Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 6 - The Roman Age (6 A.D.-420 A.D.) (László Kocsis, Endre Tóth)

73. Lead plaque with a depiction of the Danuhian Rider God from Pannónia. 3rd century 100 loyalty. Roman religion was known for its strict ceremonies, which both permeated and regulated public and private affairs. These ceremonies were designed to ensure the goodwill of the gods for successful ventures. In addition to the stone altars and their inscriptions and reliefs with a mythological theme (Fig. 71), the relics of religion and religious practices include also the small statuettes depicting various deities, ranging from lovely, artistic pieces to rather crude specimens. The most widely venerated gods of the Roman pantheon are evoked by the cast bronze statuettes placed in a reconstructed household shrine (larariun; Case 12). Echoing the military nature of Pannonian provincial society, the gods included in this pantheon are the ones most often beseeched for good luck and courage in military ventures (Mars, Fortuna, Victoria, Hercules), the ones who watched over health, and the patron gods of trade and love (Aesculapius, Mercurius, Venus), together with the statues of the lares, the protective spirits of the house after whom the household shrine was named. The bronze statuettes were for the greater part cast by local craftsmen; most of them were quite skilful copies of Italian pieces (with the occasional clumsier specimen), but even so, they are an important source of Pannonian art. The lack of emotional involvement and of expressions of compassion gradually created a deep rift between the official state religion and the individual's religious feelings. The expansion of the empire led to an interest in the religions of the occupied territories, accompanied by an ever-spreading tendency to seek personal deliverance and salvation through the initiation rites and mysteries of various oriental cults. In Pannónia, the reverence of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris (later joined by Serapis, whose cult was promoted by certain emperors) can be documented from the 1st century. The jug and patera of copper and bronze found in 1834 at Egyed (Fig. 72) is a superb and unique relic of Egyptian religion, on par with other similar finds from the Roman Empire (Case 14). The gold and silver inlaid figures of the Egyptian gods, Isis, Horus and the ibis-headed Thot (with and without wings) sparkle against the dark background. The patera (a shallow, handled pan) depicts a Nilotic scene: a hippopotamus attacking a crocodile among the lush vegetation of the Nile, a scene taken from classical Egyptian art. The vessel symbolising the lifegiving waters of the Nile was used in both Egyptian and Roman ceremonies. These two vessels, used for washing hands and, at the same time, expressing the purification of body and soul, were part of the paraphernalia of Roman religious ceremonies. The vessels were made in Egypt in the 1st century; they perhaps came from the sanctuary dedicated to Egyptian gods in the municipium of Mursella/Mórichida-K i sárpás. The followers of Mithras attained personal salvation during their initiation. The cult pictures of the god were composed according to a strict iconography: the sun god of Persian origins was always portrayed in the act of slaying a bull, a symbol of the powers of the