Religious Rituals

The actual religion of the Romans was more focused on rituals rather than beliefs, and was more collective than personal. In the mind of a Roman citizen, there was a contract between the gods and the mortals which needed to be upheld at any cost. Each side would give and in return would receive services. Each deity had specific rituals and worship practices. The Romans made sure that the worship was carried out in a precise manner. If there was any irregularity or mistake, the ritual was repeated to ensure that it was done properly. The main aim was to retain the favor of the gods towards the affairs of the state, household or individual. Moreover, animal sacrifice was the most common form of sacrifice and was used for the official rituals for the state gods. Such were the man-made religious rituals of ancient Romans.

Temple

Roman pagan temples were long referred to as aedes. Such a structure was erected in a templum, an area that had been consecrated as sacred. In time the term templum, or temple, was extended to the building, too. Rome's earliest temples were likely made of wood, but by the 4th century B.C. stone was regularly employed. The architectural style was for the most part borrowed from the Etruscans and especially the Greeks. Typically, it employed a rectangular building surrounded by a colonnade (row of columns), the front and back columns supporting triangular gables called pediments. A wide staircase led up to the front door and some temples had back staircases as well. By the late Republic, most Roman temples utilized Greek Corinthian columns (having tops decorated with ornate stone leaves, as opposed to simpler Doric and Ionic columns). During the Empire, when Rome's influence spread into Gaul, Germany, and Britain, some of the temples in these areas had a Romano-Celtic style (probably consisting of a small, fairly spare rectangular structure with a pitched roof and a roofed porch running around the perimeter). ¹

Roman temples usually faced east or towards the rising sun, though a notable exception was the great Pantheon which faced north (only preserved after the rise of Christianity because it was made into a church instead of being destroyed and built over, which was the fate of most 'pagan' temples). In ancient Rome, only the deities of the Roman pantheon had a templum; any building honoring a foreign deity was called a fanum. Visitors to Rome were welcome to worship at the fanum of their native gods but were required to worship the gods of Rome in the temples as well. ²

Whether in the Greek or Romano-Celtic style, a Roman temple featured a central room (the cella which contained the cult image—a statue, often larger than life-size, of the god it was built to honor. In many temples, a back room served as a storehouse for the valuable offerings made by worshipers.

More than often, the state paid for the construction of temples built. It was also common for victorious generals to provide the money out of their war spoils. The most prodigious known temple builder was Augustus, who bragged in his Res gestae that he had erected twelve temples and restored eighty-two more. ³

Places of Worship

Ancient Rome was home to the Pagans, the Jews and the Christians. Due to this reason Rome housed various forms of centers of worship such as the pagan temples and the Christian churches. The details are given below:

Large temple erected by Augustus (Octavian) on the Palatine Hill in Rome in 28 B.C., in honor of his Greek divine patron, Apollo.

A shrine dedicated to the gods Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri), situated prominently in the Forum Romanum to honor the deities who, according to legend, came to the aid of the Romans in 496 B.C. at the battle of Lake Regillus against the Latins.

One of the numerous temples within Rome's Forum Romanum; dedicated to the goddess Concordia, a minor deity of unity.

The sanctuary constructed by Emperor Tiberius and his mother Livia in 14 A.D. as part of the ceremonies surrounding the deification of Augustus following his death.

Temple constructed to the deified Emperor Claudius upon the Caelian Hill.

Small shrine devoted to the memory of Julius Caesar that occupied one of the main axis points of the Forum Romanum.

The center of worship in Jerusalem that served for centuries as the heart of Judaism.

The great structure devoted to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter Greatest and Brightest) on Rome's Capitoline Hill.

Shrine constructed by Emperor Augustus in honor of Mars Ultor, or Mars the Avenger, and placed in the most prominent position in the Forum Augustum.

One of the oldest temples in Rome, located in the Forum Romanum and fulfilling both a religious and a political function.

The home of the goddess of the Roman hearth. As Vesta was both an ancient deity and an important one in terms of the Roman state, her temple was situated in the Forum Romanum.

Three notable sites of worship, particularly the shrine at the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus that honored this goddess. ⁴

Basilicas

Basilica, as a term used by canon lawyers and liturgists, was a title assigned by formal concession or immemorial custom to certain more important churches, in virtue of which they enjoy privileges of an honorific character which were not always very clearly defined. Basilicas in this sense were divided into two classes, the greater or patriarchal, and the lesser, basilicas.

