The religious decline of Roman mythology

The Hellenization of Roman religion, and more importantly, the spread of Greek philosophy among the well-educated people in Rome, made the old ceremony less and less valued, and the status of the old priests plummeted before 1 century. Apart from political needs, many high-ranking aristocrats who should have accepted these positions from birth simply don't trust these ceremonies, and people with low education are becoming more and more interested in foreign ceremonies. Even so, the' pontifex maximus' and the fortune teller ('fortune teller') still have a high political status. Caesar used his position as the highest priest to exert political influence on other priests.

Augustus the Great reformed and rebuilt the old religious system, and he integrated all the priests himself. Although the old ceremony (in fact, it is a transaction between man and God, and man serves God in exchange for God's protection) has nothing to do with morality, Augustus transformed it into piety and religious belief discipline and used it as a mechanism to prevent internal unrest. At this time, Virgil's long poem Aeneas made the legend that the Trojan hero Aeneas founded Rome very popular.

middle period

The reform of Augustus the Great could not prevent Roman religion from paying more and more attention to the worship of the Roman emperor, and later the Roman emperor was deified after his death. This trend existed in Caesar's time before the establishment of the Roman Empire. Emperors Augustus, Claudius, Vespa and Titus were deified, but few emperors were not deified after Marcus Cocceius nerva.

But except Augustus, Emperor Claudius was deified because he was only a half puppet. The father and son of Vespa Township and Titus were deified because the son of Vespa Township and the younger brother of Titus, Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus deified his family in order to strengthen the monarchy. Others, such as the late reign of Emperor Tiberius, were unpopular, and the appointment of Xieyanus caused dissatisfaction among the nobles; Carregula was perverse and dissolute, and was killed; Nero was also killed because he had no sympathy for the people and despised the elderly. The former emperors in Vespa township were suddenly killed shortly after they ascended the throne, so they were not deified. Titus Flavius Domitianus, who deified his father and eldest brother, tried to centralize power, offended his elders and was not deified after being killed. Titus Flavius Domitianus was followed by Marcus Cocceius nerva, and the emperors in the Five Sages era were basically deified.

descend

During the imperial period, many foreign gods were very popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Persian god Mitra, and so was Christianity. Although Christianity was strongly persecuted from Nero to Diocletian, it continued to expand. Constantine the Great ruled alone from 324 to 337, and finally established Christianity as the state religion. Since 392, Dior I has banned all other worship.