Das Pontificalcollegium

Translation of Georg Wissowa Religion und Kultus der Rmer. 2nd ed. (Munich, 1912).
67. The Pontifical College [pgs. 501-523]

[501] The collegium pontificum as a whole1 represents the priestly authority responsible for the
care of the entire range of the caerimoniae et sacra2 of the patrius ritus. Whereas the other priesthoods
of the old order are without exception specialists, appointed either for the maintenance and
application of specific priestly sciences and statutes (the augures and fetiales) or for the performance of
precisely described rituals for the cult of individual gods (the Salii, Luperci, Arvales fratres, and Sodales
Titii), the pontifices are responsible for all those duties of the state's regular worship of the gods of the
oldest order that are not by special arrangement under anyone else's control.
If originally the king (perhaps with the help of his wife and sons, who may have functioned
respectively as overseer of the hearth and assistants at sacrifice) handled the performance of the sacra
publica in the same way as the [502] paterfamilias did the worship of his domestic gods, then with the
growth of the state and with the increase in sacral demands the necessity arose for some type of
relief for the king. This relief was effected partly by the introduction of a consilium for deciding on
disputed questions of ius divinum, and partly by the appointment of surrogates for the performance
of ritual acts of sacrifice. And so step by step the office of priest was gradually separated from the
office of king,3 until with the beginning of the Republic the pontifical college took over all of the
functions that formerly the king performed in his capacity as state-priest, and did so in such a way
that it was responsible for the entire proper cult of the old order gods recognized by the state4 and
Whenever the term collegium pontificum is used in its technical sense, its application is always broader. That is, it
includes the rex sacrorum and the flamines, as is clear from Cic. Dom. 135: praesertim cum ex collegio tanto non regem, non
flaminem, non pontificem videret (cf. Cic. Dom. 127), and the list of the collegae involved in the issuing of the pontifical decretum
on Cicero's house at Har. resp. 12, where one also finds the rex sacrorum, flamen Martialis, and flamen Quirinalis (the place of
the flamen Dialis, and indeed the places of all minor flamines were at that time unoccupied; see above, p. 71) classed
according to seniority in the same series as the the pontifices (von Domaszewski ignores this in his Abhandlungen zur
rmischen Religion 183ff., when he discusses CIL 6.31034 and 6.32445, see below, p. 519 n. 3), while at the end come the
pontifices minores (see below). Since women naturally were excluded from consultation the Vestals are absent here, but
they do appear (next to the pontifices, rex sacrorum, and the pontifices minores) at the cena aditialis of the flamen Martialis L.
Cornelius Lentulus (Macrob. Sat. 3.13.11; see on both lists Mommsen, Rm. Forsch. 1.87f. n. 34f.).
1
2 Cic. Leg. 2.21: unum (genus sacerdotum), quod praesit caerimoniis et sacris; cf. Cic. Leg. 2.30: qui sacris praesint
sollemnibus. Cic. Har. resp. 18: statas sollemnisque caerimonias pontificatu (contineri).
The tradition reports that this happened all at once, ascribing to Numa Pompilius the introduction of (apart
from the other priesthoods) the pontifices, flamines, and Vestales; the evidence in Schwegler, Rmische Geschichte 1.542ff.
3
4 [Translator's note: this sentence is remarkably similar to one in Mommsen's Rmisches Staatsrecht 2.18. Compare
Wissowa's German, "da ihm der ganze vorschriftsmige Kultus der von der Gemeinde anerkannten
Gtter..zufiel" with Mommsen's, "Der gesammte vorschriftmssige Cultus der von der Gemeinde anerkannten Gtter
ist den Priestern berwiesen." That Wissowa could reproduce Mommsen's statement almost verbatim shows how
Page 1 of 29
for the preservation of the sacred legal statutes and traditions, while in certain cases magistrates, by
virtue of their imperium, were entitled to represent the community through vows and dedications,
prayers and sacrifices (see above, pp. 402ff.).
A reminder of the fact that the pontifical college is the king's legal successor survived for all
time in that the Regia,5 the old house of the king on the sacra via, remained the official building of the
college. It was there that the college held its meetings,6 there that its ritual acts of sacrifice took
place7 and its sacred implements and symbols were stored,8 and also probably there that the archives
of the priesthood were located.9 The official residences of the different priests who belonged to the
college lay nearby.10
deeply he had absorbed and assimilated what he had read in Staatsrecht.]
