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John Bodel calculates an annual death rate of 30,000 among a population of about 750,000 in the city of Rome, not counting victims of plague and pandemic. [10] At birth, Romans of all classes had an approximate life expectancy of 20–30 years: men and women of citizen class who reached maturity could expect to live until their late 50's or much longer, barring illness, disease and accident. [11]
The Romans had a similar belief system about the afterlife, with Hades becoming known as Pluto. In the ancient Greek myth about the Labours of Heracles , the hero Heracles had to travel to the underworld to capture Cerberus , the three-headed guard dog, as one of his tasks.
The traditional care of the dead, however, and the perpetuation after death of their status in life were part of the most archaic practices of Roman religion. Ancient votive deposits to the noble dead of Latium and Rome suggest elaborate and costly funeral offerings and banquets in the company of the deceased, an expectation of afterlife and ...
With the advent of Christianity in the third century, traditional motifs, like the seasons, remained, and images representing a belief in the afterlife appeared. The change in style brought by Christianity is perhaps most significant, as it signals a change in emphasis on images of retrospection, and introduced images of an afterlife. [ 49 ]
Roman statue of Isis, second century CE. Greco-Roman mysteries were voluntary, secret initiation rituals. [2] They were dedicated to a particular deity or group of deities, and used a variety of intense experiences, such as nocturnal darkness interrupted by bright light, or loud music or noise, that induced a state of disorientation and an intense religious experience.
Marble, Roman, 1st century BCE, imitating the Greek classical style of the 5th century BCE. From Rhodes. The burial customs of the ancient Romans were influenced by both of the first significant cultures whose territories they conquered as their state expanded, namely the Greeks of Magna Graecia and the Etruscans. [42]
Religious sites and rituals for the di inferi were properly outside the pomerium, Rome's sacred boundary, as were tombs. [11] Horse racing along with the propitiation of underworld gods was characteristic of "old and obscure" Roman festivals such as the Consualia, the October Horse, the Taurian Games, and sites in the Campus Martius such as the Tarentum and the Trigarium.
The Roman family was one of the ways that the mos maiorum was passed along through the generations.. The mos maiorum (Classical Latin: [ˈmoːs majˈjoːrʊ̃]; "ancestral custom" [1] or "way of the ancestors"; pl.: mores, cf. English "mores"; maiorum is the genitive plural of "greater" or "elder") is the unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms.