What is a pagan in ancient rome?

Answer 1

There were no "pagans" in ancient Rome: Pagan is a term used by Christians/Catholics to reference religious traditions that were not sanctioned by the Church, which would have included the polytheistic ancient Romans themselves.

Answer 2

Some were at different times during the Roman Empire.

Pagan was a term used by Christians for non-Chrisitans. Roman religion existed for centuries before Christianity. Therefore, the Romans were pagans, like all the civilisations of the Mediterranean where Christianity spread to, including the Greeks and Egyptians who were also under the Roman empire.

In the Late Empire, Christianity became the religion of the masses around the empire and the Christians outnumbered the pagans. The spread of Christianity reached Greece before Rome, where it developed into the form which came to be called Orthodox Christianity and which widespread in the Middle East and Egypt as well. In Italy, Latin Christianity developed. This eventually came to be called Roman Catholicism. There were also other versions of Christianity which were opposed and eventually suppressed by the Orthodox and Latin churches. The most important of these was Arianism, which was very popular in both the east and the west of the empire.

At first the Romans persecuted the Christians as the Roman elites were entrenched in the (pagan) Roman state religion. When Christianity became at first tolerated religion and then the state religion, persecution of the pagans by the Christians begun.

Answer 3

A normal person, paganism covers ancient Roman gods and goddesses so being a pagan in ancient Rome makes you just like anyone else, religiously.