Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chapter One The network approach; Introduction: Why networks? Why now?; A brief history of networks and how they work; Social identity and clustering; Spreading information: innovation, vulnerability and cascade; Where's the humanity? Networks and opinion leaders; Boundaries, hubs, cascade and 'failure'; Networks, identity and antiquity; Networks in archaeology; Proximal Point Analysis; Small-worlds; Complexity Theory; Relational space; Centrality: betweenness and closeness. Social Network AnalysisA network archaeology: crossing scales of change; Points of contention, and the use of networks in this book; Chapter Two Networks and religion in the Roman world; Introduction; The Roman Empire: a 'global' network?; The network of governance and the Imperial cult; The army: a network of might; Controlling the landscape: transport, buildings and Roman identity; Controlling the economy: networks of exchange; Religion in the Roman Empire; The religious context of the Roman Empire; A changing picture: religious groups, private religion and the effects of empire. Religious authority and 'belief'Finding religion: archaeology, epigraphy and symbols; Analysing ancient religious choices, change and continuity; New cults and social networks; Ritual and religious transmission; Chapter Three Jupiter Dolichenus: military networks on the edges of empire; Introduction; Jupiter Dolichenus: origins; A brief history of the region; Doliche; Early iconography; Iconography of the Roman cult; Explanations for success?; Hypothesis: activation of a Roman military network; Epigraphic analysis and the nature of the evidence; Chronological framework and initial dispersion. The role of the eastern campaigns in cult diffusionTrajan's Parthian wars: 114-117; The Bar Kokhba revolt: 132-135; Lucius Verus' Parthian expedition: 161-167; Septimius Severus' eastern campaigns: 195, 197-198and 208; Syrian recruits; The influence of traders; The communications network of Roman military officials; Administering the army: structure and communication; The mobility of the officer class; Visualising the network; Initial PPA (Map 3.5); Developing networks over time (Maps 3.6-3.9); First-century bc-ad 150: Map 3.6; ad 151-211: Map 3.7; ad 212-253: Map 3.8; ad 254-300: Map 3.9. Beyond the military: networks and receptive social spaceCentres of diffusion; Syrians and priests; The military-civilian interface; Conclusions: social networks and social spaces for new cults; The end of the cult; Networks and cognitive space; Chapter Four The Jewish Diaspora in the west: the rabbinic reforms, ethnicity and the (re?)activation of Jewish identity; Introduction; Jews in a gentile world; The beginnings of Diaspora; The Temple and the synagogue: participation in community and civic life; Assimilation and dissonance; Gentile reaction to Diaspora i: hostility and 'anti-Semitism'. Expansion of 'ethnicity' i: Jewish-gentile intermarriage.

Examines the relationship between social networks and religious transmission to reappraise how new religious ideas spread in the Roman Empire.

Print version record. Print version is xii, 322 pages.

English.