"Religio" was most often used by the ancient Romans not in the context of a relation towards gods, but as a range of general emotions such as hesitation, caution, anxiety, fear; feelings of being bound, restricted, inhibited; which arose from heightened attention in any mundane context.The term was also closely related to other terms like "scrupulus" which meant "very precisely" and some Roman authors related the term "superstitio", which meant too much fear or anxiety or shame, to "religio" at times.