Valerius Maximus was an indefatigable collector of historical anecdotes illustrating vice and virtue. Mueller focuses on what Valerius can tell us about Roman attitudes to religion, and argues that Roman religion could be deeply emotional.  Meer

DID THE GODS OF ROME CARE ABOUT PERSONAL MORALITY? Valerius Maximus was an indefatigable collector of historical anecdotes illustrating vice and virtue; his Memorable Deeds and Sayings are unparalleled as a source for the opinions of Romans in the early empire on a vast range of subjects.  Meer

Valerius Maximus stands alone as an extant prose author of the early principate who devoted specific interest to the Romans' attitude to religion. In eight chapters he presents a variety of material selected from earlier authors, such as Cicero, Livy, and Varro, to illustrate central areas of Roman religious thought and practice: augury, omens, dreams, and miracles.  Meer