Roman Religion Has Nothing in Common with Christianity: A Debate

Latin Controlled Assessment
Roman Religion has nothing in common with Christianity
To what extent do you agree?
Religion in Ancient Rome covers the practices, beliefs and philosophy of the entire history of the Roman Empire up to 312 AD when the Emperor at the time, Constantine, famously converted to Christianity, which was the first stepping stone to the conversion of Rome itself. This essay complies the similarities and differences between the two religions that changed Roman history: Christianity and Ancient Roman Religion, during which I will discuss and evaluate the deities, the festivals and the practices.
The Romans believed in a polytheistic religion; that is to say, they believed in more than one God. In fact they believed in hundreds, having a God assigned to almost everything included in daily life. Although there is no confirmed creation story, the Romans concluded that the rulers of all heaven and earth were the immortal gods (Dei Immortales): Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Furthermore, there were twelve higher deities (Dei Consentes), shown on the altar from the ancient city of Gabii in Source A, showing the heads of these six Gods and six Goddesses. They were listed by the poet Ennius in the 3rd Century BC as Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan and Apollo, shown in Source B.
However, Christianity is a monotheistic religion and only believes in one Divine God. He is an eternal being that supposedly created the universe and earth in seven days, and preserves the world and everyone in it.
An obvious difference in the religious views of deities in each religion is that one is polytheistic and the other is monotheistic. This created a significant difference in the lives of Christians and Romans. Christians only have one God to worship whereas Romans have a different God for each thing. This may have its advantages and disadvantages, as although there is a specific God/Goddess to solve a specific problem or guide someone, there is much more labour in terms of worship, sacrifice and remembering each and every God.
However, there are many similarities between the two religions if we consider the Roman Gods as a single body of Gods and Goddesses. Both believed in the fact of the deities’ whereabouts. Most Christians believed that God confined in the paradisiacal Heaven, and a similar place for the Roman Gods, Mount Olympus, which was taken from Greek beliefs.

Festivals and holidays in Ancient Rome were an important part of a Roman’s life, considering that there were over 40 of them in the Ancient Roman calendar. Festivals, or feriae, were days instituted for the sake of the Gods, and during these days, all work and labour was temporarily ceased so as to perform religious rites and rituals such as sacrifices to the Gods. These days were paid for by the state and consisted of three types: Stativae, which were a fixed date in the calendar, Conceptivae, which were moveable dates announced by priests, and Imperativae, which were days of feriae held on demand. One of the main festivals, Saturnalia, was held between the 17th and 23rd of December, and on these days masters and slaves would change places, exchange gifts and all work was ceased, which is can be seen in Source C, which states how Janus made this festival in the name of Saturn, after he improved the conditions of life in Rome. This supports the point on how festivals were days instituted for the sake of the Gods.
Contrary to the many festivals in the Roman calendar, there are only two main Christian festivals in the year that all Christians celebrate: Easter and Christmas. On Easter, Christians also remember the resurrection of Jesus, and it is the most important festival of the Christian year. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, where families gather together, work ceases and gifts are given.
I believe that some Christian festivals may be much less celebrated in terms of religion and God and more of a relief and excuse to rest. Festivals such as Easter have been plagued by unnecessary ridicules such as the giving of chocolate eggs, which has nothing to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Romans however, were much more dedicated, having feasts and days off to give sacrifices to the Gods and worship. In terms of the festival Saturnalia, if worship was not obeyed, it was believed that the Gods would cease their benevolence. In Source C, it emanated how if the religious rites were not done in the festival of Saturnalia, the conditions of life in Rome would deplete because Saturn would not allow the harvest to thrive.
To further my point, even the Roman holidays that were created to hold games (Ludi), such as chariot racing, had a religious element to them. The Ludi Apollinares that honours the god Apollo was held in the Circus Maximus, an ancient roman chariot racing stadium.

