Ancient Rome’s early religious beliefs came from their ancestors and other origins came from the early Italic gods, Ancient Etruscans, and the Ancient Greeks. The Ancient Romans worshiped gods that were not entirely of Ancient Roman origin. The Ancient Romans encountered many new places and people during their conquests and travels. Ancient Rome was very unique in their religious thinking. This great empire was open to other cultures gods, traditions, and beliefs. The Ancient Romans constantly revised their own belief system to incorporate borrowed gods. Since Rome was an empire that pursued conquest, they adopted many deities throughout the duration of their great empire. The reason the Ancient Romans were open to new gods and deities was because they knew that there were many gods they did not know about. The Romans figured if they honored and worshiped all of these gods, that they could help them further reach their end goal, to rule the world.
Many of Rome’s gods and goddess were derived from the East and West from Egypt, Asia Minor, Persia, and even Celtic origins. The heaviest influence came from the Ancient Greeks. The Ancient Romans borrowed ideas from the Greeks religion, mythology, and philosophy. Heavy influences also came from early native Italic gods. Italic (ancient Italian) gods were prior to greatAncient Rome’s occupation and the organization of the structured empire known as Rome. It was not until Ancient Rome was more structured that the famous Ancient Roman gods gained more important roles and were used throughout Ancient Rome. In addition, as Ancient Rome grew stronger, their gods also grew stronger and developed new powers and responsibilities. This made sense being that a small and simple village would have fewer tasks to tend to as opposed to a larger village or city with more complex work. These larger cities and villages would require the citizens and gods to take on added responsibilities. This meant that the Ancient Roman citizens could rely on their strong and powerful gods to continually fulfill their wishes and prayers, no matter how big Ancient Rome got.
