Download Religio Romana

Religio Romana
Religious practices in pre-Christian
Rome
Ancient Rome had a religious system -- state-sponsored worship of gods and goddesses
who were believed to lie behind the natural forces of the universe. Keep in mind that,
unlike many modern religions, the Roman system was:
• Polytheistic. The Romans worshipped many deities of many different sorts,
often borrowed from other cultures. In general, each god had a ‘portfolio’ or
sphere of influence, like ‘goddess of love’ or ‘god of war.’
• Mythological. There was no ‘bible’ for the Romans; what they knew about
their gods came from the many myths, stories, and hymns about the gods and
heroes (‘demigods’) that were passed down from generation to generation.
• Contractual. There was no sense of ‘God is love’ in the official Roman system.
Roman gods rewarded or punished depending on how well their worshippers
kept up their obligations. The Roman state, its priests, and its citizens were
responsible for keeping the human side of the bargain. Many of these practices
may seem superstitious to us.
Roman worship
Romans worshipped their gods
at temples, but not through
prayer services that we would
recognize. Roman priests made
sacrificies on days scheduled
through the year and
worshippers would attend (and
generally share in the food). An
animal (or more) would be killed,
its blood given to the god, and
its meat cooked and distributed.
Romans prayed, but not ‘at church.’ Indeed, it
was inappropriate to pray unless standing
under the open sky. Prayers were generally
requests for help or thanksgivings. It was
common to vow something to a god in return
for a favour that had been or would be given.
The poor might vow to make a small sacrifice,
the rich to build the god a new temple.
Roman superstitions
Oracles and auguries:
The Romans believed that the gods
could govern and share information
about the future. Like the Greeks, the
Romans often visited oracles like the
famous temple of Apollo at Delphi.
From the Etruscans they also learned
to read the future from the flight of
birds (augury) or from the entrails of
sacrificed animals (haruspicy).
The Romans practiced many superstitions. It
was very bad luck to have a black cat enter
the house, or to spill wine or oil. One should
never mention ‘fire’ at a banquet, although if
you slip up, you can pour water on the table
to make the bad luck go away. A particularly
bad omen is to trip over the doorstep -- which
leads to the tradition, still carried on today, of
a groom carrying his wife over the doorstep
after they are married.
Two kinds of gods
The Romans believed in two very different sorts of deities:
• State gods, the powerful humanoid beings like Jupiter, Apollo, and Juno,
who were worshipped in their own temples and were often tied in with
the gods and myths of the Greeks.
• Minor gods -- these remained more Roman in character. Every Roman
family had its own Penates (ancestor spirits) and Lares (gods of the house
and cupboard) that protected the family and expected proper treatment
from them. Every adult Roman male citizen was expected to act as a
priest and care for these gods, making small sacrifices and prayers to
them daily.
The Greek connection
The Romans came in contact with the Greeks during the Republic period of
their history, especially during the Pyrrhic and Punic Wars, which were fought
in the Greek areas of Southern Italy and Sicily. When the Romans heard of the
Greek gods with their rich myths, and how similar they were in function to
their own deities, they adopted the Greek stories and traditions to a large
degree for their own, Roman gods. Thus, we often say that a god has a Greek
and a Roman name.
The Capitoline Triad and the Olympians
The ‘chief’ gods in the Roman pantheon were the
Olympians, the twelve gods who lived on Mount
Olympus, and especially the Capitoline Triad, the three
who were worshipped on the Capitoline hill. The Triad
were Jupiter (Zeus), god of the sky and storms, and king
of the gods, his wife Juno (Hera), goddess of women and
mothers, and his daughter Minerva (Athena), goddess of
wisdom, craft, and war.
The other Olympians were Neptune (Poseidon), god of
the sea; Vesta (Hestia), goddess of the hearth fire; Mars
(Ares), god of War; Apollo (Phoebus Apollo); god of light,
sun, music, poetry, and healing; Venus (Aphrodite),
goddess of love, beauty, and sexual desire; Mercury
(Hermes), god of travellers and thieves; Diana (Artemis),
goddess of the moon and the wild; Ceres (Demeter)
goddess of the harvest; and Vulcan (Hephaestus), god of
the forge.
Pluto (Hades) was another important god who ruled the
land of the dead, but he did not live on Olympus.
The Romans also worshipped other gods, many of whom had once been
human. Some of these, like Heracles and Asclepius, had been raised up to
heaven by the gods after their deaths and were worshipped as gods all over
the Mediterranean; others were great heroes who, though they had died and
gone to the underworld, were still believed to be demigods (half-gods) who
still had power to protect those who worshipped them properly. Among
these, the Romans particularly honoured the twins Castor and Pollux. The
Romans learned about all these heroes from their many myths.
‘Other’ religions in ancient Rome
The Romans also practiced some ‘foreign’ religions or allowed them to be
practiced in Rome. Other cultures’ beliefs were often simply absorbed, but some
had a strong enough identity to appeal to the Romans. The Egyptian goddess Isis
was very popular in Rome and came to be accepted there. The Romans actually
imported a strange Eastern goddess, the Magna Mater, when an oracle told
them to do so. Many Romans were attracted to the Greek ‘mystery religions,’
which promised the secrets of eternal life but would only reveal them to
initiates. Mithraism, an eastern religion, related to Zoroastrianism, was very
popular among Rome’s soldiers during the Empire.
There were many Jews in ancient
Rome, and a few Romans were even
attracted to Judaism (such as Fulvia,
wife of Mark Antony), but because of
its monotheism they did not fully
accept it. Christianity caused a new
problem for the Romans, and was
often heavily persecuted until the
reign of Constantine, when it was
accepted as the official religion of the
Roman Empire.