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The Romans

Religion

The Romans were very superstitious. They believed that good or bad luck was given by the gods – if the gods were happy then you would have good luck but if they were unhappy then your luck would be bad.

There were many different gods and each of them looked after different things.


Jupiter was the god of the sky and the most important god	Neptune was the god of the sea	Mars was the god of war


Venus was the goddess of love	Bacchus was the god of wine	Ceres was the goddess of agriculture

roman temple

The Romans worshipped their gods in a temple. They made sacrifices of animals and precious items to their gods.

They believed that when an Emperor died he became a god and so a sacrifice was also made to the Emperor.

The Romans also worshipped Gods in their own homes.

christians in arena

Christians worshipped one god and refused to recognise or make sacrifices to either the Roman gods or the Emperor. Many of them worshipped in secret.

The Romans were very suspicious of the Christians and believed that they were dangerous to Rome.

Christians who refused to sacrifice to the gods were put into the arena with lions.

Although the Christians were persecuted by the Romans for 400 years, the religion continued to become more popular and by 500AD it was the official religion of Rome.