Religion

 

The empire is generally tolerant of any and all religions within its borders, as long as a) members pay their taxes, b) members meet in the open, and c) they don't practice human sacrifice. Throughout their history, Romans readily adopted new gods and new religious practices while still maintaining their old traditions, sometimes long after they'd forgotten what the ritual or even the words meant.

 

Religion permeates virtually every aspect of everyday life for ancient peoples. Every meal is shared with the gods, every major life event is celebrated with religious rites, and people frequently call upon their gods to help them and hurt their enemies. Yet, with the exception of Jews and Christians, people don't worry about "belief" or "faith" in the gods; to them, the underlying principle of religion is do ut des, "I give so that you give." People give the gods what they want--praise and sacrifices--so that they gods will give them what they want. (For more about sacrifices, see Magic).

 

Roman religion was originally animistic, centered around the numina (singlua numen), the spirits that inhabited each thing, as well as their dead ancestors. As Rome came into contact with other peoples, they adopted their religious practices, beginning with the Etruscans (who had already adopted much of the Greek religion), and later embracing the mystery and ecstatic religions of the Near East in their search for spiritual fulfillment.

 

Roman Religion

Romans have an astounding array of gods, from the adopted Greek pantheon to the invisible numina of every rock, stream, and tree. Every identifiable aspect of daily life has a god associated with it. Some gods have a single, tiny shrine, while others have multiple monumental temples.

 

In general, Romans perform their religious rites under the open sky, because offerings to the gods are made by burning them, and the smoke must be able to reach them. Temples will also have an image of the god, but sacrifices are performed outside, with the toga drawn over the head and hands raised palms up towards the sky. The supplicant states his name, what he's offering, and what he wants in return, and then makes the sacrifice.

 

Roman religion in the 1st century AD is primarily a civic function. It's complex, hierarchical, bureaucratic, legalistic, and archaic, with complex rituals and pecking orders among gods and their priests. Nearly half the Roman calendar is devoted to religious holidays of one sort of another, on which it's forbidden to conduct state business. Belief is unimportant; correct performance of ritual is everything. Some religious rituals could go on for several days, and even the slightest mistake would require restarting them from the beginning.

 

Olympian vs. Chthonic Deities

Roman religion makes a distinction between the gods above and the gods below. The gods below, the gods of death and the Underworld, have no names, or at least none that are spoken, as to get their attention is to invite death. The ruler of the underworld is known only by euphemisms: Pluto ("Wealthy") or Dis Pater ("Rich Father"). His name Orcus is only used in invoking curses, and the gods below are generally only called upon to invoke a curse or work other dark magic. They're called at night, sometimes in underground grottos, but never in view of the sky. Prayers and curses to them are sometimes written on lead tablets, to be wedged into the stones of temples and shrines or dropped into deep dark places like caves and wells. The other major Underworld deities are Proserpina, Pluto's wife; and Trivia, the goddess of witches (Greek Hecate) and crones. Witches are thought to meet at unguarded crossroads where the power of potential is strong, thus the need to protect them with shrines.

 

Lares and Penates

Even the humblest Roman home has a shrine to the lares, who protect the house and family, and penates, the gods of the pantry. The shrine, called a lararium, typically consisted of a small altar, or sometimes a niche or miniature temple,and featured small wood or bronze images of the gods. A portion of each meal was places at the shrine for these gods to share in, as well as candles or oil lamps, flowers, incense, and other small tokens. Romans also built shrines at crossroads to protect them from evil, and the larger of such shrines in the city would have dedicated brotherhoods, called collegia, to look after them and the district surrounding them. The collegia typically relied on contributions from local families and merchants to fund their activities; sometimes they were like a benevolent society, although in more disreputable neighborhoods they became more like an extortion gang.

 

Manes and Lemures

Romans also made offerings to their deceased ancestors, whom they treated as minor divinities called manes. They were sometimes conflated with the lares and penates. Romans sometimes made blood offerings to the manes as a manner of giving them life, which may have been the lost origin of gladiatorial games.

 

Lemures or larvae were the spirits of wicked men, who wander the earth to torment and frighten the living. May 9, 11, and 13 were the festivals called Lemuria, at which black beans were offered to propitiate the lemures.

