Rome: The Roman Religion

Although not always mentioned in the Bible, Roman gods impacted the lives of people in the Bible times a lot. One of the more significant Roman gods, Zeus, was highly respected for his power and authority. In the book of Acts, two disciples, Paul and Barnabas, healed a crippled man while traveling through a town called Lystra. The crowd praised them and said, “These men are gods in human form!” They called the Barnabas, the man traveling with Paul, Zeus.

Roman religion is not as easy to identify or describe as one might immediately suppose. Much of the difficulty in defining the religion of the Roman Republic is due to its flexibility and variability, as well as the lack of any clear division between religion, politics, and civil society during this period. It can often be difficult to tell, for example, where Roman religion ends and political ideology begins. Despite these difficulties, it is possible to make certain generalized statements. Religion in the Roman republic was extremely integrated into everyday life, it is variable and individualized, and it played a key role in upholding Roman civil and military power structures. It is also important to remember that Roman religion is not static and underwent a constant process of change over several centuries, often due to political and social concerns.

Beginning around 700 B.C., stories by Homer and other Greek poets told of the lives of powerful gods who involved themselves in human affairs. Supreme among these gods was Zeus, but to the Romans he was known as Jupiter. Zeus was the supreme god and ruler of Olympus. He was known by many titles: Lord of the Sky, the Cloud- gatherer, the Rain-god, and Zeus the Thunderer. All of which are the most popular names dating back to ancient Greek history and mythology.

In both Greek and Roman civilizations, mythology played an important part in their empire’s success. Both of these civilizations were polytheistic religions. Likewise, they had major and minor gods and goddesses as part of their religion as well. However, since the Roman Empire conquered many cultures including the Greeks, their gods blended with many similarities with the gods that the Ancient Greeks worshipped.

Roman mythology applies to the religious system, and origins of ancient Rome. These attributes are found through the art and literature that the Romans provide. Although, the Romans have supernatural elements they still proceeded to treat their traditional stories historically. The Romans focused on how a person contributes to the Roman community, and merely concentrate on politics and morality. Catholicism is one of the most common known religions. Catholicism focuses on the traditions, and values of the Christian churches. The two main things that differentiate Roman mythology, and modern day catholicism is their: beliefs and religion.

At one time, all of Rome was united by a common religion. This religion, commonly referred to as the Roman religion, was derived from the religion in Greece. Members of this religion, which included the majority, if not all, of the Roman citizens, worshiped many different gods, including the creator or father god, Jupiter, the sun god, Apollo, the god of inspiring wars, Mars, and many others as well. The popularity of this religion began to decline when Christianity arose. It appealed to the majority of the people, particularly the lower class and slaves, who now had something to put their hope and faith in. This religion spread rapidly, and Roman emperors felt that because it was so influential it would become a possible threat. These leaders began persecuting Christians, but many Romans had already committed to this religion and refused to abandon it because they viewed it as the most important part of their life. This led to a lack of patriotism in Roman citizens who then rejected politics and became independent of the government.

From the sources I have read about Juno, she seems more like a goddess that always helped the humans. Humans would offer her sacrifices so that she could help them with marriage, birth, protection, or finances. Hera seems too engulfed in her husband’s affairs rather than helping humans that would praise her. Ares, the child of Zeus and Hera, was the god of war. He was usually seen or portrayed to be fully armed and ready for battle and very eager fight or go to war. Although he was never married, he had many children with several goddesses and mortal women. Almost all of his children by mortal women were of a violent nature. Mars on the other hand, was the Roman god of agriculture and war. He was thought to be the second most important god after Jupiter. He was in charge of military activities and farming. It was believed that the month March was named after Mars, and was also the first month of the Roman calendar. March was considered to be the month when agriculture was high and when most people engaged in war. Ares seems to be a very angry and active god as opposed to Mars that seems to be calmer. Ares is always prepared for battle and is always looking for a reason, like an instigator where Mars looks over the agriculture and the military to make sure that they are able to defend Rome, like a defender. Even though Mars was also the god of war, it would seem that he would rather prevent war

