La devotio ibérica y R. Étienne: ¿El origen del culto imperial en Hispania?

Abstract

This paper presents a review about the link between the Devotio Iberica and the beginning of the imperial cult in Hispania. This relationship was set up by R. Étienne in his dissertation Le culte impérial dans la Péninsule Ibérique. D’Auguste à Dioclétien which allows him to explain the early establishment of the imperial cult in the Iberian Peninsula. In this paper, at first, I present the sources which inform us about the Devotio Iberica and later I analyse the argumentation of R. Étienne which puts in relation both practices (in this part it is analyzed the social structure of the Hispania’s communities, the warlike mentality of this communities and their worship to the foreign chiefs). In this way, it is questioned the suppose originality of the Hispanic devotio and the importance of this practice as a revitalizing agent of the imperial cult in Hispania, a theory that D. Fishwick and L. A. Curchin support nowadays.