Quotes from Robert Turcan

Terminus was also another aspect of Jupiter, who had had to agree to cohabit with the god of boundaries in a temple whose roof had a hole in it, as sacrifices could be made to him only in the open air (Serv., Aen., 9, 446), which was true for the majority of public cults.

The Romans certainly asked their gods to look favourably upon them, but above all to reassure them in their plans and back them in their actions.

The fourth and last major college was that of the 'epulones', at first three, then seven and finally ten under Caesar, though that did nothing to change their title of septemviri epulones, whose task was to feed (epulari) Jupiter, together with Juno and Minerva on the Capitol, a feast to which senators were invited.

Minerva Medica (on the Esquiline) was associated with it to celebrate arts and trades, including professions connected with health:

Rooted in the family, and having nothing to do with the complexes or inner struggles of the individual, Roman piety was put to the service of the city-state which embraced family hearths and homes.

They lived in the temple annex, where they devoted ten years to being educated, another ten to officiating and yet another ten to instructing new recruits. They ensured the upkeep of the public hearth under the authority of their most senior member, the great Vestal (Virgo Vestalis Maxima).

April was devoted to Venus and Ovid at once invokes this goddess in the fourth book of the Fasti. Aprilis may even have emerged from the Etruscan Aphru, which transcribes the Greek name Aphrodite

it was impossible to imagine a religion that was distinct from civic-mindedness, and therefore a clergy marginal to the Republic. Members of the big colleges (pontiffs, augurs and the chief priest himself) were elected by the people

With the ashes of calf embryos burnt at the Fordicidia, horse blood and bean stalks, they also concocted the mixture for the purifying fumigations (suffimina).

Only the 'king of the sacrifices' was excluded from public duties, and the flamen of Jupiter was subject to 'taboos' which in some respects isolated him from ordinary mortals; but those were exceptions that would disappear in the imperial era.