The religions of Roman Britain

Abstract

The evidence for Romano-British religion must be examined in the light of four facts: (1) willingness to worship deities of different natures and origins; (2) confusion of similar deities; (3) similarity of ideas of deity throughout the ancient world; (4) localization of deities. Thus a coherent picture of Romano-British religion will be gained. The Britons apparently worshipped numerous localized gods; the nature of some of these can be determined. The British Druids probably worshipped the same pantheon as the Britons generally, but their belief in immortality was perhaps peculiar to them. After the conquest the Roman army found out these deities and worshipped them freely. Most of the Continental Celtic and Germanic deities found in Britain were introduced by the Roman army and were not worshipped by the Britons, though a few were perhaps brought by the Belgae when they migrated to Britain in the first century B.C. Public cults of the emperor and the Roman gods were probably soon established in the chief towns, and there are indications that the country people knew of them, though they did not worship them freely. The army also introduced Oriental cults, but these apparently were hardly adopted by the Britons. Syncretistic worship was also practised mainly by the army, especially the well-educated auxiliary officers; it also appears at Maiden Castle, where there was presumably no military influence. Celtic gods were worshipped by Romans more freely than Roman by Celts, but each side influenced the other. The four facts mentioned above were important in the formation of Romano-British religion, as of provincial religion generally, especially the idea of localization. But the latter caused a diversity of religious cults, while Britain's unity under Roman rule called for religious unity; and this was one reason for the success of Christianity.