Roman And Roman Religion

When Christianity first arrived in Rome around 60 AD it was regarded with superstition. Early converts to Christianity were heavily persecuted but this did not deter their faith. Christianity continued to spread relatively unhindered throughout Rome, but Christians also faced intense persecution from citizens that were still following their Pagan traditions. Even though Christianity spread steadily throughout Rome, it did not do so without conflict, often this conflict was from Pagan religions that viewed Christianity as a threat.
Roman and Greek religion was undeniably polytheistic. Roman religion was heavily influenced by Greek religion coming up from the colonies in the Lower Peninsula. Many Greek gods were appropriated into the Roman culture under a different name. Some Greek gods that have a Roman counterpart are: Venus, Mercury and Jupiter As a blend of different deities together the Romans also had a mixture of different religious practices to worship these gods. …show more content…
Romans attributed a god to every human phenomena and even natural phenomenon such as the weather and seasons. To the Romans religion was based less off of faith and more on a contract with the Gods. The general belief of Roman religion was that the Gods were in charge of different offices but they needed incentive to also protect humans. This incentive was provided in the form of prayer, sacrifice and rituals.
Unlike other ancient religions that had elected officials performing major religious tasks, Roman citizens participated in religious rituals every day. Religion was closely connected to daily Roman life. Most Roman homes had their own private shrines to worship the household gods, also called lares. Every day the head of the household would gather the family around the shrine to have daily prayers. This was an important part of day-to-day Roman