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Roman Life
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Religion
Religion
Augures were priests who would predict the future and interpret omens by studying the flight patterns of birds.
The pontifex maximus was the highest priest in the temple. Their main tast was to maintain the pax deorum - the peace with the gods. They did this by giving advise to magistrates, interpreting omens, controlling the calendar, and overseeing funerals.
Calendar
Calendar
The Roman calendar consisted of three main parts: kalends, nones, and ides. Kalends signified the start of the new moon cycle and was always the first day of the month. Nones were the days of the half moon, which usually fell around 8 days before the Ides. Ides occured on the 15th day of the month during March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months.
Other terms the Romans used were pridie - the day before, and ante diem - the day after
Ceremonies
Ceremonies
A Roman wedding is where a girl from the age of 12-14 gets married to a man chosen by the brides father. The brides father would host the ceremony and was held on a lucky day to avoid any bad omens.
A Roman funeral was held at night to prevent public gatherings and discourage crowds and excessive mourning. Cremation would occur and a euology was given and a family memeber would claim the ashes in an urn.
A Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient rome. It was held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war.
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