Evolving as a period of deep political transformation and characterized by huge ethnic and cultural diversity, the Hellenistic world created an unprecedented need for new strategies of negotiating social cohesion on all levels of society. As fundamentally embedded and dynamic, religion offered the potential to support or jeopardize the outcome of such negotiations. So far, scholars have limited their attention to the instrumentalization of this potential by political authorities. In contrast, this study seeks to establish the active role of religion as a guiding and steering principle of processes of political transformation. Such a strong impact of religion can be shown as based in the psychological and social functions of Hellenistic religious practice and experience, which determined the behaviour of actors that strove for social coherence. Religion, in symbolic as well as material terms, was often the central argument that was formulated, and this not in order to 'use' or 'abuse' religion but as premise and language shared by individual and collective identities alike.

The postulated resilience (well beyond a passive survival) and guiding force of religion appear to be grounded in the interplay between its adaptability and its claim for tradition. Therefore, a second focus of the study is the question, how religion fostered social cohesion precisely because it was a stable guarantor of familiar continuity in processes of change. As catalyst and medium of a collective memory it was able to formulate 'tradition' creatively. Continued 'familiarity', in turn, provided the trust that allowed for adaptation and change.

This project draws on Claudia Tiersch’s extensive research on religion in late antique cities, focusing on the complex renegotiation of social cohesion amid the politically and religiously challenging conditions of late antiquity. These conditions were precipitated by conflicting dynamics, such as increased demands from the central state, diminished urban autonomy, and the decline of the curial class. Moreover, the failure of central state institutions to fulfill their duties led to regional disparities and centrifugal forces within the Roman Empire, imposing additional responsibilities on cities. Urban cohesion faced further strains due to religious conflicts, particularly those associated with the rise of Christianity as a novel religious force and its implications for new forms of social integration. The proposed monograph will explore these new processes of negotiating social cohesion, not focusing on the religious-social conflicts of the time but on adapting to the era’s challenging circumstances.

Alexandria, more so than other cities in antiquity, was a hotbed of religious conflicts well before the Constantinian Revolution. One reason was its politically charged ethnic heterogeneity, the effects of which were intensified by the poliIcal transformation processes of the Roman imperial period. This sub-project focuses on the delicate balance between social tensions and cohesion in Hellenistic and Imperial Alexandria. It will investigate this balance by looking at relevant actors, their interests, and the negotiation mechanisms within religious categories. This involves the potential for religiously fueled conflicts, the diverse interests of those involved, and the modalities of intercultural and inter-religious negotiation processes. The study's objective is to add a further dimension to the history of conflict in Alexandria, which recognizes mechanisms for strengthening internal social cohesion.

Social cohesion in the Roman Republic faced continuous challenges due to ongoing military operations and significant expansion processes over its 500-year history. Concurrently, Rome’s political culture was heavily shaped by religion and was subject to considerable dynamics during this period. Religious discourses and practices, emerging from a plethora of diverse sources (coins, buildings, inscriptions, literary genres), unmistakably manifest as struggles for political power. Given the remarkable longevity of the Republic, it is crucial to explore religious discourses and practices both as a stabilizing resource and in their role in the political dynamics of the Republic. Santangelo has exemplified this for the second century BCE, but the question arises for other periods, such as early Republican Rome and its crisis-ridden end. In the later stages, politicized religion became an instrument of political conflicts, leading it to fall short as a resource of stability for crisis resolution. This role was only regained after the transformations of the Principate. The dynamics of republican religion need to be analysed not only as a consequence of political changes but as societal renegotiations of the pax deorum, the religiously connoted foundation of power or access to religious knowledge within social upheavals. Rome can thus be contrasted with Athens concerning the religious settings for negotiating processes of social cohesion.