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The cults and beliefs covering the whole province haven�t been examined yet, only some summaries of the cities� religion have been made. The research concentrated on the inscriptions that illustrated only the limited circle of the cults and beliefs.
Names of local gods that are characteristic only of Pannonia and doesn�t occur in other provinces are hardly known. In this respect, Pannonia contrasts with the beliefs of Gallia, Germania, Britannia and Hispania in such a remarkable way that it suggests fundamental difference lying partly in natives� beliefs and partly in the Romanization of the cults. Classical gods dominate the inscriptions and the sculptural monuments erected by people in high position, soldiers, municipal office-holders or strangers. The belief of the natives, which must have existed, can hardly be proved. It seems that this native religiousness marked off from the gods and forms of cults implanted as the consequence of the official life. It isn�t likely that the natives erected altars for their own gods, and erecting altars by the natives for Roman gods was also rare. According to the finds, we can state that the religion in our province is "palely" Roman! The religious notion of the native population asserts itself neither in Roman nor in local form. It seems that the most characteristic trait of Pannonia�s religiousness is that it did not allow the synthesis of the Roman and local notions. Everything was expressed in general, Roman sphere and everything expressed wasn�t original. Although the native population with the legal status of the peregrini or their later descendants who became Roman citizens erected numerous grave monuments, altars were hardly erected by them. The number of gods named on the language of the natives is also small and all of them occur only on 1 or 2 altars. Minitra (CIL III 3474), god�s doubles of Vidasus-Thana, Ciniaemus (CIL III 3617) and Magla (CIL III 3963) as attributes can be placed among these. Apart from their names we don�t know anyting else about them. Genius Ciniaemus and Minitra are the only provable gods known only in Pannonia, but they are mentioned only once.
The native gods were being searched according to the interpretatio Romana; the research supposed that the local gods were identified with the names of classical gods. But the attempts at proving the existence of interpreted, local gods were unsuccessful.
One group of the vota could prove the respect of local gods at first sight and the attribute refers to it many times as well. But it still doesn�t mean anything more but the fact the power of god was nominated in an obvious and unambiguos formulation. So accordig to the essential attitude of the Roman religion that always took notice of the existence of the local gods in foreign regions, their respect doesn�t mean more than the recognition of the local gods (Genius loci). It is also supported by the fact that these inscriptions were primarily made by the local principal level, not by the natives. Apart from the genius loci, the names of rivers (Danuvius), the respect of Nymphs, Aesculapius and Hygieia at baths and wells and the respect of Liber in vineyards can be mentioned in this group.
Of course the religiousness of Pannonia had local characteristics as well, but the respect of some gods of the western Celtic belief is supposedly the result of the relationship with Gallia and Germania provinces. Tracing back to the common Celtic tradition is slightly convincing, because these gods occur here sporadically (Sucaelus, Sedatus, Belenus, Suliviae) or appear in the official cult of the army (Epona) or refer to the closeness of Noricum (Mars Latobicus and Marmogius). Only 3 cults which came into being in Pannonia or got a specific appearance here can be mentioned: Nutrices of Poetovio, Silvanus and the so-called Danubian mounted god. The latter two, although they had Pannonian appearance, can hardly be mentioned in connection with the native gods. In spite of this we briefly mention them as a characteristic of our province which shows local specialities.
In the Nutrix-sanctuary of Poetovio and on the secondarily used reliefs a goddes nursing her child and accompanied by several figures of women can be seen. In spite of the representation the oath was taken by men, sometimes together with their wives and the pledge applied to many Nutrices (Nutricibus Augustis). In every certain case the parents take an oath for their children. It�s a special form of the cult of nurse- and mother goddesses limited to Poetovio.
The altars and representations of Silvanus are extraordinarily frequent in the province, so that�s why he was considered as the god of the Pannonian native population and "the national god of the Illyrians". This assumption has been refused when more accurate knowledge of the Illyrian language and ethnic became available, because the finds erected for him were found significantly in the northern part of the Celtic area. Silvanus� large popularity and the variety of his finds are combined with the versatility of notions and the wide-ranging of his admirers. In spite of that the cult doesn�t have a formal appearance. His altars were rarely erected by office-holders in high position, the reference to the emperor is also rare and big sanctuaries or sanctified areas which could have served as a cultic centre of the region weren�t found. So it is highly improbable that he was the main figure of the natives� religion. A fusion of various imaginations of divine powers is more likely because his power includes all parts of the private life and farming, and a certainpart of the natural forces as well. It could also contain some elements of the natives� belief of course. His iconography is identical with the iconography of Silvanus in Italia. Standing figure of a man, knife for dressing vines is in his right hand as the most characteristic attribute; he holds leafy branch or fruit in his left hand which is sometimes replaced with an object in connection with the rank or station of the person who had taken the oath (e.g. two lances). A dog can be seen before his feet. The Italian type is undressed, young and beardless whiltst the Pannonian one is dressed, old and bearded. He can be rarely seen with other gods together in representations (in Poetovio he can be seen next to Nutrix). This kind of unambiguous, unchanging iconographical type and such representation of a god can be connected to the italici, which is supported by the fact that the earliest altars from the 1st cent. AD. were found in West-Pannonia. The naming of the god is more diverse than its iconography. Augustus is frequent in Aquileia, but the most frequent attributes are silvestris and domesticus. Apart from these, attributes appearing in some instances (magnus, sanctus, pantheus) emphasize partly the ecumenity of the god, partly the function related to the reason of the oath (mammula, herbarius, bellator, praeses, venationum).
Based on the above, Silvanus is the god of home, garden, land, vine, farming, woods and hunting, familiar fertitlity, the fate of the slaves, so he is the god of private spheres of life. Silvanae are the feminine equivalent to Silvanus, represented and named in plural form. Their power is partly similar to the Nutrices�, partly contains various powers of the untouched nature, especially of the wells. Silvanus viator who protected travellers can be connected to the magical practices of road-crossings; his help was asked for on rings as well. Apart from altars and small reliefs and sculptures, simple lead votives can be connected to the cult of Silvanus. This latter group of finds refers to a markedly popular and private cult.
The so-called Danubian mounted god is only known from stone reliefs and small lead objects. The centre of its currency is Syrmia where the greatest number of its finds came to light. The central figure of the small boards is a sitting goddess, to the left and to the right horsemen stand on humans lying on the ground. Sol with quadriga, Sol and Luna, snake and lion are sometimes additional elements of the representations. The two riders could be regarded as the Dioscures, but the compositions ratherfollow that of of the Epona-depictions. On the basis of the god reminiscent of Epona, the cult could be originated from the circle of the troopers. The cult adopted many symbols of Oriental cults, its emergence can be dated to the 2nd cent. AD. Placing the representations into zones and horsemen trampling on their dead enemies are the results of the Oriental influence as well. The typological development and the chronological order are quite uncertain for the moment. Because of the distant appearance of pieces prepared in the same mould, spreading by selling these small boards as amulettes can be assumed.
Based on the above, the native religious traditions are not really known, gods with Celtic origin which live on in the Roman period cannot be proved in our province. Only some names of gods are known which could be of Celtic origin because they don�t occur in other provinces. We aware of, however, only a few inscriptions dedicated to them, therefore we do not have any unamiguous knowledge about them. The last mentioned cults of Silvanus and the Danubian mounted god haven�t got native antecedents, we mentioned them only because of their Pannonian characteristics.