system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why did the Romans and Greeks have the same gods, but with different names?

To clarify: I understand that many religions have the same deities but with different names. I specifically want to know when and why the decision was made to have these God's go under different names, and why people agreed to change them and why the names stuck.
gpt
They don't exactly have the same GOD'S. There are many differences, with some GOD'S having no analog from one area to the other. However: there were pre existing Mediterranean cultures that traded ideas, folklore, and religion. This resulted in there being many similarities. Then, the Romans were very interested in Ancient Greek culture. They studied it, and their educators and wise men wrote about it. They took GOD'S with similar qualities, such as the goddess of love, which each culture had, and said they were the same, just different names. So Venus = Aphrodite. But in reality, there were very different traditions and stories pertaining to these deities. Most of which we have lost today, so we can't fully comment on differences. Also, while Romans were interested in Greek gods, they adopted Greek stories as their own. The height of ancient Greek civilization was centuries earlier than the height of Roman civilization. So we are getting information mostly from Rome about Greek stuff. The Greek tales we have mostly pre-date the golden age of Rome.