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ROMAN RELIGIONBy: Brian

What am I presenting? Well, as you can see from the title, I am presenting Roman religion(s). There where many of them, and I’m going to explain and tell you about all of them. I have the answers to 5 major questions. First of all, we have our first question.

NNO LAUGHIN’, I’M WARNING YOU

Origin

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5 Religions in Ancient Rome

What were the major religions?

The graph shown on the previous slide showed us how popular the shown religions at that time were. The time was set in 100 A.D. There was the original religion (e.g. Jupiter, Juno, Mars) copied from the Greeks, cults from foreign provinces (like states except the citizens had limited freedom), Christianity (its’ followers were persecuted since Nero’s reign and until Constantine allowed Christianity), and other religions (Judaism and such).

The whole empire was ordered to worship the original gods and the emperor. They were allowed to worship their own gods (besides the Christian god) as long as they followed that rule. Nearly all of them were “adopted” by the Romans and changed. There was Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Apollo (not changed), Saturn, Pluto, Mercury, Neptune, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Vesta, Bacchus, Vulcan, and much more minor ones.

Cults from occupied territories were often brought into Rome and most of them became popular. For example, the worship of the Persian god Mithras was widely practiced. That was because the Romans found it “fun”. Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood, was also worshipped.

Christianity was allowed for a few decades or so, but then Nero blamed the great fire of Rome on them and the so 3 centuries of persecution began. It finally ended when Constantine stopped the persecution. Then about everyone became Christians.

Judaism, on the other hand, was permitted. Like the Christian way of the worship of one god, Judaism was very similar to Christianity. Most of the Jews came from Corinth, a Greek port known for its’ large Jewish population, or refugees from the Jewish-Roman wars.

As I mentioned before, many people brought their religion with them. But, anyway, the whole EMPIRE was diverse. They conquered the entire Mediterranean from coastline to coastline. Any nation can be diverse in religion if it’s that large! The only exception is that they pressure their citizens to only worship one religion or if the entire nation is very large (without that province thing) and only has one race in it. Those are the ONLY possibilities.

Why was Rome so diverse in religion?

Unfortunately, some Emperors had a disliking for certain religions or wanted the opportunity to blame the followers. When the Great fire of Rome occurred, many rioters came to his palace and blamed him. He then blamed the Christians! Surprise! The Christians had no one else to blame (not like that they would do such a thing). Surprise, again! Most of them either stopped or died for their faith. Maybe some followers of a random god insulted the emperor. Then he had the so-called right to ban their religion.

WHY WERE SOME RELIGIONS BANNED?

There was Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), Saturn (Kronos), Pluto (Hades), Neptune (Poseidon), Mercury (Hermes), Venus (Aphrodite), Mars (Ares), Minerva (Athena), Apollo (not changed), Ceres (Demeter), Diana (Artemis), Vesta (Hestia), Bacchus (Dionysus), and Vulcan (Hephaestus).

Note: Everything in brackets are the Greek equivalents of the Roman ones

Which gods were there in the “original” religion?

When Constantine allowed Christianity to prosper, you were still allowed to worship other gods. But when Theodosius came on the scene, he banned ALL religions other than Christianity. Death was the punishment for disobeying this law. A bit like the opposite of what happened a couple centuries earlier, right?

HOW DID CHRISTIANITY BECOME THE OFFICIAL RELIGION?

HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING?

-"Religion in Ancient Rome." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 June 2012. Web. 19 June 2012

-"Religion." "Religion." http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2012

-"Ancient Roman Religion." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 June 2012

-My Brain. 06 Feb. 2001. My House, Richmond Hill

Sources:

THANKS FOR WATCHING!!!

AND A WORD OF THANKS TO WHOEVER IS PRESENTING THIS

AKA CLAPPING