Project information
Socio-Spatial Situatedness of Roman Professions and its Impact on Religion in the Roman Empire: A Formal Modeling Approach (SIPROME)

The SIPROME project will investigate how uncertainties, risks, and variabilities associated with working environments in the Roman Empire impacted the worship strategies of people of profession. By means of formal modeling using a wide array of archaeological and epigraphic data, the project will analyze how and to what extent the exceptionally specialized division of labor in the Roman Empire contributed to the socio-spatial distribution of Roman cults. This mathematical approach, using tools such as spatial proximity analysis, quantitative textual analysis, and predictive modeling, has the significant potential to disentangle the complex interplay between the strongly stratified Roman society, the highly variable physical world it inhabited, and the diverse religious answers that it prompted. SIPROME bridges the gap between the debates on Roman religion and professions that have largely developed independently and it contributes to a major societal topic of risk mitigation strategies from a unique standpoint.