 

The Imperial Cult

Beginning with Augustus's deification of Julius Caesar, emperors have deified their predecessor as a propaganda tool, in order to legitimize their reign and associate themselves with the former's popularity and religious power, and fuse religious and political authority. Tiberius deified Augustus, but the mad Caligula did not deify his grand-uncle, nor did Claudius deify his nephew. Nero, however, revived the practice and deified Claudius, but was not himself deified by any of his successors in the Civil War. (It should be noted that both Caligula and Nero behaved like living gods in their lifetimes.) Titus re-instituted the practice by deifying his father Vespasian, and Domitian in turn deified Titus.

 

Offerings are made to the genius or guardian spirit of the emperor as a way of bringing peace and protection on the emperor, and to show loyalty to the current emperor and the empire, rather than for more personal requests. Thus, the imperial cult is more an act of political theatre than an actual religion.

 

Oracles

Although soothsayers and fortune tellers are a denarius a dozen in every ancient city, there are several great oracles throughout the Roman world whose power is widely respected. The greatest is the Pythia at Delphi in Greece. Others include Dodona in northwestern Greece; Crete; Zeus Ammon in Libya; Erythrae and Samos in the Greek islands; Phrygia; and in the Italian town of Tibur. The greatest oracle in Italy is the Sibyl of Cumae near Naples, which was destroyed in about 600 years ago. However, an old woman (possibly the Sibyl herself) offered nine books of her prophecies to the last Etruscan king, Tarqinius Superbus. He refused her price, so she burned three, and offered these again for the same price. Tarquin again refused, so she burned three more, and offered the last three again, which the king purchased for the original price. These were kept in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter and consulted in times of great danger. This temple burned down in the 80s BC, but the Romans scoured Italy to recollect as many of her prophecies as they could, and these were placed in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine by Augustus. The Sibyl's temple at Cumae is also an entrance to the underworld. Allegedly, Apollo made the Sibyl immortal, but because she would not sleep with Apollo, he cursed her to shrivel forever, and several people have claimed that they have seen the whithered prophetess in a tiny cage or jar.

 

Sin and Expiation

In general, for the Greeks and Romans, religion is not a matter of personal morality. As long as you perform the correct rituals and sacrifices on the right days, the gods do not concern themselves with you. However, there are a few crimes that are considered abhorrent to the gods. If you commit one of these crimes, the gods will curse you with misfortune and possibly even destroy you, if you do not atone for the crime, typically by begging the gods for forgiveness, offering copious sacrifices, and undergoing a ritual cleansing to wash off the taint of the crime. These sins are: murder, incest, oathbreaking, violating hospitality, failing to perform the proper rites for the dead, violating a priest or temple, and hubris (believing or saying that you are as great or greater than a god).

 

The Roman Pantheon

 

The Twelve Olympians

 

Roman	Greek	Provenance	Major Festvals
Apollo	Apollo	Art, music, poetry, archery, medicine. Patron deity of Augustus.
Ceres	Demeter	Agriculture, especially grain. Mother of Pluto's wife Proserpina (Persephone)	Ceralia - 19APR
Diana	Artemis	Archery, hunting, chastity, young womanhood	13AUG
Juno	Hera	Marriage, childbirth	Matronalia - 1MAR Nonae Caprotinae - 7JUL
Jupiter	Zeus	Rulership, weather	The Ides (13th or 15th) of every month.
Mars	Ares	Warfare, agriculture. Father of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.	Equiria - 27FEB, 14MAR Armilustrum - 19OCT
Mercury	Hermes	Messengers, merchants. Guided the souls of the dead to the Underworld.
Minerva	Athena	Warfare, crafts.	Quinquatria - 19MAR, 18-22APR Minervalia - 13JUN
Neptune	Poseidon	Water, especially the seas, earthquakes, horses	Neptunalia - 23JUL
Venus	Aphrodite	Lust, beauty. Patron of the Julian family.	Veneralia - 1APR, 19AUG
Vesta	Hestia	Hearth and home.	Vestalia - 9JUN
Vulcan	Hephestus	Smiths	Volcania 23AUG

 

Minor Gods

 

