Resilient Roman Religious Structures in the Second Punic War

The aim of this paper is to discuss the introduction and the calendrical position of the ludi Apollinares, the relationship with other festivities of the Roman calendar and consequentially with the history of the city. Using the concept of 'resilience' as a hermeneutic tool to analyse religious and narrative structures, I argue how the calendrical position itself was a quick response that the Romans were able to give in one of the worst moments of war. Though this was a coping tool that Rome used as unique political subject, I also argue that this resilience necessarily altered the representation of relations of force inside Roman religion.