Religion in Rome
The Roman Religion was more of a political system than an actual religious system. As we can tell from the time of the republic era, Senators or most likely the Consuls would use religion for their political needs. Before any major act could be passed, the consul would have to observe the sky from a tower to see if they could spot lightning. So from this we can get an idea that religion was important for political positions.
Now if you want to compare the Roman religion to most religions in history, you can conclude that the Romans were very superstitious. As you may have read before, major decisions were made by religious symbols such as the lightning in the sky. So, you can get a little hint of religious superstition. They would even look at the entrails of sacrificed animals to interpret the future.
The Romans did not have their own religion. The religion they practiced was from beliefs from all of their surrounding cultures. You can tell where most of their beliefs come from. For example, the Roman god Jupiter resembles Zeus, the Greek King of the gods. You may ask why would such a dominant culture allow this to happen but, it's not their fault. As Romans conquered lands they would allow the locals to practice their native religion. So after a period of time the religious beliefs of other Roman religions would "merge" into each other. So you may think "wouldn't it get confusing after a while?" Well, you're right; in some cases it did get confusing. But, it wasn't always confusing. In Roman families there were basically three major parts of their religion. These parts were the Patron, The Lar Familiars, and the Penates.
In most Roman homes there were three major parts of the household religion. These are the Patron, The Lar Familiars, and the Penates. The patron is the major god the family thinks is more connected with their lives. In major families their patron is the god in which they are descended of. The Lar Familiars is the family spirit, which is the most important of the spirits. It cared for the welfare and prosperity of the household. The Penates were main gods of the storeroom.
As previously mentioned, the Romans used Religion for many things, such as the senators using it to get laws passed and to get elected. But besides this the "head priest" or Pontifex Maximus used his postion as head of religion to influence many political policies. One example of the senate using the gods as political backing is the tribunes of the people. In most of all cases, the Tribunes would call a meeting of the people and would use the gods to cause riots and upstirs to get what they wanted in the senate.
Even though this is a small portion of the Roman Religion this should give you somewhat of an idea on what it was like to worship in Rome.