Ancient Rome and Religion

Religion played a very important role in the daily life of Ancient Rome and the Romans. Roman religion was centered around gods and explanations the Romans believed that gods controlled their lives and, as a result, spent a great deal of their time worshipping them. The Romans had a practical attitude to religion, which perhaps explains why they had difficulty in taking to the idea of a single, all-seeing, all-powerful god.

The Roman’s religion was not based on any one belief, but on a mixture of rituals, taboos, and traditions which had over the years came from sources that were taken from the lands that they conquered

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To the Romans, religion was not so much spiritual but a relationship between man and forces which were believed to control people's existence and well-being.

Their attitudes concerned the influence on political and military events which outlasted the republic, and private, with the head of the family directing the domestic rituals and prayers in the house much like the delegates of the people performed the public ceremonials.

The people's view of the world changed and during the first century AD they turned to the Greek 

origin myths. The original names of the Gods changed but the Greek influence remained. The most important god was Jove. He was the king of gods who ruled with his wife Juno, the goddess of the sky. Other gods were: Mars God of war; Mercury Messenger of the Gods; Neptune God of the sea; Janus God of the doorway; Diana Goddess of hunting; Vesta Goddess of the hearth; Minerva Goddess of healing and wisdom; Venus Goddess of love.

After a time the emperor was also considered to be a god and he was worshipped on special occasions. Each god had a festival day and was usually a public holiday. On this holiday the people visited the temple of the god was being celebrated and priests would sacrifice animals and offer them to the god.

Temples to worship the gods were built throughout the Roman Empire.  The temple was well decorated with a statue of the god in it. There was an altar where a priest served the god and made sacrifices each family home would also have a small altar and shrine. The Romans had personal gods which they worshipped every day at home. The shrine contained statues of the gods and the head of the household presided over family prayers around the shrine each day.  Pleasing these household gods was more important to them than the community gods.

The major gods that were worshiped by the people were derived mostly from the Greeks with variations in name and powers.

Most of the Roman gods and goddesses were a blend of different religious influences. Many were derived from the Greek colonies of southern Italy. Many also were introduced form old religions of the Etruscans or Latin tribes; the deity over time became to be seen as the Greek god of equivalent or similar nature To the Romans, the observance of religious rites was a public duty rather than a private  their beliefs were founded on a variety of unconnected and often inconsistent mythological traditions, many of them derived from the Greek rather than Italian myths.

Until the advent of Christianity the Romans had their own deities which had become rituals to the people and kept for a period of time that is sparely a combination of myths from different lands.