Roman Empire copied Greece’s religion?

Did Rome copy ancient Greece’s religion?

(Para Bellum) Nov. 6, 2025: Did ancient Rome really copy its religion from more ancient Greece — or is that just a modern myth? This video uncovers the true origins of Roman religion and shows how it developed into a unique and complex system of beliefs unlike anything in Greece.

The earliest Italic tribes of the Tiber Valley, whose worldview was shaped by animism (the belief that nature itself is alive with spirit), totemism (sacred tribal animals like wolves, woodpeckers, and boars), and fetishism — the idea that certain objects held divine power.

Discover the “pledges of Rome’s eternity,” seven sacred relics believed to guarantee the survival of the Roman state. From there, trace how Etruscan and Greek religion influenced Rome.

The Etruscans gave Roman gods human form, while the Greeks provided myths to explain their origins — pairing Jupiter with Zeus, Venus with Aphrodite, Mars with Ares, and so on.

But this blending was never perfect. Roman gods had different roles, personalities, and meanings. Explore gods the Greeks never had:

• Janus, god of beginnings and endings;
• Quirinus, protector of the Roman people;
• the household Lares and personal Genius;
• Pomona, Vertumnus, Terminus, Mefitis, and many others.

Roman religion also worshipped abstract values like Virtus (Valor), Pax (Peace), Fides (Loyalty), and Disciplina (Discipline), building entire temples to ideas rather than personalities.

Unlike Greek religion -- which emphasized myth, emotion, art, and beauty -- Roman religion was about duty, tradition, and exact ritual. The Romans believed the gods cared less about faith and more about whether rituals were performed flawlessly.

Every sacrifice, prayer, and gesture had to be precise — or repeated from the beginning. Divination was another core part of Roman religion.

Inherited from the Etruscans, practices like haruspicy (reading the entrails of sacrificed animals) and auspicy (interpreting bird signs) guided political decisions, wars, and daily life.

Uncover stories like Publius Claudius Pulcher at the Battle of Drepana, who mocked the sacred chickens — and lost an entire fleet.

Roman priests were not a separate religious class. Priesthoods were held by politicians and generals — Julius Caesar, Cicero, Sulla, Augustus, and Scipio Africanus all served as priests while leading the state, proving how religion and politics were inseparable in Rome.

In the end, Roman religion wasn’t a copy of Greek religion — it was a fusion of Italic, Etruscan, and Greek beliefs shaped by Roman values: duty, order, family, and the power of the state.

This video uncovers how it worked, what the Romans truly believed, and why their religious system helped build one of the greatest empires in history.

Bibliography

1. Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books, 2015.

2. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Vol. 1: A History. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

3. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Haruspicum Responsis.
4. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Natura Deorum.

5. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities.

6. Plutarch. Parallel Lives.

7. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Indiana University Press, 2003.

8. Turcan, Robert. The Gods of Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2000.

9. Varro, Marcus Terentius. Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (Fragments).

10. Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Römer. C.H. Beck, 1912.

11. Rüpke, Jörg. “Divination and Roman Political Decision-Making.” Numen 44 (1997): 1–22.

12. Rüpke, Jörg, ed. A Companion to Roman Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

13. North, John. “Roman Religion.” In The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

14. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

15. Scheid, John. Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods.

16. Bispham, Edward, and Christopher Smith, eds. Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience

17. Schultz, Celia E., and Paul B. Harvey, eds. Religion in Republican Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

🎤 ⁠Voiceover by: Nick Banas Instagram: nickbanas

Website: parabellumhistory.com. 

✪ Members first on Nov. 4, 2025 🎬 Watch early and support the channel on Patreon: parabellumhistorychannel or become a member on YouTube: @parabellumhistorychannel to unlock early access to new videos. Music from videos: share.epidemicsound.com/xk7k4... Merchandise store: parabellumstore.creator-sprin...

