"This is a vivid account of what their gods meant to the Romans from archaic times to late antiquity, and of the rites and rituals connected with them. After an introduction into the nature of classical religion, the book is divided into three parts: religions of the family and land; religions of the city; and religions of the empire. The book ends with a discussion of the rise and impact of Christianity. For the Romans, the author argues, religion was almost as much a form of insurance as it was a question of belief. The gods were valued according to the degree of protection they afforded against natural hazards and occult powers. They were a crucial source of tactical information in time of war and their approval was vital to the success of agriculture, marriage and childbirth. Appeasing the gods and enlisting their help involved ritual and sacrifice which required the arcane knowledge of the priesthood. Because there were so many gods, it might be hard to know which one to invoke and perilous to get it wrong. The Romans took their gods extremely seriously, there was nothing more complicated than a Roman sacrifice or more precise than the preparation of the meal offered to the god; the slightest infringement of the priestly recipe would spoil the feast and might jeopardise the affairs of Rome itself. -- Publisher description."
"This is an account of what the gods meant to the Romans from archaic times to late antiquity, and of the rites and rituals connected with them."@en

"The gods of ancient Rome : religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times"
"The gods of ancient Rome"@en
"The gods of ancient Rome"
"The Gods of ancient Rome : religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times"
"The Gods of ancient Rome : religion in everyday life from archaic to imperial times"@en
"The Gods of ancient Rome"
"The Gods of ancient Rome"@en
"Gods of Ancient Rome Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times"@en