Major Basilicas

To the former class belonged primarily those four great churches of Rome (St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul-without-the-Walls), which among other distinctions have a special ‘holy door’ and to which a visit is always prescribed as one of the conditions for gaining the Roman Jubilee. They are also called patriarchal basilicas, seemingly as representative of the great ecclesiastical provinces of the world thus symbolically united in the heart of Christendom.

Minor Basilicas

The lesser basilicas are much more numerous, including nine or ten different churches in Rome, and a number of others, such as the Basilica of the Grotto at Lourdes, the votive Church of the Sacred Heart at Montmartre, the Church of Marienthal in Alsace, etc. ⁵

Pagan Worship and Prayer

Religious worship was not only one of the traditional pillars of Roman community life, it also provided guidance and comfort for the individual in their everyday life. The relationship that developed between a person and the gods took the form of a sacred contract. It was thought that if a person observed the proper rituals—consisting mainly of sacrifice and prayer—the god being worshiped would react favorably; if the person failed in his or her religious duty, the god would become angry and punish the individual. They believed that the God needed their prayers to retain his powers. Such a concept was faulty to the core because if a being’s supremacy was dependent upon receiving material or immaterial gains from his creation then it becomes obvious that such being cannot obviously be a God.

The use of strict formulas and procedures was also important in the other major ritual—prayer. There were traditionally accepted forms of addressing a god and making requests to it, and if the person praying made a mistake, he or she had to start over. The most common stance taken during prayer was to stand upright, turn the face toward heaven, and raise the arms upward with the palms also turned upward. (Roman Christians prayed this way too, but kept their arms horizontal to distinguish themselves from pagans.) ⁶

It was believed that unless the prayers were offered in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, and with the right persons present, the worship was of no avail and it had to be begun all over again. There were three sides to the early Roman religion, each of which had its own importance and its own form of worship. These were the worship of the family or household, the worship of the fields, and the worship of the state. To the Romans of the Republic the family was the most sacred and the most important of all their ties, but the Roman familia did not exactly correspond to what we mean by a family. Our word ‘household’ partly expresses it, though the relationships in a Roman familia were not altogether those of a modern household. The head of the family was the father, the paterfamilias, and the law gave him absolute power over all the members of his household. His word was law, all the family property was held in his name, and he was the priest of the familia.

The worship of the family probably had more direct influence on the Roman character than any other form of Roman worship. Those parts of the house which were closely bound up with the life of the family were sacred, and a particular god was supposed to have each in his care. Every person of the house would pass through the door several times a day. So, the door was sacred to and watched over by Janus, the god of ‘beginnings’ and ‘endings’. The hearth, which gave warmth and cheer to all who dwelt in the house, was sacred to the goddess Vesta. The store-cupboard, which contained the food which gave life and strength to all, was in the care of the Penates; and of the Lares, the spirits of the family fields, one special spirit, the Lar FamiKaris, had the house and household in his keeping and was specially worshipped on all occasions connected with the family life: at births and deaths, at weddings, and on the departure on a journey and return from it of any member of the household.

The offerings on all family occasions were made by the Paterfamilias, but of more importance than these formal acts on special occasions, was the daily worship of the family. Every day began with prayer and an offering to the Lares and Penates, the gods of the household. At the chief meal of the day, part of the food was placed on a sacred dish and then thrown upon the hearth as an offering to the gods. This joining together in a daily act of worship was one of the influences that helped to form the Roman character. For though the Roman looked upon his religion chiefly as a contract between him and the gods, one side of it was closely bound up with that which was most sacred to him, his home, and the daily worship of the household gods emphasized the fact that, whatever were his relations to his gods, he was dependent on a higher power than man for his daily needs.

When a Roman youth reached the age of manhood, he went up to the Capitol and offered sacrifices to Jupiter, the so-called god of the state. But his last act at home before this ceremony was to lay the garments of his childhood before the shrine of his household gods and make them a thank-offering for having protected him through all the days of his childhood and youth. ⁷

The offerings made to the household gods varied according to the wealth or piety of the worshipper and the solemnity of the occasion. Daily prayer and sacrifice were offered in the morning by the pious, and the family meal was a religious ceremony. Later, when the kitchen and dining-room were separate, the offering was solemnly removed at the close of the cena, before the secunda mensa was served, and carried to the cooking-hearth. The images of the Lares were often placed upon the table at meal-times and was honored with incense and libations.

