Cultus Deorum Romanum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cultus Deorum Romanum, roughly translating from the Latin as "The Cult of the Roman Gods", is the proper name for the official state religion of Ancient Rome, sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Religio Publica", or public religion. Though the Roman government (prior to the official adoption of Christianity by Emperor Constantine as the new "Religio Romana"), had a policy of general religious tolerance for people throughout the Empire, and people indeed held a wide variety of personal beliefs and practices, the state was intimately tied with the regulated worship of the Roman gods. People also transmitted Roman domestic religious practices dating from antiquity particular to the family and home, though this was considered to be solely within the realm of private religion, and was largely separate from the state temples and cults. The Cultus Deorum Romanum was often the unifying religious cult throughout the Roman Empire's many conquered provinces, and a source of Roman identity for ethnic and naturalized Roman citizens alike.