Oracles and the City

Abstract This chapter discusses the place of oracles in the religious and political life of Greek cities under the Roman Empire. It first shows for what reasons and in what ways cities resorted to oracular inquiries and why the epigraphic habits of the time make it difficult to maintain the usual distinction between public and private consultations of oracles. It then explores the relations that a polis could have with the oracular sanctuaries. This is achieved first from a local point of view, and then on a regional and imperial scale, stressing how those shrines were an important instrument of those cities’ soft power. Finally, it looks at the way in which oracular pronouncements themselves, old and new, were inscribed on stone and publicly displayed in cities, whether to give authority to religious norms or politic decisions, to invoke them in public debate, or to reinforce the political and religious identity of the city.