Were there punishments in the Roman Empire for not believing in the official religion?
Upvote:0
This is a bit of a loaded question. Rome did not have an official or state religion. While the Romans were a highly religious society their religion was too fragmented and divisive to have a state religion.
The state or Caesar did not care about their religious practices either way as long as it did not seek to interfere with the authority of the state and thus the emperor. The punishment for that would in all likelihood be treason related and death.
Christians were subject to mass executions because the rulers saw it as a threat to their authority and not because they didn't recognise Caesar as a god or as authoritative. Ironically Christianity became the first state religion in 380.
If we consider the account of Jesus he wasn't Crucified because of any religious incitement. Indeed the procurator questioned him and found that he didn't incite any disobedience towards Roman authority or to overthrow the empire and actually told people to subject themselves to it so did not transgress any law. It was found that his claim to authority was purely a religious and spiritual one which the Roman empire neither concerned itself with or saw it as having authority over. He was handed over to the Jews due to political reasons.
Upvote:25
Romans never believed the emperor to be god. This is a popular misconception. The emperors could be declared divine (divus) by the senate (god-like), which is not the same as being a god (deus).
At the same time there was a cult of the emperor's genius: the Romans believed that each person had a supernatural protector (genius), similar to Christian concept of guardian angel. As such, there were temples, dedicated to geniuses of particular emperors and their family. Venerating them would show the loyalty of a person, while refusing to do so would mean the refusing person does not wish good to the person whose genius is venerated.
There was an exception made specifically to Jews, which was a result of harsh contention. Jews had to prove that by refusing venerating the geniuses they still remained loyal to the emperors and did not bring misfortunes to them. I think they were required to make other contributions to the success of the emperor, not prohibited by their religion, such as praying for his health and achievements in their temple.
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