Roman Religion: an Introduction

Author: Hewitt, C., (2013), “Roman Religion: an Introduction”, first published on THE RMRS website.

Pietas The term “religion” does not truly reflect the ancient Roman system of belief and worship in their gods. Rather than “religion”, they would have used the term pietas, from which we derive “piety”, but this means much more than the quality of being religious or revenant. Pietas was one of the chief virtues of the ancient Romans admonishing them to do their duty to their country, their parents or other blood relations, and to the gods. In this sense, Roman religion combined a strict sense of duty or justice with a binding obligation, the latter often driven by a fear of the unknown. Thus pietas, as a virtue, resided within a person and a Roman simply did not leave their religious duties at the temple door, but carried them everywhere, following the will of the gods in their business transactions and everyday life.

Despite his reputation as an academic sceptic, especially on certain aspects of religious practice, the statesman, lawyer and scholar, Marcus Tullius Cicero, observed:

“If we care to compare our national characteristics with those of foreign peoples, we shall find that, while in all other respects we are only the equals or even the inferiors of others, yet in the sense of religion, that is in reverence for the gods, we are far superior.” (De Natura Deorum, book II.iii.8 - 9)

This pre-occupation with correct religious practices is also confirmed by the Greek historian Polybius who claimed that it “is actually the element which holds the Roman state together” (Histories, book VI, 56.2). Yet our notions of Roman beliefs and practices are constrained by the limited available evidence, almost all of which comes from Italy. Moreover, if one considers the expanse of territory controlled by the Romans, there were widespread variations in the deities worshipped, the festivals observed and the rituals practised, all of which were adopted, altered and discarded over time. Even our knowledge of belief systems in the provinces is similarly scant, leading us to question just how “Roman” is our understanding of “Roman religion”?

From humble beginnings Everything originated with the Etruscans, before Rome’s rise to prominence, as a set of rustic beliefs. These were later overlaid with a more sophisticated set of ideas from Greece. Indeed, the anthropomorphic Etruscan trinity of Juno, Jupiter and Minerva chimed well with the Greeks’ Olympian deities of Zeus, Hera and Athena. As such they were quickly conflated until it was virtually impossible to separate them. It was inevitable too that the Romans would appropriate Greek ideas to clothe their own austere set of divinities. By the same token it was also inevitable that Oriental cults were incorporated, albeit reluctantly, into the Roman pantheon. For example, the goddess Isis arrived from Egypt and the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele was imported from Asia Minor via the Greeks, as was the god of wine Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans).

As Rome’s influence expanded, further deities were encountered and assimilated alongside natives such as Fortuna Virilis the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck, Flora the goddess of blossoming, spring and fertility, and the Etruscan mother goddess Anna Perenna.

Many of the “official” Roman pantheon had neither pageantry or religious ceremony, nor the hope of either immortality or spiritual progress. In contrast, some of the imported Greek and Oriental cults that came to prominence during the late Republic and early Empire fulfilled these basic needs. Amongst the most successful were the “Mystery Cults” whose membership was confined to initiates of the “mysteries”. Mithraism was arguably one of the more successful of these, although its popular appeal was curtailed by the Roman insistence on limiting membership to high-ranking males, contrary to how the cult started out.

It would seem that the Romans were never what one might call a “religious” people, but their religious practices were always conservative, ritualistic and formulaic to the core. For example, the Fratres Arvales [1] only jumped four times instead of five when intoning, chanting or singing the last line of their sacred hymn, then the whole value performing the rite would be lost. At best this meant the priests, and the “congregation”, would have to begin the rite all over again.

Public versus Private Although there was a tendency for the two to cross-over, the Romans maintained a distinction between public and private worship. That carried out at public expense, either on behalf of specific groups or the whole citizen body, was deemed “public”. Despite individuals being permitted to privately finance temples or host festivals on behalf of the populous, these were still considered public acts. In contrast, private devotion centred on individuals, familiae [2] and gentes [3] as well as certain other small groups.

As its name implies, private religious practices did not require the services of state priests, but there were several areas of overlap. For example, state pontifices [4] would advise on private religious matters and on other concerns for an individual’s standing within the community. Moreover, both public and private devotions were officially overseen by the state through the ius divinum [5]. This law restricted public worship to a limited number of approved gods and select festivals. In private, however, the worship of any god or the celebration of any festival was still permitted, providing it did not breach the peace. Under the ius divinum anything dedicated to the gods on behalf of the people became Res Sacra [6] whereas private dedications did not.