Roman	Greek	Provenance	Festivals
Aesculapius	Asclepius	Medicine. The Tiber island is primarily a hospital and shrine to Aesculapius.
Bacchus	Dionysus	Wine, revelry, madness.
Bellona	n/a	War. The goddess's temple is opened at the beginning of war, and closed at the end.	3JUN
Bona Dea	n/a	The "Good Goddess" was worshipped by women wishing for fertility, healing, and freedom from slavery.	1MAY
Castor and Pollux	Castor and Polydeuces	Greek heroes who had ascended to divinity, and aided Rome at the Battle of Lake Regillus around 500BC..
Faunus	Pan	Nature, shepherding, agriculture, licentiousness.	Lupercalia - 15FEB.
Fortuna	n/a	Good fortune.
Hercules	Heracles	A Greek hero, son of Zeus, who ascended to divinity. Strength and fighting prowess, perseverence.
Janus	n/a	Doors, gates, beginnings and endings.	Agonia - 9JAN
Muses	Muses	Patron goddesses of the arts and sciences.
Ops	n/a	Wealth	Opiconsivia - 25AUG Opalia - 19DEC
Quirinus	n/a	The spirit of Rome; agriculture.	Quirinalia - 17FEB
Saturn	Cronos	Agriculture, the golden age of peace and plenty. In Greek mythology, Cronos is the father of Zeus, who overthrows him.	Saturnalia - 7-14DEC
Sol	Helios	The sun.	9AUG
Tellus	Gaia	The earth.	Fordicidia - 15APR Consualia - 21AUG, 13DEC

 

Greek Religion

For game purposes, there's very little need to make a distinction between Greek and Roman religion, since the Olympian Roman religion was strongly influenced by Greek religion, to the point of the Romans adopting Greek practices and gods, or grafting Roman names onto the personas of Greek gods.

 

Romano-Celtic Religion

As the Romans conquered the Celtic peoples of France, Spain, and Britain, they associated the native Celtic gods with their own, in particular Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva, and Apollo. Romans built Roman-style temples to these gods, and by the time of Domitian much of the native practice of Celtic religion has disappeared or blended into a Roman-Celtic hybrid.

 

Druids

As tolerant as the Romans generally are of foreign religion, they have focused a great deal of energy on wiping out the Celtic priestly class, the druids. During the Roman conquest of Gaul, the druids served as a core of leadership and resistance, and indeed it was in large measure to destroy the druids that the Romans invaded Britain. The Romans also believe that the druids practice human sacrifice, which they detest. The Roman general Suetonius Paulinus destroyed the sacred groves and shrines on Angelsey in 60AD, and the governor of Britain, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, finished the conquest of the island in 78AD, which broke the back of the druidic religion.

 

Foreign Religions/Mystery Cults

 

In addition to allowing foreign peoples to worship their own gods in Roman and throughout the empire, Romans themselves found some of these gods appealing and worshipped them themselves. Many of these religions are referred to as "mystery cults." Unlike the public Olympian religion, the rites of these gods were conducted in private, and the worshipper had to go through an initiation ceremony before joining the cult. This ceremony often included reenactments of myths about the god. Mystery cults tended to focus more on personal ethics and behavior than the Olympian religion, promising a reward in the afterlife for those who joined the cult and obeyed its precepts. Many Romans found these personal, ethical religions more satisfying than the public Olympian religion, particularly as the empire became larger and more impersonal. (Several other mystery cults, including the Eleusinian, Dionysian, and Orphic mysteries, developed in Greece but did not make their way to Rome, although a few Romans who have travelled to Greece have been initiated into them.)

 

Mithras

Mithras is a sun god, thought to come out of the East. His rites are conducted in an underground chamber that features a statue or relief of him killing a bull, which is central to his mythology. His most important feast date is on the winter solstice, the Feast of the Unconquered Sun. Initiates of the cult of Mithras work their way up through a number of ranks. The cult is most popular among the Roman nobility and soldiers, especially officers.

 

Isis/Serapis

This cult is based on the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. Serapis is the lord of the underworld and resurrection. In the original myth, Osiris was killed and cut apart by his rival, Set, and then Isis gathered the pieces and wrapped them in linen to reconstruct his body. Serapis is depicted as a bearded king sitting on a throne, holding a rod of rulership, and wearing a grain basket (a symbol of the underworld) on his head. The cult of Isis is popular and her priests are attributed various magical powers, but has sometimes clashed with Roman authorities who see it as promoting loose morals.

