What kind of gods did Romans worship?

At first, Romans believed in many different gods and goddesses. These gods were like people, but with magical powers. The Roman gods were part of a family. People told stories or myths about them. Each god or goddess looked after different people or things.

These are a few of the old Roman gods:

Saturn: once king of the gods, his place was taken by his son Jupiter
Jupiter: god of the sky, he was the most important god.
Juno: Jupiter's wife, she looked after women.
Neptune: Jupiter's brother, he was the god of the sea.
Minerva: goddess of wisdom.
Mars: god of war, though originally god of farming.
Venus: goddess of love, she was the lover of Mars.

How did Rome get its name?

Rome is now the capital city of Italy. 2,000 years ago it was the centre of the Roman Empire. Building started in 753 B.C. The Romans had a story to explain how Rome began. Twin boys, Romulus and Remus, were the sons of Mars (the Roman god or war). An evil uncle took them as babies from their mother and threw them into the River Tiber to drown. The babies floated to land, and a mother wolf fed and cared for them. Later a herdsman looked after the twins until they grew up.

Years later, Mars told his twin sons to build a city where they had been found. The city was Rome. One day, Remus made fun of the wall Romulus had built around the city. The twins argued, fought and Romulus killed Remus. Today, historians and archaeologists agree that people were living in Rome long before 753 B.C., but the legend is one of the most famous in world history.