Roman religion was very dependent on faith in the Gods to support the believers in their day to day lives. The people and the priests expressed this through the practice of prayer, ritual and sacrifice, so the religion was more of a social law and order in my eyes than a reason to have faith in a deity. People in Ancient Rome believed that making sacrificii, normally animals, and offering other gifts to the Gods could keep them on good terms and reinforcing the powers of the deities rendering hopefully their prayers answered. As well as ordinary household sacrifices (given for prosperity in the household or a good harvest, normally such things as leftovers form a family meal were used), large but solemn ceremonies would be held in aid of a large event, such as at festivals. The sacrifice, normally a cow, pig or sheep, was specifically chosen, then cleaned and dressed in special ceremonial dress. At sacrifices like these, a haruspex would be present. He and his inferiors would watch the way the sacrifice was despatched, and also observe the smoke and flames when the victim was burnt. Furthermore, they would carefully examine its insides, most importantly the liver. This is called Extispicium. The liver’s shape, size, colour and texture along with the observations earlier would determine the interpretation the priests made on whether the signs from the Gods were favourable or not. Source D depicts a sacrifice scene, with an animal being led to the sacred altar outside the temple by the haruspex. After the sacrifice a banquet or feast was held for the priests and officials, in honour of the deity who the sacrifice was offered to. All of the sacrifices and offerings had to have an accompanying prayer (an example of which can be seen in Source E where the Gods Lares and Marmarare being asked for help), stating what benefits the sacrificers wanted to get from the offering to the deity. Source F, by Plinius who was a highly regarded natural philosopher in the 1st Century, supports this by stating how sacrifice is useless without saying what you want the Gods to do through prayer. Communication with the Gods through prayer and vow was essentially a one-way conversation: until one’s wish was granted, one did not know whether the Gods had committed themselves to the wish. Prayer and worship were powerful enough to have benefits from the Gods; however there was a certain vitality and sensitiveness in the accuracy of the words of the prayer. For the desired powers from the Gods to be given, the words and names had to be read perfectly or the whole prayer had to be restarted, so often public prayers were often held by specialist priests on the behalf of the whole community. Animal sacrifice always took place at the templum, not so much a temple, but a blessed and sanctified place where rituals were held in front of the Gods. The actual sacrifice as well as the ceremonies and festivals mentioned earlier took place outside under an altar. Often, temples were dedicated to specific Gods, but some, like in Source G, were dedicated to Emperors or other such famous and influential people, such as the Temple of Augustus. The hall of the temple, or cella, may have contained statues or artwork of that specific God or Emperor. Christianity has very different ideas on the concepts of practices. In terms of sacrifices to Godthere are no sacrifices that have been made to God in terms of everyday animal sacrifices. Furthermore, prayers are very much active in church for Christians; however the Christian Church isn’t quite as strict on correct verbal formula for the prayer to take effect. Many write and speak the prayers themselves to suit their own needs, which is entirely contrary to the Roman concept. What I also found interesting though is the policies of female priests in Ancient Rome. Female priests are strongly condemned by the Catholic Church, however there have been many female priests highly regarded in Ancient Rome, which is said in Source H, which mentions the Vestal Virgins and how they received ‘many fine honours’. For example, the Vestal Virgins, of whom praise is given by Plinius in Source I, were said to be the guardians of luck in Rome who could intervene on behalf of those in trouble (for example in Source I, they could catch runaway slaves for the masters), and also had much involvement in sacrifices and ceremonies. These two sources show clearly, that female priests were held in high regard in Ancient Rome. This is not the case in the Catholic Church, where female priests are forbidden. Although in the Anglican Church there are some female priests, there is no unity in the Christian Church on this issue, after the Catholic Inquisition published Malleus Maleficarum, which taught the world of the ‘dangers of free-thinking women’. As a supposed ‘punishment’ for Eve’s partaking of the Apple of Knowledge in Genesis: 1 (giving birth to the idea of the Original Sin) the Catholic Church killed five million women spanning over three centuries. The Anglican Church, as I have mentioned, have taken to a lighter image of women nowadays, granting them priesthood in various churches. To conclude, I believe that Christianity and Ancient Roman religion have many differences in terms of their practices, deities and festivals. I have found that most modern Christians are much less devoted and committed than Romans to their corresponding deities, and much less strict on festivals, sacrificial ceremonies and the verbal formula of prayers. I also found that monotheistic and polytheistic religions can have very different customs and myths. Another stark contrast is the policies on female priestesses, which have a split view in Christianity but have much importance in the Religion of Ancient Rome. So overall, Ancient Roman Religion and Christianity starkly contrast with each other, which may have resulted in the rivalry between the two religions in the early centuries after Christ’s death. So, in regard to the opening question, I believe that although there are some similarities, such as going to a place of worship and prayers, overall the Roman Religion is very different from Christianity.