US volcano erupts, scientists warn of more

Jesus is named 'Son of Zeus' by EC

If the end of the world were coming, and it is not, it would be easy to work oneself up into a frenzy with all the headlines. There's rumbling in Kilauea, Hawaii, smoke and ash in Mexico City, and lightning bolts vitiating other active volcanos around the world in Europe and Asia. You'd think Zeus and Indra would be more careful where they're throwing those bolts. But it does make for spectacular footage in this strange world we've arrived at from elsewhere. We're not from here so it has got to be exciting that we're taking over the place and completely ruining it because not enough of us care to stop the strip miners and capitalists out to exploit it. Think a few more preserves would be in order? If the parrot fish do not mow the lawn and chew up the coral reef like they used to, maybe we should go into overdrive to keep the reefs we have and save them from overfishing and degradation. The cause is not warming seas (though bringing the average temperature down would be nice). Dr. Joel Wallach has found the cause and it is acidity brought about as a byproduct of dams. Water running out to sea used to bring massive amounts of base minerals washed out from the mountains. When this was prevented by damming up the sweet water, the seas became more corrosive to delicate living corals. If science knows that because he published it, one would think something would be done about it like transporting silt and sediments over the dam and into the sea like it used to flow. Eruptions are a great source of minerals, so we can say Gaia is just self-adjusting.

Forward | Statue of man on horse pointing forward with wonde… (flickr)

(Rare Earth) The remote island with a statue that nobody can explain

Eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano pauses but scientists warn situation can 'change quickly'

(FOX Weather) June 4, 2024: Alert levels have been lowered for Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano after a pause in an eruption that began early Monday morning, but scientists warn that the situation remains dynamic and could “change quickly." FOX Weather Correspondent Max Gorden has the latest on the situation. #foxweather #hawaii #volcano

Sumerian roots of the Bible (video)

Neal Sendlak (Gnostic Informant, 6/17/23); Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Scientists have discovered an ancient hidden chapter in the Bible (MSN)

Shocking Sumerian roots of the Bible | (documentary)

(Gnostic Informant) Most historians have suggested that Sumer (home of the Sumerians and possibly the location of the Vedas' and Buddhism's Mt. Sumeru) was first permanently settled between circa 5500–3300 BCE by a West Asian people who spoke the Sumerian language.

Billy explains Sumerian history, clearer than Bible

Don't say "God is all in our head." Gods exist.

(Scholars can point to the names of cities, rivers, basic occupations, and so on as evidence). Sumerian is a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European agglutinative language isolate.

The Blau Monuments combine proto-cuneiform characters and illustrations of early Sumerians, Jemdet Nasr period, 3100–2700 BCE (British Museum).

Others have suggested that the Sumerians were a North African people who migrated from the once Green Sahara into the Middle East and were responsible for the spread of farming in the Middle East.

However, with evidence strongly suggesting the first farmers originated in the Fertile Crescent, this suggestion is often discarded.

Although not specifically discussing Sumerians, Lazaridis et al. 2016 have suggested a partial North African origin for some pre-Semitic cultures of the Middle East, particularly Natufians, after testing the genomes of Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture-bearers.

Alternatively, a 2013 genetic analysis of four ancient Mesopotamian skeletal DNA samples suggests an association of the Sumerians with Indus Valley Civilization, possibly as a result of ancient Indus–Mesopotamia relations.

According to some data, the Sumerians are associated with the Hurrians and Urartians, and the area of the Caucasus Mountains is considered their homeland.

A prehistoric people who lived in the region before the Sumerians have been termed the "Proto-Euphrateans" or "Ubaidians" and are theorized to have evolved from the Samarra culture of northern Mesopotamia.

The Ubaidians, though never mentioned by the Sumerians themselves, are assumed by modern-day scholars to have been the first civilizing force in Sumer.

They drained the marshes to make way for agriculture, developed trade, and established industries, including weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, masonry, and pottery.

Enthroned Sumerian king of Ur, possibly Ur-Pabilsag, with attendants. Standard of Ur, c. 2600 BC.

Some scholars contest the idea of a Proto-Euphratean language or one substrate language; they think the Sumerian language may originally have been that of the hunting and fishing peoples who lived in the marshland and the Eastern Arabia littoral region and were part of the Arabian bifacial culture.

Reliable historical records begin much later; there are none in Sumer of any kind that have been dated before Enmebaragesi (Early Dynastic I).