Religion played a key role in the daily life and social system of Ancient Rome. Religion included the worship of many gods and more gods were often adopted from conquered areas. Because most religions were polytheist at the time, the Romans rarely disallowed a cult from a conquered region to continue. A few cults ran into controversy and opposition from citizens or government, such as the cult of Deus Sol Invictus, and that of Isis. Romans were also not keen on monotheistic religion which explains their separation from the Jews. But above all other religions, the Romans disagreed with, persecuted and were threatened most by Christianity.  The introduction of Christianity to the Roman Empire

Religions take a hold on societies in different ways. Christianity started as a revitalization movement against the Roman hierarchy, and was comprised of mostly woman and the poor. The Roman Empire took up most of the Mediterranean and North Africa. With the death of Jesus, around 33 CE, came a new, unique, religion that was a spin off of Judaism but they believed that Jesus was the foretold Messiah. Although they were persecuted, Christianity took hold in the ancient world because it offered salvation, was fair to all, and preached love and peace.

In the ancient Roman world, religion played the most important role in everyday life, as well as in matters of the state. The Romans looked to the gods for political stability and for control of the unexplainable and natural phenomenon. The gods were believed to control all aspects of Roman life, and for that reason, a great deal of importance was placed in the appropriate worship of the gods. Women played an extremely influential role in ancient Roman religion. Not only did they participate in religious rituals, but some even held religious positions as Vestal Virgins.

Romes religion wasent so close to ours. The Romans were polytheistic but were monotheistic. They worshiped in temples while we worship in churches.Romes gods had issues but our gods is loyal. This

People believe that a god still rules them but they have more freedom of what religion they believe in. The Roman population does not think that there is a separate god for war, a god for business, a god for travel, or a god for marriage and children. They now believe there is one god that rules over all of these things. Americans today have more religious freedoms than Ancient Romans. The main religion today in America is Christianity.

Romans were excellent at keeping their religion alive and keeping traditions ongoing. They were especially good at worshipping the nature including, stones, trees, waterfalls, etc. These special things had to be kept friendly by sacrifices and ceremonies. Some of these ceremonies and sacrifices took place in temples or nature. In fact, some of the temples are still standing today in Rome or now Italy. Many of these traditions have been studied by observing the statues and paintings they made. Besides believing in nature, the Romans also believed in gods. They paid homage to Jupiter, Minerva, Neptune, and Mars. The god that was the most powerful, Jupiter, was considered chief god of the state during the republican and imperial eras. Neptune was the god of the sea, Mars was the god of war and farm work, and Minerva was the goddess of crafts and wisdom. Before an event, attempts were made to discover the will of the gods, or what was going to happen, from signs in the sky like flight of birds, or by examining the insides of a slaughtered animal. The Romans would base their choices on the signs they believed they got from the gods. As I have told above, Romans were excellent at keeping their religion alive and keeping traditions ongoing. Romans believed in these things

The religious practices of the ancient Romans are best remembered with grand temples, great festivals and Christian persecution to the final acceptance of Christianity within the Roman empire over the

The Romans had a religion that they believed in but was not something concrete and was not of having a central idea. The religion was based on a mix of certain traditions and beliefs. Religion was not never really a big factor in their Empire. The Romans were stubborn with religion and this could be the reason they had an attitude towards these aspects of life. According to St. Augustine’s book Confession, he states that there were a lot of fake gods and there were two major religions in the Roman Empire. The very first religion was Paganism and that’s what his father was known to believe. Then the second main religion was Christianity which his mother believed in. The emperor of Rome at this time, Constantine himself was not a Christian when he conquered Rome, but rather he had a religious conversion when he won the fight with contending tetrarchs at the Milvian bridge in 306 AD, with help of image of the Cross. The