Moon Owl Observations
A little touch of Rome
Ancient Romans had a major effect on modern paganism and parts of their culture need to be credited. Romans owed a high proportion of their language, architecture, religious beliefs and philosophy to the Greeks after the Greek culture was absorbed into Roman society when it became part of the empire. Even with this, Romans were a highly successful and intelligent society who introduced new technological advances into life.
Early Romans paid homage to spirits rather than specific deities. The divinity in all things and early deities were known as ‘Numina’. Numina were divine manifestations. They were faceless and formless but very powerful. The Numina included the Lares (guardians of the field, boundaries or ancestors), the Penates (guardians of the home and food), Janus (guardian of the doorway) and Vesta (guardian of the hearth).
Everything in nature was thought to be inhabited by spirits and the Romans would live under the gods, constantly trying to please them. They believed that the spirits in everything needed to be kept happy, and this led to various rituals and sacrifices. An example of that would be that Romans would sacrifice bulls and use the entrails to predict the future or read the will of the gods. They were also believers in syncretism- the belief that the same gods existed everywhere, just by different names.
Gods taking on a human form came along later with the influence of the Greeks and Etruscans. Roman spirits became associated with more humanized Greek gods and they began to absorb the Greek myths and gods as their own. Twelve gods called the Dii Consentes were especially honoured by the Romans. They were: Apollo, Ceres, Diana, Juno, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, Neptune, Venus, Vesta and Volcanus. They believed in various deities but certain ones would become more popular depending on who was the emperor, however; two particular deities were the most important to the Romans almost through the entire period of the Roman Empire- Vesta and Janus.
Vesta was by far the most popular. She is the guardian of the hearth and was one of the Numina worshipped. Since the Roman state was divided into the free and the enslaved it was good that Vesta was a deity that was linked to all classes of people. There were temples of Vesta that housed a sacred fire that was to be kept constantly burning by the Vestral Virgins. The virgins had important roles and the maidens would be chosen at childhood. They took very serious vows, and if one broke these vows they were often sentenced to death.
In 312, Constantine converted to Christianity and by the end of the 4th century the worship of all the old gods had been outlawed and ceremonies and rites related to Paganism were banned. Juliam the Apostate tried to revive Paganism afterwards but by then Christianity was too popular. There were still many high society Romans who did remain true to the old gods in this time even though it was forbidden. Then, when Emperor Theodosius reigned he was tolerant of Pagan beliefs at the beginning but soon sent troops to destroy Pagan temples. Many Pagan festivals were absorbed into Christian holy days and those that weren’t were simply turned into working days. Theodosius declared a war on Paganism and the De Obitu Theodosii contains a detailed account of the supression of Paganism. This of course led to an increase in Christianity- making it the official religion of Rome.