Juris Zarins believes the Sumerians lived along the coast of Eastern Arabia, today's Persian Gulf region, before it was flooded at the end of the Ice Age.

Sumerian civilization took form in the Uruk period (4th millennium BCE), continuing into the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic periods.

The Sumerians progressively lost control to Semitic states from the northwest. Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BCE (short chronology), but Sumerian continued as a sacred language (like liturgical Sanskrit or Latin).

Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the Third Dynasty of Ur at approximately 2100–2000 BCE, but the Akkadian language also remained in use for some time.

The Sumerian city of Eridu, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, is considered to have been one of the oldest cities, where three separate cultures may have fused: that of peasant Ubaidian farmers, living in mud-brick huts and practicing irrigation, that of mobile nomadic Semitic pastoralists living in black tents and following herds of sheep and goats, and that of fisher folk, living in reed huts in the marshlands, who may have been the ancestors of the Sumerians.

Epic of Gilgamesh, ancient Mesopotamian odyssey recorded in the Akkadian language about Gilgamesh, the king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk (Erech).

The fullest extant text of the Gilgamesh epic is on 12 incomplete Akkadian-language tablets found in the mid-19th century by the Turkish Assyriologist Hormuzd Rassam at Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–627 BCE).

The gaps that occur in the tablets have been partly filled by various fragments found elsewhere in Mesopotamia and Anatolia [home of Gobekli Tepe and even older temple ruins recently uncovered in the same area].

In addition, five short poems in the Sumerian language are known from tablets that were written during the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE; the poems have been entitled

1. “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,”
2. “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven,”
3. “Gilgamesh and Agga of Kish,”
4. “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld,” and
5. “The Death of Gilgamesh.”

#gnosticinformant #bible #documentary

Patreon to help find scholars to bring on the channel, for which any amount helps: patreon.com/GnosticInformant. Thanks to existing Patrons. Second channel: @latenitegnosis. Follow on twitter.com/NealSendlak1 and discord.com/invite/uWBZkxd4UX.

Sumerian: The Annunaki Greek Gods (video)

Ancient Astronaut Archive, 5/19/18; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Anunnaki Gods of Ancient Greece

ne of the most entertaining and enticing aspects of ancient Greek culture is its elaborate mythology that involves gods (devas in Buddhist terms), titans (asuras), heroes, deeds, and mortals, all of which colored the physical world with elaborate stories and personalities. Myths and legends permeated ancient Greek thought, enriching its literature and art. But were these "myths" accounts of actual beings during that time? And were these "beings" actually the Anunnaki of Nibiru? Website: ancientastronautarchive.com

CONTENT DISCLAIMER: All video presentations on the Ancient Astronaut Archive YouTube channel are original productions and are not duplicated or reused third-party productions. Some content included in presentations may derive from public domain sources. If such content is included in an Archive presentation, it is presented at a level where its transformative nature meets with YouTube Terms of Use, Community and Partner guidelines. All musical audio tracks are either sourced from YouTube’s Audio Library or third-party websites that issued copyright licenses through verifiable purchase contracts. For FULL TERMS OF SERVICE see: ancientastronautarchive.com

Bible study with Barnabas (video)

Barnabas Nagy, April 3, 2019; Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

 

Fake Bible: Virgin Mary Hoax, No Prophecy Fulfilled, Christianity Lie

The biblical prophecy Isaiah 7:14 is not about Jesus (Iisoús, Anglicized Greek form of "Zeus," Ἰησοῦς). Here we see  the proof. This is "Caesar 's Messiah," not a Hebrew ישוע‎. The Bible is fake containing more than 400,000 manuscript variants and errors. Rome constructed a "Christian Agenda" to calm Jewish riots inside the expanding Roman Empire (now the Holy Roman Catholic Empire).

• CONNECT: barnabasnagy.com/connect 
• SUBSCRIBE (BACKUP CHANNELS) barnabasnagy.com/video 
• SOURCES & CREDITS: minds.com/newsfeed/960191... 
• LEGAL: barnabasnagy.com/legal

God's Birthplace Found

Mythic Birthplace of Zeus Found Heather Whipps (Livescience.com)

The Greek god of thunder and lightning ["Sakka" to the Buddhists, "Thor" and "Odin" to the Scandinavians, "Indra" to Indians] had Earthly beginnings, and scientists think they finally know where.