It was consecrated as a fanum, Festus 346-348 L.; cf. Cass. Dio 48.42.6. In general see Jordan, Topographie
1.2.423ff.; Hlsen, Jahrbuch des deutschen Archologischen Instituts 4 (1889) 228ff., and Mitteilungen des deutschen Archologischen
Instituts, rmische Abteilung 17 (1902) 62-67; Vaglieri, Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 31 (1903) 40ff.
5
6 Plin. Ep. 4.11.6: (Domitian) pontifices non in Regiam, sed in Albanam villam convocavit; also, the Arval brethren in
A.D. 14 met in the Regia (CIL 6.2023a, lines 9 and 18). A prodigium that occurred in the Regia was reported to the Senate,
(Gell. NA 4.6.2).
So on the Opiconsivia (August 25, CIL I2 p. 327) in the sacrarium Opis Consivae (Varro Ling. 6.21, cf. Festus 202
L.). Every Kalendae the regina sacrorum would sacrifice porcam vel agnam in Regia Iunoni (Macrob. Sat. 1.15.19), just as every
Nundinae the flaminica would sacrifice in Regia Iovi arietem (Macrob. Sat. 1.16.30). In the very same place occurred the
sacrifice (by the rex sacrorum) of the ram to Janus on the Agonium (January 9, Varro Ling. 6.12). The blood from the tail
of the October Horse was drizzled onto the hearth of the Regia and its head nailed to the wall (Festus 190 L., cf. Cass.
Dio 43.24.4). Finally, we also know of a sacrificium that the saliae virgines performed together with a pontifex in the Regia
(Festus 439 L.).
7
8 Like the hastae Martis (in sacrario Regiae, Gell. NA 4.6.2; cf. Plut. Rom. 29) and the praefericulum and secespita in the
sacrarium of Ops Consiva (Festus 292 and 472 L., with the restoration of Jordan, Topographie 2.274ff., see above, p. 203 n.
6).
This may be concluded from the fact that the consular fasti were inscribed on the outer marble wall of the
Regia which was magnificently restored in 36 B.C. by Cn. Domitius Calvinus; cf. Hlsen, Jahrbuch des deutschen
Archologischen Instituts 4 (1889) 247ff., and Hermes 24 (1889) 185-194; Schn, Wiener Studien 24 (1902) 325-335, and in RE
6.2027-2046.; CIL I2 p. 5ff.; in addition, Hlsen, Klio 2 (1902) 248ff., and idem, Mitteilungen des deutschen Archologischen
Instituts, rmische Abteilung 19 (1904) 117-123.
9
Nearby lay the Temple of Vesta along with the house of the Vestals (atrium Vestae, see below, p. 508 n. 6),
which for this reason was also occassionaly called the atrium Regium (Livy 26.27.3, 27.11.16); adjoining this (
according Cass. Dio 54.27.3, but he has confused the residence of the rex sacrorum with that of the pontifex maximus.
Similar confusion is found in Servius (ad Aen. 8.363), who identifies the Regia with the home of the pontifex maximus) was
the domus publica, allotted to the pontifex maximus as his official residence (Suet. Iul. 46; cf. Cass. Dio 54.27.3), and close to
the Regia lay also the schola of the kalatores pontificum et flaminum (see below, p. 519), Hlsen, Mitteilungen des deutschen
Archologischen Instituts, rmische Abteilung 14 (1899) 262-263. The flaminia (sc. domus), i.e., the official residence of the flamen
Dialis (Gell. NA 10.15.7, Paul. Fest. 79 and 94 L., and Serv. Aen. 2.57 and 8.363), cannot have been located far from the
Temple of Vesta (according to the account of Cass. Dio 54.24.4), and the rex sacrorum had his house at the other (eastern)
end of the sacra via (Festus 372 L.), while the location of the aedes flaminis Quirinalis (Livy 5.40.8) cannot be determined
more precisely. It is probably certain that the flamines minores and the pontifices minores had no official residence.
10
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[503] If we consider the collegium pontificum from the point of view of the names, ages, and
rank of its members, it appears composed of many different priesthoods. But if we consider the
activity of these priesthoods, we see that they are combined into one centralized organization.
There is evidence for all of these priesthoods already in ancient time even outside Rome in Latium; 11
based on their nomenclature and function they probably belong to the common property of the
Latin sacral constitution. The collegium consists of the following sacerdotia:
1.
