Narratives of divine activity played a more important role in the system of Greek religious belief than among the Romans, for whom ritual and
cultus were primary. Although Roman religion was not based on
scriptures and their
exegesis, priestly literature was one of the earliest written forms of
Latin prose. The books
(libri) and commentaries
(commentarii) of the
College of Pontiffs and of the
augurs contained religious procedures, prayers, and rulings and opinions on points of religious law. Although at least some of this archived material was available for consultation by the
Roman senate, it was often
occultum genus litterarum, an arcane form of literature to which by definition only priests had access. Prophecies pertaining to world history and to Rome's destiny turn up fortuitously at critical junctures in history, discovered suddenly in the nebulous
Sibylline books, which
Tarquin the Proud (according to legend) purchased in the late 6th century BC from the
Cumaean Sibyl. Some aspects of archaic Roman religion survived in the lost theological works of the 1st-century BC scholar
Varro, known through other classical and Christian authors. Although traditional Roman religion was conservative in ritual rather than dogmatic in doctrine, the meaning of the rituals they perpetuated could be adapted, expanded, and reinterpreted by accretions of myths,
etiologies, commentary, and the influences of other cultures in response to social change. The earliest pantheon included Janus,
Vesta, and the so-called
Archaic Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, whose three patrician
flamens were of the highest order. According to tradition,
Numa Pompilius, the
Sabine second
king of Rome, founded Roman religion; Numa was believed to have had as his consort and adviser a Roman goddess or
nymph of fountains and of prophecy,
Egeria. The Etruscan-influenced
Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva later became central to official religion, replacing the Archaic Triad – an unusual example within
Indo-European religion of a supreme triad formed of two female deities and only one male. The cult of
Diana became established on the
Aventine Hill, but the most famous Roman manifestation of this goddess may be
Diana Nemorensis, owing to the attention paid to her cult by
J.G. Frazer in the
mythographic classic
The Golden Bough. What modern scholars call the
Aventine Triad –
Ceres,
Liber, and
Libera – developed in association with the rise of
plebeians to positions of wealth and influence. : in the center stands
Mercury holding the
caduceus, and on the right
Juno sits on her throne. Behind her
Iris stands and gestures. On the left
Vulcan (the
blond figure) stands behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it.
Nephele sits at Mercury's feet. – Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the
triclinium in the
House of the Vettii,
Pompeii,
Fourth Style (60–79 AD). The gods represented distinctly the practical needs of daily life, and the Romans scrupulously accorded them the appropriate rites and offerings. Early Roman divinities included a host of "specialist gods" whose names were invoked in the carrying out of various specific activities. Fragments of old ritual accompanying such acts as plowing or sowing reveal that at every stage of the operation a separate deity was invoked, the name of each deity being regularly derived from the verb for the operation.
Tutelary deities were particularly important in ancient Rome. Saturn was known as the father of Jupiter, Ceres, Pluto, Neptune, Juno, and Vesta. Thus,
Janus and
Vesta guarded the door and hearth, the
Lares protected the field and house,
Pales the pasture,
Saturn the sowing,
Ceres the growth of the grain,
Pomona the fruit, and
Consus and
Ops the harvest.
Jupiter, the ruler of the gods, was honored for the aid his rains might give to the farms and vineyards. In his more encompassing character he was considered, through his weapon of lightning, the director of human activity. Owing to his widespread domain, the Romans regarded him as their protector in their military activities beyond the borders of their own community. Prominent in early times were the gods
Mars and
Quirinus, who were often identified with each other. Mars was a god of both war and agriculture; he was honored in March and October. Quirinus was the patron of the armed community in time of peace. The 19th-century scholar
Georg Wissowa thought that the Romans distinguished two classes of gods, the
di indigetes and the
di novensides or
novensiles: the
indigetes were the original gods of the Roman state, their names and nature indicated by the titles of the earliest priests and by the fixed festivals of the calendar, with 30 such gods honored by special festivals; the
novensides were later divinities whose cults were introduced to the city in the historical period, usually at a known date and in response to a specific crisis or felt need.
Arnaldo Momigliano and others, however, have argued that this distinction cannot be maintained. During the
war with Hannibal, any distinction between "indigenous" and "immigrant" gods begins to fade, and the Romans embraced diverse gods from various cultures as a sign of strength and universal divine favor.
Foreign gods in a Roman wall painting The absorption of neighboring local gods took place as the Roman state conquered neighboring territories. The Romans commonly granted the local gods of a conquered territory the same honors as the earlier gods of the
Roman state religion. In addition to
Castor and Pollux, the conquered settlements in Italy seem to have contributed to the Roman pantheon
Diana,
Minerva,
Hercules,
Venus, and deities of lesser rank, some of whom were Italic divinities, others originally derived from the Greek culture of
Magna Graecia. In 203 BC, Rome imported the cult object embodying
Cybele from
Pessinus in
Phrygia and welcomed its arrival with due
ceremony. Both
Lucretius and
Catullus, poets contemporary in the mid-1st century BC, offer disapproving glimpses of Cybele's wildly ecstatic cult. In some instances, deities of an enemy power were formally invited through the ritual of
evocatio to take up their abode in new sanctuaries at Rome. Communities of foreigners
(peregrini) and former slaves
(libertini) continued their own religious practices within the city. In this way
Mithras came to Rome and his popularity within the
Roman army spread his cult as far afield as
Roman Britain. The important Roman deities were eventually identified with the more
anthropomorphic Greek gods and goddesses, and assumed many of their attributes and myths. == Astronomy ==