Family worship, again, had its calendar. The Calends, Nones, and Ides of each month were sacred to the Lares; in every household they were crowned with garlands and received offerings of incense and wine, while those who could afford it, sacrificed a pig. The birthday of the paterfamilias was a chief festival of the Genius. Moreover, certain festivals of the public calendar were celebrated, not by the State priesthood, but in private households. The most interesting of these are those which kept alive the relations between the living and the dead. We find such ceremonies at two seasons of the year—in February and in May. ⁸

Prayer was also a normal accompaniment of sacrifice, and as a conception of the divine powers gradually developed, it contained varying ingredients of flattery, cajolery, and attempted justification; but it also was compounded by magic—the attempt not to persuade nature, but to coerce it. Though the authorities (e.g., 451–450 B.C., Law of the Twelve Tables) sought to limit its noxious aspects, magic continued to abound throughout the ancient world. Even the official rites displayed evidence of its survival, notably the annual festival of the Lupercalia and the ritual dances of the Salii in honor of Mars. Romans in historical times regarded magic as an oriental intrusion, but Italian tribes, such as the Marsi and Paeligni, were famous for such practices. Among them curses figured prominently, and curse inscriptions from 500 B.C. onward have been found in large numbers. There were also numerous survivals of taboo, a negative branch of magic: people were admonished to have no dealings with strangers, corpses, newborn children, spots struck by lightning, etc., lest harm would befall them. ⁹

Emperor Worship

Evidence appears to furnish an important background and source of inspiration to the private cultores dedicated to the worship of the emperor. ¹⁰ The imperial cult, in which the Roman emperors were worshipped like gods, began under Augustus and his successor, Tiberius. Augustus was seen as the natural successor to the semi-divine Egyptian pharaohs and worshiped literally as a god. And in many other parts of the east, people hailed him as their savior and prayed and sacrificed to his image. Some of these groups went further and began worshiping his family line, which promised to produce his successors. Augustus not only tolerated such cults, but for political reasons actually encouraged them, reasoning that they would bind the Empire's eastern inhabitants more closely to him, and through him to the Roman state. ¹¹

Sacrifice

In order to secure their food supply, physical protection, and growth in numbers, the early Romans believed that such forces had to be propitiated and made allies. Sacrifice was necessary. The product sacrificed was believed to revitalize the divinity, which was seen as a power of action and therefore likely to run down unless so revitalized. By this nourishment, he or it would become able and ready to fulfill requests. ¹² Such beliefs were created so that the priests could convince the people to sacrifice their best goods for the gods which were later taken over by the priests. Such worship was too formal and ritualistic. It was devoid of spirituality upon which truth, justice and beauty are based.

From earliest times, certain birds and animals were thought to create links between the world of humans and the world of the gods and spirits because they thought that the gods were unable to listen directly as their powers were limited. The Romans honored their gods with blood sacrifices, or offerings of animals. They looked for perfect animals to use in the sacrifice. Worshipers offered light-colored animals to gods of the heavens and dark-colored animals to gods of the underworld without any logical reason. The sacrifices followed strict rituals, which generally involved cutting the animal's throat and burning its meat on an altar. In some cases, the worshipers then devoured the meat. Many sacrifices occurred in fulfillment of vows, either by individuals or by a representative of the state. For example, a worshiper might vow to sacrifice 12 white roosters to ensure the occurrence of a desired event. Common sacrificial animals included bulls, cows, horses, roosters, sheep, and goats.