The pontifices,12 originally an advisory consilium of the king, and later of the pontifex
maximus,13 whose original number of three was gradually increased from six to nine to fifteen, and
then by Caesar to sixteen;14
[504]
2. The rex sacrorum,15 who performed those same priestly tasks that the king himself had
practiced until the end and whose performance appears to have been connected with the name
'king;'
3. The flamines, each an individual priest for one specific divinity whose name they carry in
11 Cf. the indices to CIL 14, 9, and 10. The question of whether the nomenclature of the priesthoods was
native or taken over from Rome must be decided separately for each location. Especially important is the recurrence of
Roman titles for priestly offices in numerous Latin religious posts. In these cases it is improbable that everywhere the
transmission proceeded outward from Rome. Thus we find pontifices in Praeneste (Serv. Aen. 7.678), Tibur (CIL 14.3650,
3674, and 4258), and Ostia (pontifex Volcani et aedium sacrarum, CIL 14 p. 5), Vestales Virgines in Tibur (CIL 14.3677, 3679),
a rex sacrorum in Tusculum (CIL 14.2634) and at Velitrae (CIL 10.8417), a flamen Dialis in Tibur (CIL 14.3586), a flamen
Martialis in Aricia (CIL 14.2169), and finally all those titles in the sacerdotia of old Latin cities that eventually became
Roman priesthoods (as at Lavinium, Alba, among others; for the evidence see below, p. 520 nn. 4 and 6 and p. 521 n. 3).
The compound nature of the word is as clear as its meaning is puzzling (for in spite of all attempts, new and
old, any derivation from pons and facere appears to be impossible; cf. the etymologies in Roeper, Lucubrationum pontificalium
primitiae 5ff.; Marquardt, Staatsverw. 3.235ff.; more recent attempts e.g., Dhring, Archiv fr lateinische Lexikographie 15
(1908) 221-222; Nazari, Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 36 (1908) 575-576; Bezzenberger, Zeitschrift fr vergleichende
Sprachforschung 42 (1909) 86-87; Ehrlich, Zur indogermanischen Sprachgeschichte 73). Its origin is probably to be found as far
back as pre-Roman times. The Greeks expressed it (in addition to ) as (which usually means pontifex
maximus, but can also mean pontifex proper), , , and similar terms, cf. Magie, De Romanorum iuris
publici sacrique vocabulis 142.
12
13
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.21.
The colony of Urso had three pontifices (lex Coloniae Genetivae Iuliae [CIL 2 Suppl. 5439 = ILS 6087] chapter
67), the colony of Capua six (Cic. Leg. agr. 2.96). The latter number can also be deduced from the historical account of
Cicero (Rep. 2.26) who has Numa appoints five pontifices, but to these must also be added the king, since he is the
predecessor of the pontifex maximus. Bardt, Priester der vier groen Collegien, 32f., has proven that after the Lex Ogulnia the
number of pontifices, like that of augures, was nine (contrary to the incorrect statement of Livy 10.6.6, 10.8.3, and 10.9.2:
octo pontificum...numerus factus). On the increase in number to 15 (by Sulla) and 16, see Livy Per. 89 and Cass. Dio 42.51.4.
Additional increases during the Empire are possible, but not provable, for von Domaszewski's claim (Abhandlugen 187ff.)
that there were 23 pontifices in the time of Trajan (9 patrician and 14 plebeian, to be precise) is based on arbitrary
assumptions.
14
This is the only official form of the name in inscriptions and (usually) the technical term. We also find the
untechnical rex sacrificiorum, rex sacrificulus, and plain rex, see Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.14.3.
15
Page 3 of 29
their official title,16 numbering fifteen total (Festus 144 L.), namely the three flamines maiores (Dialis,
Martialis, Quirinalis)17 and twelve flamines minores, though the names of only ten of these are known;18
4. The Vestales Virgines, of whom there were six in historical times,19 representatives of the
housewife at the vesta publica p. R. Quir., they safeguarded the holy hearth fire and prepared the
materials essential for the performance of sacrifices.
