Why were the ancient Romans usually tolerant of the relegious beliefs of others?

Answer 1

The Romans were generally tolerant of the religious beliefs of others because they usually found common ground in the beliefs. Most of the ancient gods had the same qualities, but different names. The Romans recognized this and incorporated many of the gods of other people into their pantheon.

Answer 2

Because they where extremly faithfull to their own.

and they where afraid that if nations hold their own gods, their would rebel more easier.

Actually, the idea that the ancient Romans were intolerant is a historic myth. Romans were quite tolerant of others simply because it was politically beneficial. Tolerance also, in part, contributed to the successful expansion of their empire by keeping uprisings and rebellions at bay. Finding creative ways for integrating Roman beliefs and customs with local ones proved to be an effective way of extending an olive branch.

^And then the Roman Empire fell, for tolerating too much corruption, just like what is happening to the U.S. today. : (

Answer 3

The Romans were extremely tolerant to different methods of worship in the empire. As all the BC peoples (except the Jews) worshiped a pantheon of gods, the Romans were able to find similarities between their gods and the conquered peoples' gods. This tolerance of religious beliefs was one of the reasons that Rome was able to absorb so many different people into the empire.

Answer 4

The Romans were respectful of the peoples' religions. They lived near other peoples who had different religions and therefore were aware and respectful of other religions. They even adopted foreign deities and cults. As Rome developed an empire, tolerance of other religions, customs and laws were also became important for the stability of the empire. They allowed the conquered peoples to worship their religions, follow their customs, use their customary laws at the local level and the local elites to run local affairs. This diminished the possibility of rebellions against Rome and decreased the administrative burden of the governors of the provinces (conquered territories) which was reduced to maintaining the legions stationed in the provinces, tax collection, commissioning public works and resolving disputes the locals could not resolves themselves. In the whole this policy was successful, except for Judea, where there were several rebellions.