Topic summary
Interpretatio romana
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Interpretatio graeca.
Interpretatio romana
The phrase interpretatio romana was first used by the Imperial-erahistorianTacitus in the Germania. Tacitus reports that in a sacred grove of the Nahanarvali, "a priest adorned as a woman presides, but they commemorate gods who in Roman terms (interpretatione romana) are Castor and Pollux" when identifying the divine Alcis. Elsewhere, he identifies the principal god of the Germans as Mercury, perhaps referring to Wotan.