Another sacred use of animals was in divination or augury—the interpreting of omens to predict future events. Trained observers practiced augury, reading great significance in such things as the flight of birds or the roll of thunder. There were complicated rules for augury. For example, a raven croaking on the right was a good omen, but a crow's caw was a good sign only if it came from the left. Another type of divination, called haruspicy, involved looking for omens in the entrails (inner organs) of sacrificed animals. ¹³

One very common kind of sacrifice involved the fulfillment of a vow. Either a person privately vowed or the state publicly vowed to gift the god with something, if and when the god granted the request of the person or the state. Such vows were often recorded in writing. If the god did not deliver, there was no obligation to go through with the sacrifice. Sacrifices made in fulfillment of vows were known as votive offerings or ex-votos. They ranged from lavish gifts, such as monuments, statues, and entire altars, to modest ones, such as figurines, coins, and bronze, silver, or gold plaques (called votive plaques) that bore written dedications to and sometimes artistic representations of the god. Most often these offerings were deposited in temples, but they were sometimes placed in sacred springs or deep pits. Other motives for sacrifice included obeying a request supposedly made by a god in a dream, appeasing a god when consulting his oracle, seeking the favor of a god or gods, or celebrating an anniversary or a special event.

Sometimes plants were sacrificed and some rituals involved liquid sacrifices, called libations, which most commonly consisted of pouring wine, honey, or milk on the ground or over an altar. But the most popular form of sacrifice involved the killing and eating of animals such as oxen, goats, sheep, and pigs. Male animals were offered to male deities and female animals to female deities. Usually, someone led the victim of an intended sacrifice to an altar and, after sprinkling salt, wine, flour, or a sacred cake over the beast's head, a priest slit its throat, cut it up, and then threw the bones and fat into the altar fire for the god to consume (via the smoke that rose into the sky). The rest of the animal was cooked and eaten by the worshipers. During the sacrifice, the priest kept his head covered with his toga and musicians played, both with the intent of avoiding the sights or sounds of bad omens; if such an omen did appear, the entire ritual had to be repeated. Indeed, it was important to get all the steps of the ritual right, for if any single detail was wrong, it was believed that the god would refuse the sacrifice. ¹⁴

Vestal Virgins

The Vestals were elected when a vacancy in their number had been caused by death. The maiden chosen had to be between the ages of six and ten, it was required that both her parents should be living, and that she should remain unmarried during the time that she served the goddess. The Vestal spent the first ten years after her election in learning her duties, the next ten in practicing them, and then ten years in teaching the novices. At the end of these thirty years a Vestal was free to return home if she wished, but very few did so, because a Vestal had far more honors, privileges and wealth than the world could offer her. ¹⁵

From being a very simple group of women, the Vestals grew to be a powerful and important order, and in later times, when Rome had become an imperial city, they had privileges accorded to no other persons. They had seats of honor in the theatres and amphitheaters; they alone were allowed to drive in the streets of Rome and everyone had to make way for them; if a Vestal met a criminal condemned to death, provided the meeting were accidental, he was pardoned. But with privileges came stern punishment for the disobedient Vestals. A minor fault was punished with a rod, and a Vestal who broke her vows was put to a horrible death of being buried alive brutally. ¹⁶ But despite such punishments, the Vestal virgins did indulge in immoral practices because they were humans, and without divine guidance, they did submit to their carnal desires and copulated with the priests or any other person secretly.

Human Sacrifice

In around 3rd century B.C. human sacrifice was practiced by some pagan cults of ancient Rome. A report came to Rome that people called ‘Bletonesioi’ had sacrificed a man to their gods. When the Romans heard about it, they sent for their officers intending to punish them. But the cult proved that their action was in accordance with their own laws. So they were dismissed unpunished and were simply asked to abstain from observing this law in the future. Plutarch thinks that the Romans acted strangely, because they themselves had buried alive a Greek man and woman along with a Gaulish man and woman in the Forum Boarium in obedience to a Sibylline oracle. While narrating another event, Plutarch states that a maiden named ‘Elbia’ (that is, Helvia) was killed by lightning in such a way that the Roman seers interpreted it as indicating unchastity among the vestals. The Sibylline books were consulted and it was found that these events were foreshadowed in them and that human sacrifice was demanded as an expiation.