Ancient Greeks first worshipped the omnipotent Zeus at a remote altar on Mount Lykaion, a team of Greek and American archaeologists now think. During a recent dig at the site, the researchers found ceremonial goods commonly used in cult activity and dated at over three millennia old, making them the earliest known "appearance" of Zeus in Greece.

The discovery challenges the idea that Zeus worship began on the Greek island of Crete, which at least one classical historian names as the god's mythic birthplace. The latest finds on Mount Lykaion, in the mainland province of Arcadia, are as old as the idea of Zeus himself, said the project's senior research scientist David Romano, of the University of Pennsylvania.

"This new evidence strongly suggests that there were drinking (and perhaps feasting) parties taking place on the top of the mountain in the Late Helladic period, around 3,300 or 3,400 years ago," Romano said.

The ancient temple of Zeus, is caught by sunlight from an overcast sky in Athens, Greece, on 1/29/09 (AP/Petros Giannakouris).

Worship of lightning god unbroken
Zeus is the most important figure in ancient Greek mythology. He is the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus, the god of the skies and the father of a slew of other deities and mortals, such as Athena, Apollo, Heracles, Aphrodite and Helen of Troy, say the legends.The heroic figure was born on either the island of Crete or on Mount Lykaion, according to two competing accounts written in ancient times. While the myths are just that - stories - historians and archaeologists have always been interested in discovering what elements of the stories might be at least loosely based on fact.

Though temples to Zeus, including one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, are found throughout Greece, Zeus' mythic "birthplace" may actually be the spot where Greeks first started to worship him too, the new finds suggest.Excavating a trench on Mount Lykaion, in an area which ancient Greek historians later called "the ash altar of Zeus," archaeologists found more than 50 drinking vessels, fragments of human and animal figurines, as well as burned sheep and goat bones. All of the artifacts are consistent with cult ceremonies of the Mycenaean people, who settled Greece approximately between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago, historians say.
A portion of these finds were announced preliminarily by the research team last year.

Mycenaean mountain-top altars are very rare on mainland Greece, according to archaeologists. The period also coincides with the first historical mentions of the god Zeus in Greek texts, suggesting that the Mount Lykaion ceremonies were to honor the man himself. The worship of Zeus, a god traditionally associated with mountains, became popular on Mount Lykaion during classic Greek antiquity, said the team, made up of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, Arizona, and the Greek Archaeological Service.Younger, higher levels of the trench have yielded silver coins, a bronze hand holding a lightning bolt and petrified lightning in past dig seasons. All are clear dedications to Zeus, indicating that the use of the god's altar on Mount Lykaion was likely unbroken for several millennia.

Myth and history
The connection between myth and history doesn't apply solely to ancient Greece. Many ancient cultures worshipped gods that had links to both the spirit and physical worlds.

Real-world spots mentioned in mythic or sacred texts often become places of worship or temple locations or, like Mount Lykaion, vice-versa. This especially applies to birthplaces or homes of the Gods, such as:

Heliopolis, Egypt: Though largely destroyed and swallowed by the sprawl of modern Cairo, the ancient city of Heliopolis was once the center of the Egyptians' worship of Ra, the all-important sun God. Ra died in the evening and was reborn every morning, according to legend, spending the night in a boat floating through the underworld.

Kilauea, Hawaii: This sacred volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii is both feared (it is the most active volcano on the planet) and revered as the home of Pele, Hawaii's fire Goddess. Tourists who disrespect Kilauea or take rocks from the mountain are thought to incur the wrath of Pele, who will curse those individuals with bad luck.

Teotihuacan, Mexico: The most important site of the pre-Columbian Aztecs and a major world city in its own right, Teotihuacan was also the ceremonial heart of the cult of the feathered-serpent Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec's creator god. It was at the site's temple where Quetzalcoatl first had plumes added to his reptilian body, according to Aztec myth.

• Top 10 Ancient Capitals
• News of Cults, Religion and the Paranomal
• The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World