From the beginning of the Republic all of these priesthoods form one legal entity: they are
all equally dependent on the pontifex maximus (see below), can represent one another in their official
duties,20 meet as a body for negotiations, trials, and discussions, and are ranked together in a list
according to seniority (see above, p. 501 n. 2), which is why no two offices in this group could be
held by the same person (see above, p. 493). In so far as each is dedicated to serving one particular
divinity, they are ranked together in a set hierarchy determined by the cultic order of the divinity
they represent (see above, p. 23). At the top is the rex sacrorum: he represents Janus, and at the same
time bears in the name of his title the office from which the entire commonwealth's priesthoods
originated. After him come the three flamines maiores of Juppiter, Mars, and Quirinus, and only then
the pontifex maximus, not in his capacity as leader of the entire college, but as the male representative
of the service of Vesta. Concluding the list is a steady sequence of flamines minores, ending with the
final one, the Pomonalis.21
16 Cic. Leg. 2.20 (cf. 2.29): divisque aliis sacerdotes, omnibus pontifices, singulis flamines sunto. Varro Ling. 5.84: flamines
quod in Latio capite velato erant semper ac caput cinctum habebant filo, filamines dicti (cf. Paul. Fest. 77 L.; Serv. Aen. 8.664 and
10.270; Dion. Hal. 2.64.2; Plut. Num. 7); horum singuli cognomina habent ab eo deo, cui sacra faciunt (hence flamen sacr(orum)
pub(licorum) municip(ii) (CIL 2.2105), cf. 8 Supplement 14692).
17
Paul. Fest. 137 L., Gai. Inst. 1.112; cf. Cic. Phil. 2.110, Livy 1.20.2, Plut. Num. 7.
18 Paul. Fest. 137 L.; Gai. Inst. 1.112. The last six of the series (that it is a series is indicated by Festus 144 L.)
Ennius gives in Varro Ling. 7.45: Volturnalis (Paul. Fest. 519 L.), Palatualis (Festus 284 L.; the inscriptions CIL 8.10500
and 11.5031 term him pontifex Palatualis), Furrinalis (Varro Ling. 5.84 and 6.19), Floralis (CIL 9.705), Falacer (Varro Ling.
5.84), Pomonalis (Festus 144 L.; CIL 3 Suppl 12732). From other evidence we can add to these the following four: the
flamen Volcanalis (Varro Ling. 5.84; Macrob. Sat. 1.12.18; CIL 6.1628), Cerialis (CIL 11.5028), Carmentalis (Cic. Brut. 56;
CIL 6.31032), and Portunalis (Festus 238 L.).
19 According to Dion. Hal. 2.67.1 and 3.67.2 and Plut. Num. 10, their original number was four, which was later
increased to six (the number six is also given at Festus 468 L.); only at the end of paganism do we hear of seven (Ambr.
Ep. 1.18.11; Expositio totius mundi et gentium, p. 120 in Riese's edition of Geographici Latini Minores) or ten Vestals (Lydus
Mens. fr. 6 [Wissowa's 5 is incorrect], p. 179.27 in Wnsch's edition).
20 A pontifex could stand in for both the rex sacrorum (Festus 310 L.) and the flamen Dialis (Tac. Ann. 3.58: saepe
pontifices Dialia sacra fecisse, si flamen valetudine aut munere publico impediretur).
21 Festus 198 L.: ordo sacerdotum aestimatur deorum [ordine et ut] maximus quisque: maximus videtur rex, dein Dialis, post
hunc Martialis, quarto loco Quirinalis, quinto pontifex maximus. itaque in <conviviis> solus rex supra omnis accubat (Serv. Aen. 2.2),
sic et Dialis supra Martialem et Quirinalem (Gell. NA 10.15.21), Martialis supra proximum, omnes item supra pontificem. Festus 144
Page 4 of 29
The strength and complexity [505] of the ceremonial regulations which applied to each of
the priesthoods were similarly graded, although it is difficult to decide to what extant this is an
original difference in ritual regulations or a later modification based on changes in external
circumstances. But even in the latter case, the facts show the old statutes of sacral law, in spite of
their incompatibility with the practical demands of later times, were adhered to more tenaciously in
the cases of the rex sacrorum, flamen Dialis, or the three flamines maiores in general,22 than in the cases of
the pontifices and flamines minores; this was due to the higher venerability and greater antiquity of the
former priesthoods.23
Though the basic principle of the incompatibility of priestly and magisterial function (see
above, p. 480) was originally much more comprehensive, it was strictly maintained (well into the
Empire) only for the rex sacrorum;24 for the flamen Dialis25 it was limited in such a way that he was at
least allowed to hold an urban office.26 In contrast, he was not allowed any task, occupation, or
activity in a province since he was prohibited from staying out of the city longer than a night, nor
was he allowed to mount a horse, or see an army under arms. 27 For a long time the flamines Martialis
and Quirinalis were likewise barred from this military activity, but were granted it at the end of the
L.: maximae dignationis flamen Dialis est inter quindecim flamines, et cum certa discrimina maiestatis suae habeant, minimi habetur
Pomonalis, quod Pomona levissimo fructui agrorum praesidet pomis.