Barbarous tribes sometimes sacrificed a human being in order to propitiate their gods at the outset of a war, and it may have been inferred that these particular barbarians were meditating hostility to Rome. ¹⁷

Festivals

Feriae (or dies ferialis) were holidays or festivals for visiting temples and making sacrifices to gods. The same term was used for public festivals and for private occasions, such as celebrating a birthday. Festivals were days when the Romans renewed their relationships with particular gods, usually involving additional rituals than what was normally practiced. Failure either to celebrate a festival or to celebrate it absolutely correctly would cause the gods to cease being benevolent. There were, therefore, important public ceremonies conducted by state officials as well as private prayers and sacrifices. ¹⁸

The Romans celebrated many religious festivals (feriae) to honor and make private and public sacrifice to the gods. The belief was that failing to celebrate a festival or to do so in an incorrect or improper manner might provoke the anger of the god or gods involved. In the public festivals (feriae publicae), priests conducted rituals outside the temples while an assembly of citizens watched; usually feasting and merriment followed, for religious and secular activities were mixed on most such occasions. Another kind of celebration with a religious element was the staging of public games (ludi), almost always held in honor of a god or gods. ¹⁹

Of these festivals, some were those connected with the worship of the fields. The early Romans were an agricultural people, and their feasts and festivals were closely bound up with the work in the fields. In the spring they prayed that their crops might grow and their herds prosper, it was the season of hope and aspiration; in the summer they gave thanks for the harvest and for the fulfilment of the hopes of the spring; in the winter they celebrated the sowing of the seed, and their winter festivals were those of social pleasures and rejoicing. ²⁰ Among the celebrations which were most eagerly attended there were some which pleased the humbler people better because they were gayer, noisier, and seemed to belong more particularly to them. ²¹

Terminalia

Terminalia was an antiquated Roman celebration to pay tribute to the god Terminus, who managed limits. His statue was just a stone which was placed in the ground to divide properties. The bounds also had to be beaten in order to purify, protect and fertilize the fields. ²² His love is said to have been organized by Numa who requested that each person should check the limits of his landed property by stones to be blessed by Jupiter Terminalis. Every year sacrifices were offered at the festival of the Terminalia. ²³

Ambarvalia

Ambarvalia was an agricultural fertility rite held on 29th of May in honor of Ceres. On those days the citizens formed a grand procession, clad in white, and crowned with leaves; they made the circuit of the city or territory, chanting prayers; at the head walked priests, leading victims, which they sacrificed at the close of the ceremony. ²⁴ Regarding sacrifice, Scullard states that a pig, sheep and bull were sacrificed. ²⁵ While giving further details about this festival, Dorothy Mills states that the chief festival of the spring was the Ambarvalia, when prayers and sacrifices were offered for the purifying of the fields so that they might bring forth their fruits in abundance. The festival was celebrated both in the city and the country, but it was above all a country festival. The day appointed was kept as a holiday, and early in the morning the girls of the area went out to gather blossoms from the fruit trees to strew later in the day before the images of the gods as they were borne in procession to the fields. Everyone belonging to the place walked in this procession. As it made its way to the fields, in order that no interruption might mar the sacredness of the rite, no word was spoken except by the priests who chanted an old Latin liturgy as they went along. The maidens strewed the flowers before the images of the gods carried by the youths clad in white, and the cattle for the sacrifice were led to the altars on which their blood was to be shed as a symbol of the purifying of the fields.

When the sacrifice had been made, this prayer was offered to Mars, who in the early days of Rome was the god who watched over agriculture:

  Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee, that thou mayest be gracious and favourable to me, to my home and my household, for which cause I have ordained that the offering of pig, sheep and ox be carried round my fields, my land, and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off, and keep aloof all disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste, misfortune, and ill weather: that thou mayest suffer our crops, our vines and bushes to grow and come to prosperity: that thou mayest preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant health and strength to me, to my home, and my household.

Then a hymn was sung and everyone returned to the house, feasting and merrymaking ended the day. ²⁶

Saturnalia

Saturnalia was out of appreciation for the god Saturn, held on 17th December and later extended with merriments to 23 December. The occasion was commended with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and an open dinner, trailed by private blessing giving, persistent celebrating, and a carnival atmosphere that toppled Roman social standards. ²⁷ Augustus reduced the festivities to a more modest three days, but his successor Caligula increased it to five days, and it seems that, in practice, ordinary people celebrated for the full seven days anyway, despite the official decrees.

