Spec. Litter.--Utrecht. / Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-diss.--Bonn. / Vita.

Leptis Magna a joué un rôle essentiel dans l'histoire de l'Afrique du Nord. Ce rôle se base sur des données économiques de la ville et de la bonne gestion de ses élites, qui sont ouvertes à la politique de romanisation en adoptant les coutumes et les modèles de l'architecture romaine. Parmi les élites les plus célèbres, celle de la famille des Spetimii : Septime Sévère qui accéda au trône en 193 après J-.C, sous son règne Leptis Magna atteint son apogée et devient la Rome Africaine, en y édifiant les bâtiments sévériens qui font l’objet de cette étude. Le choix de ce sujet se justifie essentiellement par l’importance de l'urbanisme lepcitain et ses caractéristiques à l’époque sévérienne. Qui ont généré des travaux foisonnants en plusieurs langues. Un bilan est désormais nécessaire qui aura pour objectif de mettre en évidence l’importance et l’originalité de cette phase sévérienne: aussi bien pour la ville elle-même que pour l’idéologie impériale, qui s’est manifestée ici de manière éclatante. Nous essayerons ici de connaitre pour quelles raisons Septime Sévère accorda toute son attention à construire ces édifices somptueux pendant une courte période. Parce qu'elle était sa ville natale ? Où bien, présentait-elle un bénéfice avantageux pour Rome ? L'intérêt de ces monuments grandioses datés de l’époque romaine nécessite une recherche historico-scientifique au niveau du tissu urbain : connaitre leur fonctionnement et leur rôle dans la société romaine; étudier leurs composants esthétiques en essayant de trouver les points communs entre eux; également mesurer l’amplitude de la production artistique et sa relation avec le développement politique et économique de la ville. / Leptis Magna has played a vital role in the history of North Africa.This role is based on the economic data of the city and the good management of its elites who are opened the policy of Romanization by adopting the Roman customs and patterns of Roman architecture. Among elites, most famous are those of the family Septimii which allowed his child, Septimius Severus, came to the throne in 193 AD. Under the reign of this emperor, Leptis Magna reached its peak of prosperity and became the Rome of Africa by setting up a massive constructions program: “The Severan Buildings” are the subject of this study. The choice of this subject is essentially justified by the importance of planning lepcitain characteristics at the Severan period, which generated abundant work in multiple languages. Now an assessment is necessary to highlight the importance and originality of this Severan phase: both for the city itself as well as for imperial ideology, which is conveyed brilliantly. We will try here to know why Septimius Severus gave his full attention to build these magnificent buildings in a short period. Perhaps because it was his hometown? Or was the town an advantageous asset for Rome? The beauty of these great monuments dating from the Roman era requires a historical and scientific research in the urban fabric: To know their operation and their role in Roman society; to study their aesthetic components and to find the common points between them, also to measure the amplitude of the artistic production and its relationships with the political and economic development of the city.

Why do some religious movements succeed and spread, while others, seemingly equally popular and successful at a certain time, ultimately fail? It is from this starting point that this thesis approaches religious success or failure in the Roman Empire: exploring a new analytical method for understanding religious change: network theory. The thesis forms two parts. Part I sets out the theoretical frameworks. The focus of network theory is on the processes by which innovation spreads: how interconnectedness facilitates change. Although some innovations might be ‘superior’, viewing success or failure as the result of interplay between inherent qualities of a religious movement and the structure of the social environment in which it is embedded means it is possible to reduce value judgements about superiority or inferiority. The discussion then turns to religious change. The key point is that sociologists of religion can explain something of the processes of religious conversion (or ‘recruitment’) and the success or failure of a religious movement through an analysis of social interactions. Finally, I explain how I shall use networks both as a heuristic approach and a practical modelling technique to apply to the epigraphic data, and detail some of the previous application of networks to archaeological test cases. Part II applies these methods to the epigraphic data of three religions. In Chapter Four, I examine the cult Jupiter Dolichenus, arguing that the previous explanations for the success of the cult are untenable, showing from the epigraphy that the cult spread through a strong-tie network of Roman military officials. In Chapter Five, I look at the development of Jewish identity in the Diaspora, showing that, during the second century AD, Diaspora Jews began to actively display their Jewish identity in their epitaphs. I argue that this re-Judaization represents the ‘activation’ of an ethno-cultural network, as a response to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the crushing of the Bar Kokhba rebellion; the visible remains of the rabbinic reforms. In Chapter Six, I discuss the cult of the ‘Highest God’, Theos Hypsistos, taking Mitchell’s argument further to suggest that the huge increase in the dedications during the second-third centuries is not simply a reflection of the epigraphic habit, but rather, that the cult of Hypsistos was swelled by the Gentile god-fearers, as a result of the changes happening within Judaism itself at this time.

