Myths and Beliefs

Roman Religion: Key Features

Roman religion was polytheistic — Romans worshipped many gods, each with a specific domain over nature or human affairs. The major gods, borrowed and adapted from Greek mythology, formed the dī Rōmānī (Roman gods).

Reciprocal religion — dō ut dēs: Roman religion was transactional. The principle of "I give so that you may give" meant worshippers offered sacrifices, vows, and gifts to the gods in exchange for divine favour — a good harvest, victory in battle, recovery from illness. It was not based on personal faith or devotion as in Christianity.

Household Religion (sacra prīvāta)

Religion was not confined to public temples — it was a daily presence in the Roman home.

Larārium: The household shrine, usually located in the atrium or kitchen. It typically contained small statues of the household gods and a space for offerings.

The household gods:

• Larēs — guardian spirits of the household and the crossroads (compitālēs). Usually depicted as dancing figures in a toga, holding a drinking horn.
• Penātēs — gods of the storeroom (penētus = inner room). They protected the household's food supply and prosperity.
• Genius — the spirit or divine force of the paterfamiliās (head of household). The family offered incense and wine at the larārium on his birthday and at major life events.

Daily rituals: Offerings of food (honey cakes, fruit), wine, and incense at the lararium; prayers before meals; invocations before important decisions.

Temples and Priests

Temple structure: Roman temples differed from Greek ones in being raised on a high podium with steps only at the front. The deep porch (pronaos) led to the inner chamber (cella) housing the cult statue of the deity. Crucially, sacrifice took place OUTSIDE on an altar in front of the temple — the interior was the god's house, not a congregation space.

Priests (sacerdōtēs): Priests were not a separate religious class in Rome. Senators and magistrates held priesthoods as part of their public careers, combining religious and political roles.

Key priesthoods:

• Pontifex Maximus — chief priest, overseer of all religious affairs; later taken by emperors (Augustus held it from 12 BC)
• Augurēs — read omens from the flight and behaviour of birds (auspicium) to determine whether the gods favoured a proposed action
• Haruspicēs — examined the entrails (exta) of sacrificed animals, especially the liver, for signs of divine approval or warning
• Vestālēs (Vestal Virgins) — six priestesses who tended the sacred flame of Vesta in the Forum; served for 30 years; severe penalties (live burial) for breaking the vow of chastity

Sacrifice: The standard offering was the suovetaurilia — a pig, sheep, and ox sacrificed together. Libations (wine poured), incense burning, and examination of entrails followed.

Foundation Myths

Romulus and Remus:

• Twin sons of the war god Mars and the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia
• Their great-uncle Amulius, usurper of the throne of Alba Longa, ordered them drowned in the Tiber
• The basket ran aground; a she-wolf (lupa) suckled the twins; the shepherd Faustulus found and raised them
• They overthrew Amulius and decided to found a new city; a dispute over which hill to build on led Romulus to kill Remus
• Romulus founded Rome on the Palatine Hill on 21 April 753 BC (traditional date) and became its first king

Aeneas:

• Trojan prince, son of the goddess Venus and the mortal Anchises
• When Troy fell to the Greeks, Aeneas carried his elderly father on his back and led the surviving Trojans out of the burning city, also saving the Penates (household gods of Troy)
• After years of wandering (narrated in Virgil's Aeneid), he visited the underworld where his father's ghost revealed Rome's future greatness (Book 6)
• He settled in Italy, founding Lavinium; his son Ascanius (also called Iulus) founded Alba Longa
• Romulus and Remus were descended from Aeneas through the kings of Alba Longa

Political significance: Augustus claimed descent from Aeneas (and therefore from Venus) through the Julian family — Iulus (Ascanius) being the ancestor of the gens Iulia. Virgil wrote the Aeneid in part to present Augustus as the destined fulfiller of Rome's divine mission.

The Afterlife and the Underworld

The journey of the dead: Romans believed the soul (umbra, shade) descended to the underworld. To cross the River Styx, the dead paid the ferryman Charon with a coin — placed in the mouth or on the eyes at burial. The unburied could not cross and wandered for a hundred years.

Underworld geography:

• Cerberus — the three-headed dog guarding the entrance, allowing the dead in but none out
• Asphodel Fields — where ordinary souls spent eternity, neither happy nor punished
• Elysium / Elysian Fields — paradise for the virtuous and heroic dead
• Tartarus — the deepest pit, reserved for the wicked and those who offended the gods, with eternal punishments

Famous punishments in Tartarus: Tantalus — food and water always just out of reach (giving us "to tantalise"); Sisyphus — rolling a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back, forever; the Danaids — filling leaking jars eternally.

Funeral practices: Cremation was most common in the Republic and early Empire; the body was washed, anointed, and placed on a funeral pyre; ashes collected in an urn. Wealthy families held processions with actors wearing ancestor masks (imāginēs).

Dīs Manibus (DM): "To the spirits (shades) of the dead" — inscribed on Roman tombstones as a dedication to the deceased. The dead were honoured at the festival of Parentālia (February) and Lēmuria (May).

Emperor Worship and Religious Change

Deification: After death, emperors could be declared gods (dīvus) by the Senate. Julius Caesar was the first to be deified (Divus Iulius) — his adopted son Augustus used this to call himself "son of the divine" (dīvī fīlius), elevating his own status enormously.

The imperial cult: Altars and temples to the living or deceased emperor were established across the provinces. Participating in the cult was a loyalty test — refusal could be seen as political dissent as much as religious nonconformity.

Religious tolerance: Rome generally accepted foreign gods — Isis (Egyptian), Mithras (Persian), Cybele (Anatolian) — as long as worshippers also participated in Roman state religion. This syncretism helped integrate conquered peoples.

Christianity: Initially persecuted under various emperors because Christians refused to sacrifice to the emperor (a political act as much as a religious one). Legalised by Constantine (AD 313, Edict of Milan); became the state religion under Theodosius I (AD 380, Edict of Thessalonica).