In this talk, Professor Champion will provide an overview of his new book titled, The Peace of the Gods: Elite Religious Practices in the Middle Roman Republic, to be published later in April by the Princeton University Press. He will then focus on a case study from the book: the religious and military demands on Scipio Africanus on campaign against Antiochus III, and what his behavior reveals about the question of Romans 'elites' "belief" in the gods during the Middle Republic.