The atmosphere of Roman culture in the Republican Age is still that of the clan, the tribal community which, indeed, it had barely outgrown. The pronounced concern of the State bears all the features of household worship – the cult of ‘genius’ (indwelling spirit) Religious conceptions, such as they are, are feebly imagined and poorly expressed. The readiness to personify any and every idea that takes possession of the mind has nothing to do with the high power of abstraction; it is a rather primitive mode of thinking that comes very near to childish play……. they are the crude and materialistic ideals of a primitive community seeking to safeguard its interests by means of business relations with the higher powers. The innumerable feasts, therefore, take an important place in this system of religious insurance. It is no accident that these rites always kept the name of ‘ludi’ with the Romans – for that is precisely what they were, games. Rome grew to World Empire and a World Emporium. To it there fell the legacy of the Old World that had gone before, the inheritance of Egypt and Hellenism and half the Orient. For all that, however, the foundations of this majestic political edifice remained archaic. The State’s ‘raison d’etre’ was still founded on the old nexus of ritualism. As soon as the political careerist had possessed himself of supreme power, his person and the idea of his authority were immediately transposed into ritual….
All the anxious wishes of a primitive tribe for material welfare and preservation of life were projected on to the ruler, who thenceforth reckoned the epiphany of deity. These are archaic ideas in splendid new attire. The culture-bringing hero of savage life is resuscitated in the identification of the Roman Princeps with Hercules or Apollo.