Roman religion was a complex system of gods, priests, traditions, and sacrifices.
Religio
was the word the Romans used for their believes. It all had
started as a simple animism, but influenced by their neighbors, the
Roman religion developed into a state controlled and state serving set
of
pantheon.
The Roman mythology,
is
greatly derived from the Greek mythology with its
beautiful stories about their gods on the Olympos. In later days they
would bring home strange new gods from Persia and Egypt like Mitrhas and Isis. Probably because of the punic wars the gods from Phoenicia
(nowadays Lebanon) never became very popular in Rome.
Supersticious
The word superstitio is derived from superstes
(survivor) for people
that were praying and sacrifying all day so their children would
outlive
Emperor Augustus warned for the dangerous superstitio that was preached
by a certain Chrestos. (Not necessarily Jesus Christ.)
But according to
our standards the Romans were very superstitious and tried to find out
the will
of the gods
in numerous ways
Religion a way of controling the people
The Roman life was greatly controlled by priests
who were initially all patricians
Without sacrifices no life
The sacrifices
played an important role in the way of life of the Romans.
The idea was you could as it were order things in exchange for a sacrifice.