The Saturnalia was presided over by a king, chosen especially for the occasion, known as the Saturnalicius princeps or 'leader of the Saturnalia.' Sometimes he is referred to as the 'Lord of Misrule' as he was selected from the lowliest members of a household and given the right to conduct light-hearted mischief. It was a festive period when people gave gifts to one another. Slaves had the freedoms enjoyed by ordinary citizens and were now able to gamble, get drunk in public, and throw aside the cloak of decorum they were meant to present at any other time of the year. ²⁸ These rituals show that they were unaware of the fact that religion basically made the humans more civilized and not unruly. Secondly celebrating such festivals enabled them to exercise free sex in the name of religion. When the men and women would get together and get drunk, such immoral acts would be carried out without any shame whatsoever.

Lupercalia

This festival was celebrated on 15th February in the city of Rome which involved purification and fertility rites. It was originally a shepherd festival in honor of Lupercus, a pastoral god, to ensure fertility of fields and flocks. The festival was ancient, and the Romans themselves were uncertain which god was being worshipped. Lupercus seems to have been invented in the Augustan period to account for the rituals. Ancient authors cited Inuus or Faunus (both identified with Pan) as the god of Lupercalia. Worshippers gathered at a cave called the Lupercal on the Palatine Hill, where Romulus and Remus were supposed to have been suckled by a wolf. At this cave priests called luperci sacrificed goats and a dog. Two youths of noble family were smeared with sacrificial blood, and the luperci clothed themselves with parts of the skin of the sacrificed goats. With strips of skin from the goats, they ran with some of the magistrates through Rome’s streets, striking everyone they met with the strips to make them fertile. The festival involved much revelry and was very popular. Consequently, the early Christian church could not abolish it, and so in 494 A.D. Pope Gelasius I made 15th February the Festival of the Purification of the Virgin Mary. ²⁹

Anna Perenna

The joyous festival of Anna Perenna was celebrated on 15th March. ³⁰ On this day, ‘the plebs’ streamed out to the feast of Anna Perenna, and taking up a position in the Campus Martius, not far from the Tiber, and lying about on the grass in pairs of men and women, passed the day in revelry and drinking. Some lay in the open; some pitched tents, and some constructed crude huts of stakes and branches, stretching their togas over them for shelter. As they drank, they prayed for as many years of life as they could swallow cups of wine; meanwhile singing snatches of song with much gesticulation and dancing. The result of these performances was naturally that they returned to the city in a state of intoxication. ³¹

Bacchanalia

Bacchanalia, also called Dionysia, in Greco-Roman religion, was one of the several festivals of Bacchus (Dionysus), the wine god ³² and the god of ecstasy. ³³ A feast in honor of Bacchus was held by night, in which women pretended to search for the god; not finding him, they agreed that he must have hidden himself among the muses. An entertainment then followed; great quantity of ivy was used at the festival, the plant being sacred to Bacchus. In some of the Bacchanalian festivals it was customary for the worshippers to imitate, in their dress and behavior, the fabulous accounts given of Bacchus. They dressed up in the skins of fawns and fine linens with mitres on their heads. They bore with them the thyrsi, a particular kind of rod, with drums, flutes, pipes, rattles, and other musical instruments, and crowned themselves with ivy, fir, and vine. Then, both men and women ran wildly about the hills and desert places, wagging their heads, shrieking hideously, and dancing in all kinds of ridiculous postures. In short, every sort of folly was carried out in the name of religious rites. At another festival of Bacchus, the worshippers ate raw flesh, and entrails of goats, to imitate the god. They also counterfeited madness, as, indeed, they did in other Bacchanalian revelries. ³⁴

Bona Dea

This festival in honor of the ‘good goddess’ was not held in her temple, but in the house of a consul with only women present. Her festival, which was celebrated every year on the 1st of May, was held in the house of the consul or praetor, as the sacrifices on that occasion were offered on behalf of the whole Roman Empire. The solemnities were conducted by the vestals, and only women, usually of the higher orders, were allowed to take part in them. During the solemnity, no male person was allowed to be in the house and portraits of men were tolerated only when they were covered over. The women who celebrated the festival had to prepare themselves for it by abstaining from various things, especially from intercourse with men. The house of the consul was decorated by the Vestals as a temple, with flowers and foliage of every kind except myrtle. The goddess was adorned with a garland of vine leaves, and a serpent surrounded its feet. The women were decorated in a similar manner. Although no one was allowed to bring wine with her, a vessel filled with wine, stood in the room, and from it, the women made their libations and drank. This wine, however, was called milk and the vessel containing it mellarium, so that the name of wine was avoided altogether. The solemnity commenced with a sacrifice called damium which consisted of the sacrifice of hens of various colors except black ones. After this sacrifice, the women began to perform bacchic dances, and drank the wine prepared for them. ³⁶