22
Because of their gender the Vestals occupy a special position, and so will not be discussed here.
23 The position of the rex sacrorum as the oldest in the college is of course only valid in so far as the occupant of
that office immediately continued the king's priestly duties. That the rex sacrorum originated only at the end of the Regal
period is not only transmitted in our sources (Livy 2.2.1; Dion. Hal. 4.74.4; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 63; Festus 422 L.), but is
also so self-evident that it never should have been doubted in the discussion of the iouxmenta inscription (ILS 4913).
24 Dion. Hal. 4.74.4; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 63. In 180 B.C. an attempt was made to break this principle, but it
brought no result (Livy 40.42.8ff.). Of course in the time of Trajan Cn. Pinarius Severus was named consul, augur, and rex
sacrorum (CIL 14.3604; cf. another example at CIL 9.2847).
Livy 4.54.7: salii flaminesque nusquam alio quam ad sacrificandum pro populo sine imperiis ac potestatibus relinquantur;
Plut. Quaest. Rom. 23.
25
The flamen Dialis was curule Aedile in 200 B.C. (Livy 31.50.7) and praetor inter peregrinos in 183 B.C. (Livy
39.45.4). The election of the flamen Dialis L. Cornelius Merula to the consulship in 87 B.C. (App. B. Civ. 1.65; Vell. Pat.
2.20.3) occurred under the abnormal conditions of a revolution.
26
Gell. NA 10.15.4: equo Dialem flaminem vehi religio est (Paul. Fest. 71 L.; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 40; Plin. HN 28.146),
item religio est classem procinctam extra pomerium id est exercitum armatum videre (Festus 294 L.); idcirco rarenter flamen Dialis creatus
consul est, cum bella consulibus mandabantur. Livy 5.52.13: flamini Diali noctem unam manere extra urbem nefas est (three nights
according to Plut. Quaest. Rom. 40 and Gell. NA 10.15.14). Tac. Ann. 3.71: decretum pontificum, quotiens non valetudo adversa
flaminem Dialem incessisset, ut pontificis maximi arbitrio plus quam binoctium abesset, dum ne diebus publici sacrificii neu saepius quam bis
eundem in annum; quae principe Augusto constituta satis ostendebant annuam absentiam et provinciarum administrationem Dialibus non
concedi.
27
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Republic and in the Empire.28

[506] The pontifices, however, were not subjected in historical times to any restraints on their
ability to hold political office, even though the pontifices maximi, out of due consideration for the cura
sacrorum, refused to undertake a command outside of Italy,29 a practice which was broken for the first
time in 131 B.C.30
Only the rex sacrorum and the three flamines maiores were required not only to come from
patrician blood,31 but also to issue from a confarreate marriage, and themselves live in such a
marriage.32 This regulation is connected with the fact that the wife of the rex sacrorum and the wife of
the flamen Dialis33the regina sacrorum34 and the flaminica, respectivelyplay a great part in their
husband's priesthood, whereby they, along with their husbands, are subject to the strict regulations
of ceremonial law.35
The complicated specific sacral prescriptions36 that applied to the flamen Dialis show how this
28 Serv. Aen. 8.552: veteri sacrorum ritu neque Martialis neque Quirinalis flamen omnibus caerimoniis tenebatur, quibus flamen
Dialis: neque diurnis sacrificiis destinabantur et abesse eis a finibus Italiae licebat neque semper praetextam neque apicem nisi tempore
sacrificii gestare soliti erant. Tac. Ann. 3.58: frustra vulgatum dictitans, non licere Dialibus egredi Italia, neque aliud ius suum quam
Martialium Quirinaliumque flaminum; porro si hi duxissent provincias, cur Dialibus id vetitum? But in 242 B.C. (Livy Per. 19; Val.
Max. 1.1.2; Tac. Ann. 3.71) and 131 B.C. (Cic. Phil. 11.18) the consuls, who were also flamines Martiales, were not allowed to
go to their provinces, nor in 189 B.C. was the praetor, who was also a flamen Quirinalis (Livy 37.51.1ff.); cf. Livy 24.8.10.
29 Livy 28.38.12 and 28.44.11; Cass. Dio fr. 56.63 Melb. [need Boissevain]: Diod. Sic. 27.3; Plut. Ti. Gracch. 21;
Serv. Aen. 8.552: cum...pontificibus non liceat equo vehi, appears to be based on confusion with the flamen Dialis.
30
Livy Per. 59, cf. Oros. 5.10.1.
