ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that religion and ritual permeated the lives of all Romans, including children, regardless of age, status and gender. Although a relatively smaller number of children fulfilled official roles in state ritual, the majority participated actively as observers of both these rituals and of the associated games and performances, which were very much a part of the many days of sacrifice and celebration in the Roman calendar. Similarly, the familia to which a child belonged was also constructed around rituals designed to honour the gods, some dictated by ancestral custom, mirroring the religious life of the state, with others selected by individual choice.
