Rise of Rome

Roman Religion

• The Romans had a religion of their own, it was not based on any central belief, but on a mixture of fragmented rituals, taboos, superstitions, and traditions which they collected over the years from a number of sources.
• To the Romans, religion was less a spiritual experience than a contractual relationship between mankind and the forces which were believed to control people's existence and well-being.
• Most of the Roman gods and goddesses were a blend of several religious influences. Many were introduced via the Greek colonies of southern Italy. Many also had their roots in old religions of the Etruscans or Latin tribes.

Prayer and Sacrifice

• The contractual relationship between mankind and the gods involved each party in giving, and in turn receiving, services. The Romans believed that powers residing in natural and physical objects had the ability to control the processes of nature, and that man could influence these processes by symbolic action.
• The “services” by which Romans hoped to influence the forces that guided their lives were firmly established in ritual - the ritual of prayer and the ritual of offering. In either case the exact performance of the rite was essential. One slip, and you had to go back to the beginning and start again.
• Prayer was almost invariably accompanied by some form of offering or sacrifice. This did not necessarily involve the ritual slaughter of an animal, as long as the offering represented life in some form: it could be millet, cakes made from ears of corn which had been picked a month earlier, fruit, cheese, bowls of wine, or pails of milk.

The Roman Government

• When the Roman Republic was first set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge were two men called consuls. Women were not allowed to be consuls. The consuls controlled the army, and they decided whether to start a war and how much taxes to collect and what the laws were. They both had to agree in order to change anything; if one of them said veto, Latin for "I forbid it", then the law didn't pass.

Roman Governmant

• The consuls got advice from the Senate, which was made up of men from wealthy families in Rome. Women were not allowed in the Senate, either. Once you got into the Senate, you stayed in for the rest of your life. Most consuls eventually joined the Senate, and most senators were from families where their fathers and grandfathers had been in the Senate. Most of the time, the consuls did what the Senate advised.