LO: To understand life in a different time. Temple of Claudius, Camulodunum (Colchester) TEMPLVM CLAVDII Context: Roman Religion

How and why did the Romans worship the gods and goddesses? Religion played a very important role in the daily life of the Romans. Roman religion was centred around the deities.

TTYP Do you remember the names of any of the Roman deities, and what they were responsible for?

Explanations The Romans didn’t know why or how some natural things happened. They used the deities to explain these events Floods, illness, crops dying, etc

TTYP What other natural events might the Romans have attributed to the gods and goddesses?

If the gods were angry, terrible things would happen What did the Romans believe? If the gods were angry, terrible things would happen There would be droughts or floods, crops would die, livestock would die People even thought that the gods could cause their families to break up, or women to not be able to have children

What would happen if the gods were happy? Better crops, healthy livestock, good business, families blessed, new babies, etc

How did they keep the gods happy? Sacrifice. The Romans would kill animals in honour of the gods, and they believed this kept the gods happy. They killed bulls, sheep, pigs, and even dogs.

What else did they sacrifice? Milk Fruit Cheese Wine Valuable possessions

How did the ceremonies work? When the Romans needed something, like rain for their crops, they would pray to the god they needed help from. They would sacrifice an animal as an offering to the gods- Like a gift in return for the favour they were asking.

How did the ceremonies work? If something went wrong during the ceremony, they would have to start again. The gods would be angry, so they would sacrifice an extra animal, plus another one to replace the first one! The animals had to be healthy– You couldn’t offer the gods a sick pig!

When did the ceremonies happen? Romans could make offerings whenever they chose Sometimes they held ceremonies to thank the gods, like after winning a chariot race!

When did the ceremonies happen? They also had to make offerings on festival days. Festivals were held to celebrate certain gods. Februarius 27: Equirria, the first of two horse-racing festivals to Mars

Name That Festival Raise your hand if this festival sounds familiar to you!

The ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia honored love.

On this day, young people in ancient Rome chose future marriage partners by drawing names from a hat. Can you imagine choosing your husband or wife by drawing a name from a hat?

Cupid has played a role in the celebration of love for a very long time. To the ancient Romans, Cupid was the son of Venus (the Roman goddess of love & beauty.)

Valentine’s Day! Lupercalia is like what we call Valentine’s Day today. They celebrated Lupercalia from February 13 – 15.

Where did they worship the gods? They worshipped the gods in temples. They built the temples and dedicated them to the gods and emperors. This is the Temple of Claudius. It used to sit where Colchester Castle is now built! We stood in the vaults of the temple!

Temple of Augustus and Livia, France

Pantheon, Rome

Where else did they worship? The Romans would build shrines to their favourite gods in their own homes. A shrine is a collection of statues, pictures, or items relating to the god.

Your Task: LO: To create and describe a new Roman deity S2S Include: An image of the deity (on plain paper) A description What is his/her name? What were they in charge of? (love, sea, etc) How would they be worshipped? What did they do when they got angry? What did they do when they were happy? Try to avoid animal sacrifice. Maybe your god or goddess only accepts offerings of chocolate!! ¼ of a piece of plain paper for their drawing, to be stuck into topic book. Writing in the book. Differentiated worksheet for LA.