Info Thursday
Can You Take the Greek Out of the Roman?

So far I've only done some light Wikipedia research just to see if I can find a time BEFORE the Romans worshiped Greek gods. But I can't seem to. Even in the founding myth of Rome, Romulus and Remus are said to be related to Aeneas, who was the son of Venus (a.k.a the Greek goddess Aphrodite). My sister pointed out that this means the Romans think of their greatest hero as a really hot dude. Julius Caesar also claimed to be descendant from Venus, so I guess, even more than their warrior status, it was important to the Romans that people know how pretty they were.

Legend has the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus as April 21st 753 BC. Pretty specific for a legend. This time period also coincides with a vast immigration of Greek peoples to the Italian peninsula which did lead to an influx of Hellenic culture (or Greek stuff). But while I know a few gods specific only to the Romans, I still cannot find any mention of their religion before the Greek's arrival. I know they were there, because in actuality, Rome developed from a federation of villages which were there long before the city and before the arrival of the Greeks. But on Wikipedia, at least, I am unable to find any mention of the religion of the original Latin tribe.