religion+-+roman

__//**Roman empire : religion / religious tolerance / religious violence or tension (5) (Jun Lee)**//__

By the end of the first century B.C., Rome ruled an empire that stretched from the Sahara in the south to the English Channel in the north, and from the Atlantic to the Rhine, Danube, and Euphrates rivers. The Romans accomplished what only one Greek, the great Alexander, could even imagine:they created one state that included virtually every center of Western civilization.

The empire was justified by the claim that, just as the pope was the vicar of God on earth in spiritual matters, so the emperor was God's temporal vicar; hence he claimed to be the supreme temporal ruler of Christendom. Actually, the power of the emperor never equaled his pretensions. Although the emperors were accorded diplomatic precedence over other rulers, their suzerainty early ceased over France, S Italy, Denmark, Poland, and Hungary; and their control over England, Sweden, and Spain was never more than nominal. The authority of the emperors in Italy and Germany was sometimes nonexistent, sometimes real. The territorial limits of the empire varied, but it generally included Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia, parts of N Italy, present-day Belgium, and, until 1648, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Some countries (e.g., Hungary) were ruled by the emperor or imperial prince but were outside the empire, while others (e.g., Flanders, Pomerania, Schleswig, and Holstein) were part of the empire but were ruled by foreign princes who held their lands in fief from the emperor and took part in the imperial diet  The early Romans thought of their gods as abstract, impersonal spirits, not as the warm superhumans the Greeks believed their gods to be. Gradually, however, the Romans developed a pantheon of gods, many adopted from the Greeks, who had the character and personality of humans. It included Jupiter, the supreme god; Juno, the queen of heaven; Minerva, the goddess of wisdom; and Mercury, the god of commerce. Roman religion was sponsored by the government, which built temples to the various gods and which employed the priests and oracles. Eventually, the emperor came to be worshiped as a deity.Many festival days during the year added color to the state religion. During the Saturnalia, which was celebrated during late December, slaves were set free for a few days and people exchanged gifts. The Lupercalia, Feburary 15th, was a fertility festival. The Floralia, dedicated to the goddess of flowers, celebrated the coming of spring.

During the second and first centuries B.C., Roman faith in the old state religion weakened. As the wealth of Rome's empire poured into the city, many turned to lives of pleasure-seeking. The number of slaves and other non-citizens increased greatly, and these people introduced the religions of the East, which soon became popular with the Romans. They worshiped Isis, the Great Mother of Egypt; or the god Baal of Syria; or Mithras, a Persian god. The new religions made no distinction between classes, gave hope of a glorious life after death, and contained appealing exotic, often mysterious, rituals. Men of culture studied Greek philosophy, which discouraged fear of the gods, and many leaders of Rome became Stoics or Epicureans. The emperors generally tolerated the many religions of Rome, requiring only that everyone join in rites for former emperors and the city's patron goddess, Roma. The Jews and the growing number of Christians refused, and these groups were often persecuted. The Christians, however, grew in number and strength, and in the fourth century the emperor Constantine himself became a Christian. Christianity became the predominant faith, and the old Roman state religion died out. Most of the Roman gods and goddesses were a blend of several religious influences. Many were introduced via the Greek colonies of southern Italy. Many also had their roots in old religions of the Etruscans or Latin tribes. Often the the old Etruscan or Latin name survived but the deity over time became to be seen as the Greek god of equivalent or similar nature. And so it is that the Greek and Roman pantheon look very similar, but for different names. An example of such mixed origins is the goddess Diana to whom the Roman king Servius Tullius built the temple on the Aventine Hill. Essentially she was an old Latin goddess from the earliest of times.

 ======  ======