power (p. 14). Those without this social power use discourse and transcendent ideological power to increase their social power (p. 15). Parts I, II, and III of the book identify a communication form related to animal sacrifice (practice or discourse), and the different forms of power (social power being either diffused or authoritative, ideological power being either immanent or transcendent) through examples such as how animal sacrifice connected urban elites through a shared cultural practice, or how Roman and Christian policies on animal sacrifice reflected changing authoritative power.

This book primarily uses historical texts, with occasional use of faunal, iconographic or numismatic evidence. Chapter 1 establishes the goals of the book, the theoretical framework and the social impacts of animal sacrifice. Part I (Chapters 2–5) argues animal sacrifice was largely a flexible tool of the elite for defining social hierarchies. Chapter 2 surveys the environmental and economic considerations of rearing animals and the costliness of animal sacrifice. Chapter 3 describes the emergence of euergetism, a formalized relationship between benefactors and the community. Public events with animal sacrifice reinforced social hierarchies, with elite benefactors who presided over the rites performing their status and redistributing meat to the masses. Chapter 4 uses examples from Gaul and Judaea to show how local elites employed animal sacrifice to negotiate their standing within changing political structures. Chapter 5 outlines animal sacrifice in the Imperial cult and how the emperor was the unifying piece across the empire; the rituals were flexible but cultivated a shared civic identity. Part II (Chapters 6–8) surveys the historical evidence of Graeco-Roman and early Christian attitudes towards animal sacrifice, connecting this discourse and the power to persuade the populace outside of the established hierarchy that was largely defined by wealth. Early on, little attention by Greek philosophers was given to animal sacrifice, but the link between morality and abstinence from meat consumption emerged (Chapter 6). Chapters 7 and 8 discuss the early Christian discourse on animal sacrifice, and the increased Greek philosophical interest in the topic. Part III (Chapters 9–11) traces the ‘pendulum swings’ of Imperial law, between demanding sacrifice to prohibiting it. Animal sacrifice emerged as antithetical to Christianity, eventually signaling pagan identity instead of norms of the empire. Rives concludes (Chapter 11) that ultimately, animal sacrifice is important not in and of itself but because it intersects with so many aspects of Roman Imperial life and culture. Animal sacrifice, in both practice and discourse, reflects the complex and profound transformations of the period.

Well-researched, clearly articulated arguments such as this will inspire further discussion. Rives provides insightful commentary throughout and engages with key theoreticians, but some discussion around meat production and consumption could be developed further. Chapter 2, for example, gives an appropriate amount of detail on the practicalities of rearing animals in the ancient Mediterranean, but would benefit from engagement with literature on the ritual economy of food production. In this section, he equates the ubiquity of animals with economic and ritual value, stating that fully mature large animals, specifically uncastrated cattle, would be the most costly (and therefore most desirable) for animal sacrifice. This simplifies non-economic considerations, such as the potential preference for young animals based on their perceived purity or quality even if they were less costly to acquire. He later writes (p. 180) that textual evidence indicates a belief that young animals were preferred by the Gods. Greater attention to avoiding a sacred/profane dichotomy would have added nuance to the complex interplay of economic pragmatism and ritual practice. Further discussion of the redistribution of meat, how animal size relates to the number of people it could sustain (such as the example discussed in the final chapter in a Christian context, p. 341–342), and how animal sacrifice could signal belonging through inclusion or exclusion of participants would be fruitful. Such discussion would also help balance the elite perspective that is prevalent in this book. Chapter 6 could have benefited from more discussion of theoretical approaches to the relation between food taboos, meat and animal sacrifice.

The mention of the all-too-familiar Romanization debate in Chapter 4 should have merited more attention, since this contact between cultures is the basis of Chapters 4 and 5 and the author has novel, significant contributions to offer, such as how animal sacrifice in the east and west differed, arguing against a monolithic practice across the empire (although they share many core similarities). As this book has an elite focus, which is appropriate given the emphasis on power, the Romanization discussion and topic such as the redistribution of meat could have been a place to address non-elite perception of and participation in animal sacrifice within the changing sociopolitical landscape. These areas of interest are, however, minor within the ambitious scope of the work. Rives’ Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire successfully intertwines theory and historical evidence; the book reaches across disciplines and should serve as a model for future scholarship on the ancient Mediterranean.

Victoria C. Moses

Harvard University

vmoses@fas.harvard.edu

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