“Piccoli dei” nel paesaggio religioso di Roma, tra identità e memoria

The so-called Little Gods, understood as “secondary” deities who in their speaking name almost always retain the only trace of their identity, often pose the greatest problems in defining the structure and content of the Roman religion. They are a plethora of figures listed in the pontifical books of indigitamenta and depending on – or acting with – the main deities. This essay tries a further analysis of the meaning of a host of supernatural beings – numina, to use a generic definition that should be specified case by case – with disparate names, stories and functions, but useful for understanding certain aspects of the relationship between religion and cultural identity in Roman society