<P> The efforts of military commanders to channel the divine will were on occasion less successful . In the early days of Rome's war against Carthage, the commander Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 249 BC) launched a sea campaign "though the sacred chickens would not eat when he took the auspices ." In defiance of the omen, he threw them into the sea, "saying that they might drink, since they would not eat . He was defeated, and on being bidden by the senate to appoint a dictator, he appointed his messenger Glycias, as if again making a jest of his country's peril ." His impiety not only lost the battle but ruined his career . </P> <Dl> <Dd> See also Women in ancient Rome: Religious life </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> See also Women in ancient Rome: Religious life </Dd> <P> Roman women were present at most festivals and cult observances . Some rituals specifically required the presence of women, but their active participation was limited . As a rule women did not perform animal sacrifice, the central rite of most major public ceremonies . In addition to the public priesthood of the Vestals, some cult practices were reserved for women only . The rites of the Bona Dea excluded men entirely . Because women enter the public record less frequently than men, their religious practices are less known, and even family cults were headed by the paterfamilias . A host of deities, however, are associated with motherhood . Juno, Diana, Lucina, and specialized divine attendants presided over the life - threatening act of giving birth and the perils of caring for a baby at a time when the infant mortality rate was as high as 40 percent . </P>

What was rome's religion during the time of the empire