 

Cybele (Magna Mater)

Cybele, the Magna Mater ("Great Mother") was originally from Phrygia in north-west Anatolia. Her cult was brought to Rome around 200BC to fulfill a prophecy from the Sybilline books to bring Rome victory over Carthage, and her cult has been a fixture there ever since. Her rites are celebrated yearly by women only, but she does have male priests, who castrate themselves in an ecstatic frenzy. In her mythology she is sometimes associated with a consort, a human named Attis, who also castrates himself. She is a goddess of fertility and riotous growth, sometimes depicted on a throne, others ona chariot drawn by lions.

 

Judaism

Judaism differs from the other religions of the Roman world in several ways. First, its single god, Jehovah (called Ha-Shem, "the Name," outside of the synagogue) demands that his followers worship him alone. (Some Romans identify Jehovah with Dionysos, but the Jews acknowledge no such connection.) Second, the Jewish god demands that his followers follow a large and complex body of laws and rules that governs their behavior. (Jews in the Roman world follow these rules to different degrees, particularly now that many of them are scattered throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, and quite a few are trying to keep their religion a secret.) Third, the myths of the Jewish people, and their history and laws, are codified in writing. The Jewish priesthood is an inherited position, but since the destruction of the Temple, it is primarily the teachers called rabbis who officiate Jewish ceremonies and are the center of Jewish communities. (For more about Judaism and the recent history of the Jewish people, see Peoples.)

 

Christianity

Christians have only recently been seen as a separate religion, rather than a Jewish sect. Christians follow the teachings of the Jewish rabbi Yeshua bar Yosef, whose name is rendered into Greek as Iesus. Jesus was executed about 50 years ago by the Roman in Jerusalem at the request of the Jewish authorities. He is referred to as christos, "annointed," as a translation of the Jewish word "messiah," which refers to a holy king or prophet who will rescue the Jews from their oppressors. The Christians have relaxed certain Jewish strictures to allow non-Jews into their cult. They teach that Jesus returned from the dead and ascended into heaven, and will soon return to redeem his followers. Like many mystery cults, Christians have ceremonies that re-enact episodes from the life of Jesus, and they conduct their services in private. Christians circulate written stories called "gospels" about the life and teachings of Jesus and his first followers, as well as letters from Christian leaders that try to clarify the teachings of the new religion. Because of the newness of their beliefs, and the fact that Christians are unwilling to participate in the public religion, they are viewed with suspicion by most Romans, and are dogged by rumors of orgies, incest, and cannibalism. Some have been executed, particularly after Nero blamed them for the Great Fire in 64AD. Many Christians rever those who have been executed, referring to them as "martyrs," the Greek word for "witness."

 

Other native religions of the Greek East

Much as Roman religion has blended with the religion of the conquered Celtic peoples in the western European provinces, so has the Greek religion blended with the native Semitic, Turkic, and Egyptian religions of the Near East conquered by Alexander the Great and ruled by his successors. In general, the more Hellenized upper classes will follow a religion that differs little from that of the Greek Olympian one except in the names of the gods (which will often combine a Greek and a native name, like Zeus-Ammon) and a few local details; while the lower classes continue to practice their religion the same as they have for thousands of years, with perhaps the addition of a useful Greek god, new Hellenized public ceremonies, or a change to use the god's Hellenized name.

 

Greek Philosophy

For hundreds of years, Greek thinkers have enquired as to the nature of the universe, including what might now be thought of as the hard sciences, political and social sciences, ethics, and mysticism. In general, Greek philosophy has tended towards the notion that there must be a single, supreme god or force that rules the universe, as multiple gods in competition would create chaos incompatible with the orderly visible world. A few philosophers have denied the existence of gods altogether, but most view the gods or god as abstractions, unconcerned in the affairs of mortals and ruling the universe in a mechanical fashion. The most popular Greek philosophies in Rome are Epicurianism, which denies the existence of an afterlife and pursues moderate pleasures in life; and Stoicism, which also denies an afterlife and focuses on duty and morality.