The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus

The concern for religion went deep into Roman society, and if we are to understand the history of the late first century B.C. and of the first century A.D., we must try to get under the skin of the Romans, see how their religion worked, and appreciate how they thought about it.

Basing his work on much original material (all of which is quoted in translation), R. M. Ogilvie gives a picture of religious life in Rome during the period between 80 B. C., and A. D. 69. He discusses the various Roman gods and their spheres of activity, the manner and kinds of prayer, forms of sacrifice, the belief in divination, the calendar of the religious year, private religion and its role in Roman family life, priests and their part in the complicated procedure of Roman religion, and the powerful religious revival in the time of Augustus.

"The religion of ancient Rome," writes the author," was a fine, yet tolerant, religion whose adherents committed very few crimes in its name and who were healthily free of neuroses. It failed because men's view of the world changed."