ABSTRACT
The Romans had a pragmatic attitude to religion, as to most things, which perhaps explains why they themselves had difficulty in taking to the idea of a single, all-seeing, all-powerful god. In so far as they had a religion of their own, any more than they could claim to have an indigenous mythology, 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, religious faith 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. The result was essentially two-fold: a state cult whose significant influence on political and military events outlasted the republic, and a private concern, in which the head of the family supervised the domestic rituals and prayers in the same way as the elected representatives of the people performed the public ceremonials. As circumstances and man’s view of the world changed, individuals whose personal religious needs remained unsatisfied turned increasingly during the first century AD to the mysteries, which were of Greek origin, and to the cults of the east.
