-
Random History
- Judea | Judaism and Christianity
- Paul, r. 1796-1801, and Alexander I, r. 1801-1825 | The Enlightenment
- France | The Revolutions of 1848
- The Agricultural Revolution 1750-1900 | The Old Regimes
- Russia, 1825-1914 | The Modernization of Nations
- Magna Carta
- South Africa, 1815-1910 | Modern Empires and Imperialism
- History and Prehistory | The First Civilizations
- The Course of the War | The First World War
- Church and Society in the Medieval West
Recent Comments
- The Saxon Empire, 911-996 | The Early Middle Ages in Western Europe
I am an ancestor of Roger des Moulin one of the... - Hebrew Religion | The First Civilizations
i need info about Hebrews trading network. - The Clergy and the Nobility | The French Revolution
any info related to the family of count fus de foure’ - The Jesuits and the Inquisition, 1540-1556 | The Protestant Reformation
Re: Jesuite role /inquisition. The order is... - A Second Step: German Rearmament, 1935-1936 | The Second World War
HAHA - The Third Estate | The French Revolution
Good work, i found your blog in google, it’s very interesting, keep us... - Frederick the Great, r. 1740-1786 | The Enlightenment
well oprganized, but it needs to be larger print - Common Denominators of Protestant Beliefs and Practices | The Protestant Reformation
There are common beliefs to be... - The North Atlantic Powers | European Exploration and Expansion
Thanks for sharing and introducing me this - Magna Carta, 1215 | The Beginnings of the Secular State
Great post, totally agree with you on that point.
- The Saxon Empire, 911-996 | The Early Middle Ages in Western Europe
Tags
Between The World Wars Byzantium and Islam Church and Society in the Medieval West European Exploration and Expansion Judaism and Christianity Modern Empires and Imperialism Romanticism, Reaction, and Revolution The Beginnings of the Secular State The Democracies The Early Middle Ages in Western Europe The Enlightenment The First Civilizations The First World War The French Revolution The Great Powers in Conflict The Greeks The Industrial Society The Late Middle Ages in Eastern Europe The Late Twentieth Century The Modernization of Nations The Non-Western World The Old Regimes The Problem of Divine-Right Monarchy The Protestant Reformation The Renaissance The Rise of the Nation The Romans The Russian Revolution of 1917 The Second World War The Written Record Twentieth-Century Thought and Letters
Roman Religion | The Romans
Before the first contacts with the Greeks, the Romans had already evolved their own religion—the worship of the household spirits, the lares and penates, that governed their everyday affairs, along with those spiritual beings that inhabited the local woods, springs, and fields. Like the Greek goddess Hestia, the Roman Vesta presided over the hearth and had in her service specially trained vestal virgins. From the Etruscans the Romans took the belief in omens which they never abandoned.
They foretold the future through observing the flight of birds (the auspices) and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals (the auguries). From Greece there came the entire Olympic collection of gods and goddesses, some of them merging their identities with existing Roman divinities, and most of them changing their names; Zeus became Jupiter; Hera, Juno; Poseidon, Neptune; and so on, although Apollo remained Apollo.
Julius Caesar, Augustus, and many of their successors were deified after their deaths, and Augustus consented to be worshiped in Gaul at temples set up to “Rome and Augustus.” But except for certain festivals, the individual Roman took little part either in the imperial cult or in other religious rites.
The official priests performed most rites, headed by their chief priests, the Pontifix Maximus. The state religion early lost its appeal for the Romans. Moreover, there was no reason they could not worship as many other gods as they chose. Rome therefore imported cults from other places, chiefly the East.
Possibly Related History: