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Roman god of war11/10/2022 ![]() ![]() Just as they had seen the Greek gods as aspects of native Italian deities centuries before, the Romans of Caesar’s time believed that other cultures simply worshipped the same gods under different names. However, the Romans often interpreted foreign gods as different versions or aspects of their own. Of course, the arrival of Mercury in Gaul did not occur until after it was occupied by Rome, so Caesar’s belief that the people of central Europe worshipped Roman gods, including Mercury, seems unusual. ![]() They consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions. They worship Mercury in particular, as their god and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts. When writing about the people of Gaul, Julius Caesar said: While Mercury was important to the Roman way of life, they believed that other people held him in even higher regard. Any interruption in the flow of grain from Egypt led to shortages of bread among the poor of Rome, a situation that could easily lead to civil unrest and violence. He was especially important in the grain trade. Without his favor, Roman culture would collapse. As the city’s population grew it needed grain from Egypt, vegetables from Tuscany, wood from Gaul, and metals from Spain and Britain.Īs the god who protected travelers, Mercury was essential in making sure that shipments of all these goods arrived steadily from throughout Rome’s territories. Rome could not function without its trade routes. Rome soon conquered and assimilated its closest neighbors and established itself as a nation that relied on the movement of goods more than diplomatic relations. Hermes watched over all travelers, so the merchants that moved goods throughout the Mediterannean were under his protection.īetween the feuding city-states of Greece, however, he had been most important as a diplomat. The Greeks, too, had seen the messenger god as an important deity in trade. Mercury comes from the Latin verb mercari, “to trade.” His primary role in Roman culture was as the god of merchants and commerce. The only obvious difference in Rome was his name. Therefore, the characterization and mythology of Mercury remained almost entirely unchanged. Unlike Zeus, Mars, and other important Roman gods, there was no close parallel to Hermes in pre-Hellenized Roman religion. Turms, however, was not a native god of Italy either.īoth Mercury and Turms were taken almost directly from the Greek god Hermes. The Etruscan god Turms was very similar, as he was also a god of commerce and an intermediary between the gods and mankind. Unlike many of the gods of Rome, there was no early Italian source for Mercury. Rome relied on goods from around the known world, and Mercury made sure they enriched the city.įrom the capital’s central public building to the farthest reached of Gaul, Mercury was recognized as one of the pillars of the Roman way of life. ![]() Mercury was the god of commerce, putting him at the center of Roman life.Īs the Republic expanded its borders and became a vast empire, Mercury’s role as the patron of merchants and the protector of cargo became more and more important. To the Romans, however, his most important role was not as a diplomat or even as a messenger from the gods. The Roman god Mercury was based almost entirely on the Greek messenger god Hermes. ![]()
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