By the third century BCE, as the Republic aged, the public religion grew to absorb more cosmopolitan, especially Greek, ideas of the deities. Among the prominent gods of the later Republic years were six male gods: Jupiter, the all-important sky god, resembled the Zeus of Greece. Other male gods included Neptune (Poseidon to the Greeks), Mars (Ares to the Greeks), Apollo (he had the same name in both cultures), Vulcan (Hephaistos to the Greeks), and Mercury (Hermes to the Greeks). The correct answer is A.