Further information

Religion and conflict through history

Often when we study history we learn that people who believed in different gods would fight and kill each other, and even go to war. The Crusades of the Middle Ages are a famous example of this, when Christians who believed that theirs was the only way to worship God travelled to the East to fight Muslims.

Roman & Celtic gods

Both the Romans and Britons believed in lots of gods who were thought to look after different things. Instead of forcing the native people to worship a Roman god, the invaders cleverly gave one god two names.

At Bath the Celtic goddess Sul was supposed to look after the natural hot water springs there. When the Romans came, she was re-named Sul-Minerva (Minerva was a Roman goddess). And the Roman name for Bath was 'Aquae Sulis', which in Latin means 'the waters of Sul'.

Temples at Caistor Roman Town

At Caistor there were two temples within the walls, and another outside to the northeast. They would have been dedicated to Romano-Celtic gods like Sul Minerva. The main part of the building was a square room, or cella where the statue of the god stood. The temple itself stood on a raised platform with steps leading to the door.

There was an altar at the front of the temple where people offered sacrifices to the priest and the victimarius (the man who made the sacrifice). Temples like the ones at Caistor were often small and simple with a colonnaded walk around the outside.

Worshipping at the temple

People who came to worship probably threw their offerings into the doors or windows of the cella. At Caistor, many coins have been found. Often people would scratch messages or curses onto sheets of lead, roll them up and throw them into the temple. These would be requests to the gods to punish someone who had upset the worshipper. A message or curse like this was called a 'defixio'. People would also ask the gods to heal them of sickness.

Who did the they worship at Caistor Roman Town?

We do not know exactly which gods were worshiped at Caistor. A major religion of the Romans was the Imperial Cult. This meant the Emperor of Rome was worshipped as a god.

In Colchester there had been an enormous temple built to worship the Emperor Claudius but Boudica's army had destroyed it. The Romans expected the Britons to take part in this religion, but otherwise everyone was free to worship whichever gods they chose.

The only time the Romans disapproved of a religion was when they thought it threatened the safety of the empire. The Christians refused to worship the emperor, and as a result were made to suffer. Christianity was officially accepted by the Romans in the fourth century.

Popular Roman gods in Britain

Some of the most popular Roman gods to be worshipped in Britain were:

• Jupiter - King of the gods, god of the sky;
• Juno - Wife of Jupiter; goddess of women and mothers;
• Mars - God of War;
• Ceres - Goddess of farming;
• Venus - Goddess of love and beauty;
• Minerva - Goddess of crafts and wisdom;
• Neptune - God of the sea;
• Bacchus - God of wine, and;
• Apollo - God of light, the Arts and music.
  

Related pages on this website

• Life under the Romans