Roman Religion

Pantheon

The Romans were particularly interested in power, and much less interested in balance than the Greeks.

The chief of the gods, for the Romans, was Jupiter. His name is related to the name of the Greek god Zeus, and Jupiter is similar to Zeus in many ways. They are both sky gods who throw lightning bolts when they are angry.

At first the Roman gods were separate from Greek gods, although distantly related because both groups worshipped Indo-European gods. Later on, though, as the Romans met more Etruscans and Greeks and began to admire the Greeks more and more, the Romans adopted many Greek gods as their own and began to worship them as well. One early example is the twin gods Castor and Pollux.

For the Romans, as well, their emperors were gods, or something very close to gods, depending on who you asked. Generally in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, in Egypt and Western Asia, people worshipped the emperors as gods. But in the western part, in Europe, people worshipped only the emperor's guardian angel or something like that, not the emperor himself.

A useful book on Roman religion is Ramsey MacMullen's Paganism in the Roman Empire. His writing is very lively, and he uses a lot of interesting stories from the Roman world to illustrate his points. No pictures though. Also check out A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity, by Keith Hopkins

Etruscans
Jupiter
Juno
Minerva
Venus
Castor and Pollux
The Imperial Cult
Main Roman page
Main religion page