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The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon of gods wholesale.

Another polytheistic society was Rome. The Romans borrowed the gods and goddesses of the Greeks, as well as some from other civilizations like the Egyptians. All of these deities were added to the Roman pantheon, the group of gods and goddesses to whom Romans could appeal for help with day-to-day problems.

While they were very serious about religion, the Romans were more practical about worship than other cultures. Their communications with gods and goddesses tended to focus on requests for help with an individual's wants and needs. If one deity didn't prove helpful, a Roman worshiper might turn to another one, hoping that god or goddess would be more willing to assist them. Learn more about Roman religion as you click on each image below.

These images illustrate the Roman pantheon.


Walters Art Museum [Public domain, CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Question

What was practical about the Roman approach to worship?

If one god did not seem to be doing his or her best, the Roman simply offered his sacrifices to another, until one of them performed satisfactorily. Most Romans were not especially devoted to one particular deity.

Question

Why did the Romans refuse to accept Christianity at first?

The Christians, who believed in only one God, refused to worship the emperor as divine. That made the Christian religion more difficult to assimilate into Roman society than the religions of other cultures. The Christian deity could not just be added to the pantheon in a way that would satisfy Christians and Romans alike.