La relation qu’entretint la divinité mithriaque avec le pouvoir impérial romain fut longtemps négligée du fait de la rareté des sources directes, ne donnant lieu, le plus souvent, qu’à quelques lignes dans les ouvrages généraux consacrés à Mithra. Si le mithriacisme romain fut avant tout un culte à mystères, à ses origines, il n’était pas que cela. Son succès en Perse reposa d’abord sur une manifestation publique utile au pouvoir politique, dont le plus auguste témoignage est Persépolis. Assurément, le mithriacisme romain fut étroitement lié à ses racines perses. Souvent niée, parfois minorée, cette origine fut au cœur d’une ouverture doctrinale des mystes ce qui explique l’hellénisation philosophique du mithriacisme et prépara, plus tard, le terrain du succès politique du christianisme. La cosmogonie mithriaque influença aussi mythes, cultes et philosophies gréco-romaines. Dès lors, à Rome, la tendance du mithriacisme à sortir du cadre mystérique pour mieux s’attacher au pouvoir apparaissait logique. Plus lisible aussi, fut la proximité cultuelle de Cybèle/Mithra avec le couple Anâhitâ/Mithra dont nous avons démontré la réalité jusqu’au Phrygianum Vaticanum. Parallèlement la fusion de Mithra et de la figure de Sol invictus, origine de la mutation de la relation qu’entretint le pouvoir romain avec Mithra devenait indéniable. Seuls Aurélien et Julien correspondirent véritablement aux critères élevés de la morale mithriaque. Mais ils ne pouvaient à eux seuls inverser un mouvement devenu inéluctable. Le IVe siècle apparaît alors, dans l’histoire mouvementée de la religion romaine, comme le tournant dramatique qui mit fin aux espérances des mithriastes de l’Occident. / The relationship between the mithraic divinity and Roman imperial power has long been neglected because of the scarcity of direct sources, only allowing for rare lines in general works devoted to Mithras. If Roman mithraism was indeed a religion of mysteries at its origins, it was not limited to that. Its success in Persia was above all based on a public demonstration useful to those holding political power, whose most majestic testimony is Persepolis. Undoubtedly, Roman mithraism was closely linked to its Persian roots. Often denied, sometimes underestimated, this origin explains followers’ openness towards other doctrinal influences, which led to the philosophical hellenization of Mithraism and later laid the groundwork for the political success of Christianity. Mithraic cosmogony also influenced Greco-Roman myths, cults and philosophies. From that time on, in Rome, the tendency of mithraism to go beyond the mysteric framework in order to strengthen its link to political authority appeared logical. We also demonstrated that the worship of Cybele/Mithra was associated with that of Anâhitâ/Mithra up to the Phrygianum Vaticanum. In parallel, the fusion of Mithra and the figure of Sol invictus, at the origin of the evolution of the relationship between Roman imperial authority and Mithras, became undeniable. Only Aurelian and Julian the Apostate, corresponded truly to the exacting criteria of mithraic morals. But they could not alone reverse a movement that had become inescapable. The fourth century appears then, in the turbulent history of Roman religion, as the dramatic turning point which put an end to the hopes of western mithriasts.