Roman Pagan Religion

Roman pagan religion consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the Roman people, as well as those who were brought under its law.

Quotes on Roman Polytheism:

 * In the field of religion the Romans have a completely different tradition from the mythological one of the Greeks; the divine is a dark and impersonal force that is present in nature and objects and which presides over all human activities; the sphere of the sacred is taboo, it is clearly distinct from that of the profane, and when faced with manifestations of the divine man feels a shiver of religious horror. Religion is aimed at warding off the harmful influences of divine forces with rituals and magical formulas, at interpreting their will through wonders. This dark and mysterious conception of faceless and figureless gods makes its influence felt even on writers of cultured and skeptical ages, through the typically Latin feeling of horror. (Luciano Perelli)

Sources:

 * Beard, M., North, J., Price, S., Religions of Rome, Volume I, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-521-31682-8
 * Beard, M., North, J., Price, S., Religions of Rome, Volume II, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-521-45646-3
 * Beard, M., The Roman Triumph, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007. ISBN 978-0-674-02613-1
 * Clarke, John R., The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BCE-CE 250. Ritual, Space and Decoration, illustrated, University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton, 1992. ISBN 978-0-520-08429-2
 * Cornell, T., The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c.1000–264 BCE), Routledge, 1995. ISBN 978-0-415-01596-7
 * Feeney, Denis. Literature and Religion at Rome: Cultures, Contexts, and Beliefs. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998.
 * Fishwick, Duncan. The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, volume 1, Brill Publishers, 1991. ISBN 978-90-04-07179-7
 * Fishwick, Duncan. The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, volume 3, Brill Publishers, 2002. ISBN 978-90-04-12536-0
 * Flint, Valerie I. J., et al., Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome, Vol. 2, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 1998. ISBN 978-0-485-89002-0
 * Fox, R. L., Pagans and Christians
 * Lott, John. B., The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-521-82827-7
 * MacMullen, R., Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-300-08077-3
 * MacMullen, R., Paganism in the Roman Empire, Yale University Press, 1984.
 * Momigliano, Arnaldo, On Pagans, Jews, and Christians, reprint, Wesleyan University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-8195-6218-0
 * North, J. A. Roman Religion. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000.
 * North, John (2023). The Religious History of the Roman Empire: the Republican Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199644063.
 * Orr, D. G., Roman domestic religion: the evidence of the household shrines, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II, 16, 2, Berlin, 1978, 1557‑91.
 * Rees, Roger. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
 * Revell, L., "Religion and Ritual in the Western Provinces", Greece and Rome, volume 54, number 2, October 2007.
 * Rüpke, Jörg, ed. A Companion to Roman Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.
 * Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 2003.
 * Spaeth, Barbette Stanley. The Roman Goddess Ceres. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 1996.
 * Takács, Sarolta A. 2008. Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.

Related entries:

 * Rome (ancient city)