In this article, we present an exposition of the presence of gods, the sacred, and religious sentiment in the life of the Roman soldier within the geographical limit of Hispania. We will do so by distinguishing two spheres: on one hand, the "public," imposed upon every soldier and intertwined with their relationship both to other people and to space; on the other hand, the private sphere, providing an example of a type of worship attended to by the initiative of soldiers.
Military cults proper and the camp as religious space
The placement of a camp is subject to the rules of auguratio, so it is conceived as a consecrated microcosm, structured by religious elements. It is a place where very diverse rituals are performed: auspices, sacrifices, vows, supplications... both official and private in nature. It features spaces and elements for worship, along with various types of priests. Soldiers were required to take the sacramentum, an oath by the gods of loyalty to the imperator. Thus, the relationship between a general and his men was a religious bond.
The symbolic and religious hearts of camps are the aedes principiorum or principia, which typically consist of a square monument in the center of the camp, elevated, where imperial worship is paid and the signa (standards) are kept. We know of three such structures throughout Hispania: that of León III, that of the cohors I Celtiberorum (Citadel, La Coruña), and one from an unidentified auxiliary unit stationed in Baños de Bande.
For the specific case of Hispania, since Flavian times, the only legion stationed in the province is the VII Gemina, as the other two legions stationed during Augustus' time were withdrawn to Germania with Caligula and to Pannonia with Nero. We must not forget that there are also auxiliary troops, formed by indigenous units located at various points across the Peninsula; however, for our exposition of religious practices in the camp, we have decided to exclude their small settlements and focus on the main headquarters: the city of Legio, present-day León.
Thanks to the study of votive inscriptions embedded in the wall of Legio, and assuming they have not been displaced too far from their original location, it has been possible to locate the worship spaces within the camp. Two inscriptions related to nymphs have been found, leading us to believe that a nymphaeum existed in present-day Gran Plaza; additionally, on the northern part of the wall, near the decuman gate, there is a vow to Esculapius, Serapis and Isis, suggesting that this area housed the camp hospital with its own religious space (Morillo Cerdán, 2008, pp. 400–403).
Regarding the gods to whom worship was rendered, in votive inscriptions we find mentions of the Emperor, Jupiter, Minerva, Diana, virtues and abstract concepts (Victory, Virtue, Fortune), insignias or the numen or Genius of the unit, and scarcely eastern deities, Nemesis, Hercules, and ironically Mars. In the vicinity of Legio, in wooded areas, inscriptions dedicated to Diana proliferate.
The most frequent are Jupiter, the signa and the health of the Emperor, and not without reason. Jupiter was the embodiment of political power, and his worship was mandatory as a way to symbolize loyalty to the State; additionally, vows for the Emperor were obligatory since he was also the supreme commander of all legions. On the other hand, the signa were the legion's standards, its pride, decorated with an eagle that by association with Jupiter imbued them with a certain sacred character; thus, losing the standards was an offense to the gods, and they were therefore treasured and defended with great zeal; their loss was considered a catastrophe that had to be remedied through their recovery.
Private cults and indigenous deities
Having seen the official cults imposed upon Roman soldiers, it remains to say that the State did not place any impediments on attending other cults, although material evidence related to this sphere is usually located outside the camp. In this sense, a factor that has caught researchers' attention is the appearance of votive inscriptions dedicated by military personnel to indigenous deities, more than half of which have been found in northwestern Hispania, between the vicinity of Legio and the Cantabrian coast.
This phenomenon has been explained by some authors arguing that in this area "indigenous culture persisted more tenaciously than in other Romanized spaces" (López Casado, 2016, p. 210), associating the persistence of indigenous divinities with a lower degree of Romanization of the region. We do not deny this factor, but it must also be said that this is also the most militarized zone of the Peninsula as it was last conquered and houses the legionary camp; since the corpus upon which these studies are usually based consists of military inscriptions, it is natural for them to concentrate here, making it necessary to establish a comparative study with zones where non-military inscriptions to indigenous deities are concentrated in order to clarify if this proposed factor is truly one to consider.
In any case, perhaps the most interesting aspect is not the expected inscriptions dedicated by auxiliary troops (soldiers recruited from among non-citizen indigenous populations), but those dedicated by Roman legionaries proper. As for explanations of this phenomenon, a solid theory is that soldiers could dedicate inscriptions to gods who would favor their advancement in the military hierarchy or to deities specific to regions where they were stationed. This latter case has two explanations: either you seek the favor of these gods because you are entering their territory, or more positively, you recognize them as protectors of the place where your camp is established (Le Roux, 2002, pp. 115–116).
This applies to Roman legionaries of Roman origin, though we must not forget the presence of legionaries of indigenous origin who had been able to enlist thanks to receiving citizenship. This leads us to a final explanation for votive inscriptions to indigenous deities that links the phenomenon with "the progressive extension of Roman citizenship to native inhabitants of the Peninsula, especially those in northwestern regions, who acquired this status and could enlist in a legion but did not renounce their private gods" (Sagredo and Jiménez, 1996, p. 299).
Conclusions
Roman military religiosity should not be understood as a sphere separate from others, but rather it interweaves with issues such as the relationship between soldiers and officers, demonstrations of loyalty to Rome and the Emperor or uses of space in the camp. Religion was used as a political instrument for configuring the army, but this does not mean that soldier worship was strictly controlled; instead, there was room for them to turn to all kinds of gods, which is an indicator of the utility of the Roman army as a mechanism for integration between Roman and indigenous cultural institutions.
Bibliography
Le Roux, P. (2002). Soldiers and indigenous cults in western provinces during the early Empire. Conimbriga, 41, 105–126.
López Casado, R. (2016). The persistence of indigenous religiosity among soldiers of the Hispanic army through epigraphy. Hispania Antiqua, 40, 191–212.
Morillo Cerdán, Á. (2008). Military cults and sacred spaces in the camp of the "Legio VII Gemina" in León. Gerión, 26(1), 379–405.
Sagredo, L., & Jiménez, A. (1996). The religion practiced by the military of the Roman Army in Hispania during the Early Roman Empire (1st to 3rd centuries AD). Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie II, Historia Antigua, 9, 289–319.
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