THE ROMAN SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE ON THE SOUTH OF GORNJA MEZIJA (The Jupiter cult in Kosovo and Metohija)
Abstract
The paper presents the Roman influence on the area of Gornja Mezija. The Romans joined the territory between the northern border of the province of Macedonia and the Danube River to the Empire during 20s of the 1st century AD. This territory was joined with the province of Mezija making today’s areas of Kosovo and Metohija Roman. The Romans then introduced, as in other areas of the Empire before this one, their ruling system, new lifestyle, their customs and introduced Latin as the official language. Besides this, the Romans (soldiers, colonizers) brought with themselves the tradition of worshipping deity cults of the Roman official pantheon. The most respected one was the cult of the supreme Roman god Jupiter.The local cults, which existed before the Romans, got romanized with interpretatio Romana. An ancient man’s religion from Kosovo and Metohija is known thanks to, first of all, not considerable archeological records and epigraph statues. Many epigraph statues and archeological records have been saved and they testify about the cult of Jupiter and its existence in the ancient times in Kosovo and Metohija (Gornja Mezija), especially in Kosovkska Mitrovica, village Kostrc near Kosovska Mitrovica, Donja Gušterica, Vučitrn, Gračanica, Runjevo near Kačanik, Drsnik, Podgrađe near Klina, Klokota area in village Vrbovac (Vitina), Prizren and near Prizren in village Škoza. This is not surprising if we know that Jupiter was supreme Roman god, Optimus Maximus. It can be seen that Jupiter usually stands alone on the statues found in Kosovo and Metohija, but also in the Capitoline Triad (with Juno and Minerva) and surrounded by other deities. The most common form of inscription is the aforementioned short from IOM, but Jupiter got others as well: Conservator, Depulsor, Fulminator, Culminalis, Dolichenus, etc. The statues were built by the Roman administration and army in the early stages of romanization while later, the statues were built by wealthy local citizens who accepted Latin ways of living.
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