The essential aim of a religion is to introduce humankind to their Creator and to teach them to worship Him, the One Who has no partner. Worship includes some conditions such as true intention and full sincerity to the Supreme God alone so that an act or deed which is far from being sanctimonious, which is hypocritical, would nullify the deed and its reward. Such individual and congregational practices increase their God-consciousness and discipline their attitudes toward others. Moreover, the divinely revealed congregational rituals also strengthen the societal bonds and improve the economic condition of the society because the divinely revealed rituals encourage the rich to give a share of their wealth to the poor and do not let anyone accumulate the wealth regardless of the fact that he or she is an elite or an extremely religious personality. None of these qualities were found in the religious rituals of ancient Rome, but rather they were filled with lust-oriented activities which benefited a few and destroyed the moral, social and economic structure of the society because they had no connection to religion in reality.

• ¹ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 120-121.
• ² Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version): https://www.ancient.eu/temple/: Retrieved: 02-01-2017
• ³ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 121.
• ⁴ Mathew Bunson (1994), Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 961-966.
• ⁵ The Catholic Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02325a.htm Retrieved: 01-01-2018
• ⁶ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 122-124.
• ⁷ Dorothy Mills (1937), The Book of the Ancient Romans, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 124-126.
• ⁸ H. Stuart Jones (1912), Companion to Roman History, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K., Pg. 271-271.
• ⁹ Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-religion: 27-12-2017
• ¹⁰ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 109.
• ¹¹ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 109.
• ¹² Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-religion: 27-12-2017
• ¹³ Carrol Moulton (1998), Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, USA, Vol. 1, Pg. 34-35.
• ¹⁴ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 123.
• ¹⁵ Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prohibited celibacy for males and females both and encouraged them to marry. Marriage is deemed so important in Islam that it was declared as an act of virtue and worship.
• ¹⁶ Dorothy Mills (1937), The Book of the Ancient Romans, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 128-129.
• ¹⁷ James Smith Reid (1912), Journal of Roman Studies: Human Sacrifices at Rome and Other Notes on Roman Religion, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London, U.K., Vol. 2, Pg. 36-38.
• ¹⁸ Lesley Adkins & Roy. A Adkins (2004), Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 314.
• ¹⁹ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 110.
• ²⁰ Dorothy Mills (1937), The Book of the Ancient Romans, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 126-128.
• ²¹ Jerome Carcopino (1941), Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire, George Routledge & Sons Ltd., London, U.K., Pg. 122.
• ²² H. H. Scullard (1981), Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, U.K., Pg.17-18.
• ²³ Dionysius of Halicarnassus (2015), Roman Antiquities, Book II, Chapter 74, Harvard University, Press London, U.K., Pg. N.P.
• ²⁴ Fustal De Coulanges (2001), The Ancient City, Batotche Books, Ontario, Canada, Pg. 132.
• ²⁵ H. H. Scullard (1981), Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, U.K., Pg. 17-18.
• ²⁶ Dorothy Mills (1937), The Book of the Ancient Romans, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 126-128.
• ²⁷ John F. Miller (2010), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., Pg. 172.
• ²⁸ Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version):https://www.ancient.eu/Saturnalia/: Retrieved: 28-12-2017
• ²⁹ Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins (2004), Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 315-316.
• ³⁰ Yves Bonnefoy (1992), Roman and European Mythologies, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA, Pg. 112.
• ³¹ W. Warde Fowler (1899), The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, Macmillan and Co. Limited, London, U.K., Pg. 50-51.
• ³² Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bacchanalia: Retrieved: 28-12-2017
• ³³ Don Nardo (2002), The Green Haven Encyclopedia of Ancient Rome, Green Haven Press, California, USA, Pg. 103.
• ³⁴ Peter Parley (1839), Tales about the Mythology of Greece and Rome, Griffin & Co. Glasgow, U.K., Pg. 282-284.
• ³⁶ William Smith (1880), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, John Murray, London, U.K., Vol. 1, Pg. 499-500.