31
Cic. Dom. 38; Paul. Fest. 137 L.; Tac. Ann. 4.16.
32 Gai. Inst. 1.112: quod ius etiam nostris temporibus in usu est; nam flamines maiores, id est Dialis Martiales Quirinales, item
reges sacrorum nisi ex farreatis nati non leguntur ac ne ipsi quidem sine confarreatione sacerdotium habere possunt; cf. Tac. Ann. 4.16;
Serv. Aen. 4.103 and 374 (Boethius, In Ciceronis Topica 3.14), wrongly mentions the pontifices instead of the rex sacrorum and
flamines); related to this is the prohibition against the flamen Dialis divorcing his wife (matrimonium flaminis nisi morte dirimi
ius non est, Gell. NA 10.15.23, cf. Paul. Fest. 79 L.; Serv. Aen. 4.29, according to which the flaminica must also be univiria;
more at Marquardt, Staatsverw. 3.328.8), and the requirement that he lay aside his office if she dies (Gell. NA 10.15.22-23;
Plut. Quaest. Rom. 50; Pompeius Trogus at Priscian, Institutio de arte grammatica (Gramm. Lat. 2 Keil) 5.149.5.
33 Indeed, the title "flaminica" without additional specification always denotes the wife of the flamen Dialis,
indicating that at least in historic times the wives of the other flamines performed no priestly functions. The wife of the
flamen Martialis is present at her husband's inaugural feast (described in Macrob. Sat. 3.13.11 [see above, p. 501 n. 2]), not
in her official capacity as flaminica, but as the lady (along with her mother) of the house.
34
CIL 6.2123f.
35 I would point only to the meticulous rules governing the dress of the flaminica (Festus 342 and 484 L.; Paul.
Fest. 79 and 369 L.; Gell. NA 10.15.27f.; Serv. Aen. 4.137, 12.120, and 602) and also, to an extant, the regina sacrorum
(Paul. Fest. 101 L.; Serv. Aen. 4.137).
36
caerimoniae impositae flamini Diali multae, item castus multiplices, Gell. NA 10.15.1. The statute for the flamen of the
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priest's entire life, house, and family were devoted day and night to the service of the deity.37 He was
cotidie feriatus (see above, p. 432 n. 7), and on public holidays could not even look upon [507]
someone working;38 he always wore the priestly head covering and attire; he always had to have
sacrificial cakes (strues and fertum) prepared and ready, even by his bed; no other person was allowed
to sleep in his bed; the fire from his hearth could be used for sacral purposes only; his hair could be
cut only by a freeman, and his hair and nail clippings were buried under an arbor felix;39 he could have
nothing on him which resembled a binding; he could not swear an oath.40 The prohibition against
feralia attrectare,41 which applied to all the priests, was for him and his wife dissected into a mass of
individual regulations, which go so far as to prevent him from even speaking of such things as the
goat, the bean, or the ivy, and his wife cannot wear shoes made from the leather of a slaughtered
animal. Infringements of even a slight kind against the sacral order at sacrifice mean the loss of his
office.42
For these various ceremonial obligations that restricted his whole life the flamen Dialis is
given a certain compensation through the various honorary rights, which give him an advantage over
the other priests. To a criminal being led to corporal punishment he can lend his protection, if the
criminal implores it, but only in so far as the punishment cannot be carried out during that current
provincial cult of the emperor found on the ara Narbonensis (CIL 12.6038) is modelled on this sacral regulation. It,
however, omits the tedious stipulations and preserves only the honors and privileges.
The evidence for the following comes mostly from Gell. NA 10.15. The remaining references have been
exhaustively collected by R. Peter, Quaestionum pontificalium specimen (Diss. Argentorati, 1886) p. 42ff., and E. Samter in RE
6.2486-2492; I limit myself to a selection of the regulations.
37
38 This prescription he shared with the rex and the two other flamines maiores, Macrob. Sat. 1.16.9; cf. Festus 292
L. and above, p. 441 n. 9.
39
Special regulations also existed for the removal of the Vestals' hair clippings, Plin. HN 16.235, Paul. Fest. 50
L.
40 This holds true for the Vestals also, for the praetorian Edict contains the words (Gell. NA 10.15.31):
sacerdotum Vestalem et flaminem Dialem in omni mea iurisdictione iurare non cogam (cf. CIL 12.6038, line 7: neve invita iurato of the
provincial flaminica); but while the prohibition is, for the flamen Dialis, absolute (cf. besides Paul. Fest. 92 L., Plut. Quaest.
