Roman Religion
The Roman state religion was very dominant in culture from the time of the Roman conquest of the world which happened in the first century BCE and the empire flourished until the late 5th century CE. Although the Roman Empire has died out, the legacy and influence that came with it still survives today. At first the Romans represented their gods more as powers than as persons, and as a result there is little mythology that is purely Roman. According to one ancient scholar, it was after the Romans came in contact with the Greeks in the sixth century BCE that they began to represent their gods in human form. Over the last three centuries BCE, writers such as Virgil and Onid grafted the names and functions of Roman gods onto Greek literary and artistic tradition. Most of what we know about ancient Rome and its mythology comes from the works of ancient Roman writers, surviving artworks, and archaeological findings. The Romans believed that their religious practices maintained the pax deorum(peace of the gods). This ensured the community's continued prosperity. No private citizen was likely to undertake buisiness of any importance without seeking the favor of the appropriate god, and the Romans held numerous public festivals to honor their gods. The Romans did not develop a myth about the creation of the world itself. Rather, they attached great importance to the finding of Rome. Two distinct myths developed about the city's beginnings; the story of the twins Romulus and Remus, and the tale of Aeneas. The Romulus and Remus myth supposedly occurred in 753 BCE and sparked the founding of Rome. The legend of Aeneas was also accepted as a myth about the city's founding. However, the legend antedates the Romulus and Remus legend by 400 years. This posed a problem for the Roman people in deciding between the mtyhs. The poet Virgil later resolved the problem in his epic the Aeneid, which explains that Aeneas was part of the kingdom that occupied the future territoy of Rome and that she was also an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. Most of the older myths of Rome have to do with seven traditional kings, beginning with Romulus. The second Roman king Numa pompillius was credited with inventing the religious institutions of Rome. The early Romans did not represent their gods in human or animal form, and the gods did not have well-defined personalities. Most Roman gods were associated with particular places. It is believed that after coming in contact with the Etruscans in the sixth centurt BCE, the Romans first represented their gods in human forms and then built temples for them. While the personalities of gods were not important to the early Romans, they cared a great deal about the functions of the gods. Gods presided over every aspect of life and death, including the phases of the agricultural year. The Romans integrated their worship into the routines of public and private life with places in their homes and everyday travel routes becoming associated with protection of the gods. Romans adapted elements from many different mythological cultures that they came in contact with. After Etruscan rule of Rome in the 6th century BCE, the Romans adopted a group of three Etruscan gods known as the Capitoline Triad and held them as the focus of state worship. During the time of the Roman republic which was founded in 509 BCE, the Capitoline termple became the most important shrine to Romans. Each January, the new consuls elected to rule Rome would offer sacrifices to open the new year.As Rome's sphere of influence expanded, the Romans encountered the older and richer relgious mythological beliefs of Greek civilization and in the Eastern Mediterrenean region. Major innovations occurred as a result of this contact, most notbaly the Romans' acceptance of gods from these other cultures. The Romans also adopted Greek heroes into their mythology. They borrowed cultural gods from other regions as well. The most notable of which was the religion of Mithraism which became a Roman state religion in 168 BCE. Because many of the religious practices of the Romans originated in a period in which Rome was a small, agricultural community, the customs of Rome reflected the needs and concerns of the farming community. Long after Rome had become a busy commercial center, the religious calendar of Rome continued to reflect the cycle of the agricultural year. Romans worshiped their gods on both individual and communal levels. Each part of a Roman house had a god associated with it. Romans also paid respect to the gods of the fields. Each stage of life was marked by religious observances accorded by the Romans. After the Romans came in contact with the Greeks in the 6th century BCE, the identities of the Roman and Greek gods tended to meld into Greco-Roman combinations. For centuries, these deities and the stories told about them have inspired writers and artists. Though the Roman state religion perished with the empire, the culture that was left behind by the Romans would stick with the Western world and it has now lasted even unto this very day. This is evidenced in literary forms, architectural design, cultural religious adaptation, etc.
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