Performing rites There are many examples of the public rites performed under the ius divinum. Here are just five such:

Parentalia, or dies parentales (“ancestral days”), was a nine-day festival held in honour of family ancestors, beginning on February 13th. Although a public holiday on the Roman religious calendar, its observances were mainly domestic and familial. The importance of the family to the Roman state, however, was expressed by public ceremonies on the opening day, the Ides of February, when a Vestal [7] conducted a rite for the collective di parentes of Rome at the tomb of Tarpeia.

Feralia was a public festival celebrating the Manes on February 21st of each year that marked the end of Parentalia.

Parilia, or Palilia, was a Roman agricultural festival designed to purify and protect the flocks. Pales was the protector of shepherds and their sheep, an ancient god usually regarded as male, but sometimes as female. The festival was publicly celebrated in Rome every year on April 21st.

Robigalia was a festival in ancient Roman religion held April 25th and named for the god Robigus. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease. Games (ludi) in the form of “major and minor” races were held. Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions reflect the anxieties about crop failure and the dependence on divine favour to avert it.

Terminus was the Roman god who protected boundary markers; his name being the Latin word for such a marker. Sacrifices of a suckling pig and a lamb were performed to sanctify each boundary stone, and landowners celebrated a festival called Terminalia in the god’s honour each year on February 23rd.

By contrast, the Romans would regularly perform private rituals to honour or placate the less tangible family spirits. Of these, some of the most important were:

Lares were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgamation of these. Lares were believed to observe, protect, and influence all that happened within the boundaries of their location or function. The statues of domestic Lares were placed at the table during family meals; their presence, cult, and blessing seem to have been required at all important family events.

Di Penates, or Penates, were among the dii familiares, or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. They were thus associated with the goddess of the hearth, Vesta, the Lares, and the Genius of the paterfamilias. In an example of how the public and private blurred, in his role as pontifex maximus, the Emperor and the Vestal Virgins both publicly worshipped at the shrine to the Imperial (or State) Penates.

Genius (plural geniī) is the individual instance of a general divine nature present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like a guardian angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died. For women, it was the spirit of Juno that would accompany each of them.

Manes were the subterranean deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. The Manes were honoured during the Parentalia and Feralia in February.

Lemures were the restless, wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or an affectionate cult by the living. Lemures had to be placated with an annual rite performed at midnight by the master of the house.

From this brief introduction it is hoped one can begin to understand Roman pietas as somewhat different to modern concepts of religious belief. This is, however, a gross over-simplification of a complex set of ideas. Pietas was a day-to-day part of a Roman’s life going with them everywhere, revealing the will of the gods and guiding their everyday business. Roman religion was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, "I give that you might give".

Endnotes:

1. Fratres Arvales (or “Arval Brethren”) were a priestly order who celebrated the Ops or Dea Dia festivals with a ritual, hopping, dance in 3:4 time. ▲

2. In Roman law, familia refers to the paterfamilias (the male head of the household), his legitimate descendants and their wives, all persons adopted into his family and their wives, and all slaves belonging to the household. ▲

3. The gens (plural gentes) was a Roman, Italic, or Etruscan family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. It was an important social and legal structure in early Roman history. The distinguishing characteristic of a gens was the nomen gentilicium, or gentile name. ▲

4. Pontifex (Latin: “bridge builder”, plural Pontifices) was a member of a council of priests in ancient Rome. The ponitfex maximus, or “Chief Priest”, was therefore the chief administrator of religious law. The role was quickly identified with and assumed by the emperors; a sound political move forever linking the emperor with Roman state religion. ▲

5. The ius divinum was that part of the civil law regulating the relations of the community with the deities recognized by the state, together with a general superintendence of the worship of gens and familia. ▲

6. Res sacra, the sacred objects belonging to all. The theft of such items would constitute Sacrilegium, the stealing of sacred objects, and hence warrant a death sentence. ▲

7. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The college of the Vestals was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome. These individuals cultivated the sacred fire that was not allowed to go out. Vestals were freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children and took a 30-year vow of chastity to devote themselves to the study and correct observance of state rituals that were forbidden to the colleges of male priests. ▲