Rom. 44, and especially Livy 31.50.7, Cass. Dio 59.13.1), the oath of the Vestals is, in certain cases, even stipulated (Plut.
Num. 10), only it must unconditionally be to Vesta (Sen. Controv. 6.8.1). Similarly the pontifices may not per liberos iurare, sed
per deos tantummodo (Serv. Aen. 9.298).
41 Tac. Ann. 1.62: neque imperatorem auguratu et vetustissimus caerimoniis praeditum adtrectare feralia debuisse; cf. Serv.
Aen. 6.176 and 3.64, Sen. Dial. [Consolatio ad Marciam] 6.15.3 (compare with Cass. Dio 54.28.4, see also 54.35.4, 56.31.3
and 60.13.3.
42
Val. Max. 1.1.4f.; Livy 26.23.8; Plut. Marc. 5.

Page 7 of 29
day;43 upon entering his office he immediately leaves his father's patria potestas;44 and finally he enjoys
not only the honors of the toga praetexta, which he wears at all times (above, p. 498 n. 8), and the
lictor,45 but is entitled, alone of all the priests, to the sella curulis as well as in particular a seat in the
Senate.46
The Vestals enjoyed similarly exceptional honors.47 For example, they share with the rex
sacrorum and the [508] flamines maiores the privilege of being able to ride through the city in a wagon
when performing certain ritual acts of sacrifice,48 and they alone of all the priests were entitled to a
tomb within the city.49 But certain privileges that Vestals enjoy are especially valuable given the
other legal restrictions placed on women. They can act as a witness, independently dispose of their
property in a will,50 and are, in general, free from the guardianship of a tutor.51
In return, however, they also lead a life governed by arduous obligations: taken into the
priesthood already at the young age of six to ten, they had to belong to it a full thirty years52 and not
only remain virgins during this time, but also spend all of their time in strict confinement in the
43 Gell. NA 10.15.10; Servius Aen. 3.607; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 111 (distorted at Calp. Decl. 26: sacerdos Martis
damnatum liberet); corresponding to this is the Vestals' privilege to save a criminal being led to death if they should by
chance encounter him (Plut. Num. 10; [Quint.] Decl. Min. 284: sacerdos unius supplicio liberandi habeat potestatem).
Just as with the Vestals, Gai. Inst. 1.130: praeterea exeunt liberi virilis sexus de parentis potestate, si flamines Diales
inaugurentur, et feminini sexus, si virgines Vestales capiantur; cf. 3.114; Ps.-Ulp. Reg. 10.5 [in potestate parentum esse desinunt et hi qui
flamines Diales inaugurantur, et quae virgines Vestae capiuntur]; Tac. Ann. 4.16; Gell. NA 1.12.9.
44
Paul. Fest. 82 L.; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 113; Ov. Fast. 2.23; CIL 12.6038 line 2; the Vestals also have a lictor (Plut.
Num. 10); Cass. Dio 47.19.4; Sen. Controv. 1.2.3.
45
46 Livy 27.8.8; Serv. Aen. 8.552; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 113; also, the provincial flamen in Narbo enjoys the right in
decurionibus senatuve [sententiae dicendae], CIL 12.6038 line 4.
47
On the privileges common to both the Vestals and the flamen Dialis, see May, Revue des tudes anciennes 7 (1905)
4f.
48 The Lex Iulia municipalis (CIL 1.206, at line 62f.) permitted the use of the cart in the city quibus diebus virgines
Vestales re[gem] sacrorum flamines plostreis in urbe sacrorum publicorum p(opuli) R(omani) causa vehi oportebit; cf. Tac. Ann. 12.42;
Livy 1.21.4; Prudent. C. Symm. 2.1088-1090.
49
Serv. Aen. 11.206. In addition see Santinelli, Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 33 (1905) 476f.
50 Gell. NA 7.7.2: ius quoque testimonii dicendi tribuitur testabilisque una omnium feminarum ut sit datur; 1.12.9: ius
testamenti faciendi adipiscitur. Cf. Plut. Num. 10. If a Vestal did not make a will, her property went not to her family, but to
the state (Gell. NA 1.12.18).
51
Gai. Inst. 1.145; Plut. Num. 10.
52 Gell. NA 1.12.1; 7.7.4; Dion. Hal. 2.67.2; Plut. Num. 10, among others. The division of this period into three
decades of learning, practicing, teaching (Dion. Hal. 2.67.2; Plut. Num. 10; Plut. An seni respublica gerenda sit 24; Sen. Dial.
