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Roman paganism

	Roman pagan temple at Palmyra Syria AKG Photo Enlarge Image

The way that pagan religion was structured and practised in the Roman world would ultimately lead to its demise in the face of Christianity.

Basic elements of paganism
• Everyday life and religion were seen as a seamless whole. There was no separation into religious and secular spheres.

• Practice was critical – sacrifice, prayer, divination, fortune-telling.

• Superstition was the motivation for much religious activity – for example, placating the gods. Believers had a primordial fear of upsetting the gods, who could not be trusted.

• Temple buildings were central to the religion. They were the scene of processions, feasting and sacrifices, as well as acting as banks and insurance companies for believers. They also acted as clinics, with shrines to Asclepius (the Greek god of medicine and physicians) providing primarily psychological treatments – but at a price.

• Processions and festivals provided the only occasions for 'days off'. For instance, Athens had 120 festal days every year.

• Many gods were thought to reside in particular areas – for example, in a spring or on a mountain. Thus the religion could be said to be grounded in specific locations.

Religion and politics
The relative complexity of Roman administrative structures was paralleled by the diversity of its priesthoods. There were two major colleges – the pontifices, with the pontifex maximus at their head (and the Vestal Virgins under his general control) – and the augures.

The pontifices were generally concerned with sacrifices to the gods, the Vestal Virgins with the sacred hearth of the community, and the augures with ascertaining the will of the gods – for instance, by observing the flight of birds.

Just as the state created new secular offices to meet new needs, so new priesthoods were created from time to time. Moreover, these posts were usually held by high-ranking men who also held secular office, with the difference that a priesthood was for life, a consulship for a year at a time. Religion and politics were not two worlds but inseparable parts of the same world.

The imperial cult
In 12 BC, Augustus was elected Rome's pontifex maximus – that is, head of the national church – an office that from then on was 'owned' by the Roman emperors. Deification for Augustus had to wait for his death, but then the cult of his guardian spirit (his genius or numen) became established in many Western towns and cities, with temples erected and oaths taken in his name.

Most emperors until Vespasian were hailed as gods after their death, although Tiberius, Caligula and Nero were not – and Claudius achieved deity status with a temple at Camulodunum (Colchester) in Britain while he was still alive.

The imperial cult enjoyed a depth of support throughout society. People wanted to feel connected to the family at the centre of the known world. And since they couldn't know them directly, or by means of concrete personal contact, a spiritual relationship through a temple was clearly better than nothing.

Adopting new gods
Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of Roman religion was the steady importation of new deities – from Etruria, from elsewhere in Italy or from abroad. These included Isis, Sarapis, Cybele and Mithras, and other elements of the so-called 'mystery cults'.

According to historian Michael Crawford, 'The practice is not an indication of dissatisfaction with existing gods, but rather the reverse. Just as her citizens gave Rome her military strength, and Rome sought for most of her history constantly to increase their number, so also, as the gods helped Rome to win battles, the more gods one worshipped the better.'

The worshipers
The remains of ancient pagan religion – such as temples and inscriptions – tend to reflect the concerns of the very top layer of the population. Society was very stratified, and the vast majority was poor, with perhaps one person in every three living hand to mouth.

In all societies, the poor are more or less invisible, leaving few traces behind. So what religion meant to the poor of the Roman empire is difficult to ascertain. But what is known is that much of it comprised what we would call 'superstition' and 'magic', full of curses, charms, demons, predictions, quack cures, spells and so on.

The participation of common people in mainstream religious activities would have been extremely limited. Not only did their lowly status keep them out of them, but virtually every pagan practice had to be paid for. Even household religion would not have been easy – most of the population of Rome lived in insulae (tenements) and presumably had no hearth for the hearth gods.

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