Civic Religion

In the Greek city-states no central authority governed belief, so worship was regulated by each polis. Its priests were mostly drawn from the local elite, and its festivals bound the citizens together.

The Panathenaia of Athens, put in order by Peisistratos in 566 BC, ended in a procession up the Acropolis and sacrifices to Athena. Rome held the same view, that the peace of the gods depended on traditional rites performed correctly.