The religion of the Romans differed in some respects from that of the Greeks, inasmuch as it was emphatically a state religion.  It was more of a ritual and a ceremony.  It included most of the deities of the Greek Pantheon, but was more comprehensive.  It accepted the gods of all the nations that composed the empire, and placed them in the Pantheon,—­even Mithra, the Persian sun-god, and the Isis and Osiris of the Egyptians, to whom sacrifices were made by those who worshipped them at home.  It was also a purer mythology, and rejected many of the blasphemous myths concerning the loves and quarrels of the Grecian deities.  It was more practical and less poetical.  Every Roman god had something to do, some useful office to perform.  Several divinities presided over the birth and nursing of an infant, and they were worshipped for some fancied good, for the benefits which they were supposed to bestow.  There was an elaborate “division of labor” among them.  A divinity presided over bakers, another over ovens,—­every vocation and every household transaction had its presiding deities.

There were more superstitious rites practised by the Romans than by the Greeks,—­such as examining the entrails of beasts and birds for good or bad omens.  Great attention was given to dreams and rites of divination.  The Roman household gods were of great account, since there was a more defined and general worship of ancestors than among the Greeks.  These were the Penates, or familiar household gods, the guardians of the home, whose fire on the sacred hearth was perpetually burning, and to whom every meal was esteemed a sacrifice.  These included a Lar, or ancestral family divinity, in each house.  There were Vestal virgins to guard the most sacred places.  There was a college of pontiffs to regulate worship and perform the higher ceremonies, which were complicated and minute.  The pontiffs were presided over by one called Pontifex Maximus,—­a title shrewdly assumed by Caesar to gain control of the popular worship, and still surviving in the title of the Pope of Rome with his college of cardinals.  There were augurs and haruspices to discover the will of the gods, according to entrails and the flight of birds.

The festivals were more numerous in Rome than in Greece, and perhaps were more piously observed.  About one day in four was set apart for the worship of particular gods, celebrated by feasts and games and sacrifices.  The principal feast days were in honor of Janus, the great god of the Sabines, the god of beginnings, celebrated on the first of January, to which month he gave his name; also the feasts in honor of the Penates, of Mars, of Vesta, of Minerva, of Venus, of Ceres, of Juno, of Jupiter, and of Saturn.  The Saturnalia, December 19, in honor of Saturn, the annual Thanksgiving, lasted seven days, when the rich kept open house and slaves had their liberty,—­the most joyous of the festivals.  The feast of Minerva lasted five days, when offerings were made by all mechanics, artists, and scholars.  The feast of Cybele, analogous to that of Ceres in Greece and Isis in Egypt, lasted six days.  These various feasts imposed great contributions on the people, and were managed by the pontiffs with the most minute observances and legalities.