[de Otio] 8.2.2) is a fiction, as Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 60, rightly emphasizes.
Page 8 of 29
official building assigned to them, the Atrium Vestae,53 which they left only to perform their duties.54
These were in and of themselves extraordinarily taxing, for the hearth fire of Vesta needed to be
watched and cared for day and night, and what is more, the Vestals themselvesat least originally
personally took care of cleaning the Temple and fetching from the distant spring of the Camenae the
water needed for sacral use.55
Undutiful and irresponsible Vestals were severly punished. Those whose negligence led to
the sacred fire going out suffered corporal punishment,56 while those who lost their virginity met a
cruel death, entombment alive in the campus sceleratus.57 When one compares this rigid code of
priestly conduct applied to the rex sacrorum, flamines maiores, and Vestales, with the secular freedom and
license given the pontifices, one finds clear proof that the latter constitute the most recent part of the
whole college.
At the head of the entire college stands the pontifex maximus who, since the 6th century of the
city, was chosen from [509] among the pontiffs and appointed for life by an election performed by
an assembly of seventeen tribes.58 Starting in 12 B.C. this office becomes forever joined with the
emperor, and thus we encounter the post of promagister, instituted to taking care of day-to-day
business; about its tenure or method of appointment, however, we know nothing for certain.59
The legal position of the pontifex maximus is a peculiar and complicated one. In relation to
the other pontifices he is not primus inter pares, like perhaps the magister of the Arval Brethren is to his
colleagues, nor is he a colleague of higher rank, as are the flamines maiores to the flamines minores.
Rather, the pontifices form a uniform and indivisible priesthood, and are represented as such by the
pontifex maximus. It is only for practical reasons of holding office that the priesthood was increased
On this see Jordan, Topographie 1.2.299, 427f.; idem, Der Tempel der Vesta; Auer, Der Tempel der Vesta 2.209ff.;
Vaglieri, Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 31 (1903) 70ff.; van Deman, The Atrium Vestae
(Washington, D.C. 1909).
53
54
On this: Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 56.
55
Plut. Num. 13; more at Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 60f.
56 Paul. Fest. 94 L.; Dion. Hal. 2.67.3; Plut. Num. 10; Livy 28.11.6; Val. Max. 1.1.6; Obsequens 8 [62]; cf. also
Sen. Controv. 1.2.10.
57 Mommsen, Rm. Straf. 928-930.
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.25ff. The first example is in 212 B.C. (Livy 25.5.2). On the probability that before
this the office was held by the oldest pontifex see above, p. 495 n. 1; there is as little evidence for this as for the generally
assumed election by the pontifices (cf. Cass. Dio 44.53.7, and see Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.29.7).
58
The oldest example (CIL 6.2120) comes from A.D. 155. CIL 6.1700 shows that the post was not held for
life: pontifici maiori, pro magistro iterum. The appointment was probably made by the emperor acting as pontifex maximus; see
59
Page 9 of 29
to a plurality of persons,60 just as the six Vestal Virgins together represent (so to speak) only one
sacral entity which is outwardly represented by the virgo Vestalis maxima.61 And as the rex and regina
sacrorum stand in relation to one another,62 so do the pontifex maximus and the virgo Vestalis maxima,
each of them (from a legal point of view) jointly comprising the other members of their priesthood.
Furthermore, as the regina and Vestales share in the sacral functions of the king's wife,63 so do the rex
sacrorum and pontifex maximus in the priestly duties of the king.
Yet of these duties the rex sacrorum was responsible for performing only certain acts of
sacrifice:64 all of the sacral centralized power [510] which had previously been practiced by the king
lay in the hands of the pontifex maximus. This power he exercised chiefly within the pontifical college,
not only by presiding over its deliberations,65 but also, and above all, by exercising his right to
nominate and discipline its members. Of course the pontificeswho are not so much subordinate to
the pontifex maximus as joined together with him in forming a unityare not appointed by him, but
recruited themselves through co-optation (see above, p. 487). But in general, whenever there was a
above, p. 495 n. 8; cf. Habel, De pontificum Romanorum 90ff. On the emperor as pontifex maximus, see idem, 45ff.
60 That is why another pontifex could readily take the place of a dead (Livy 25.5.2) or absent (Cic. Har. resp. 21)
pontifex maximus.
The inscriptions of the virgines Vestales maximae from the Atrium Vestae: CIL 6.2127ff., 32409ff.; Marquardt,
Staatsverw. 3.340.1 collects the literary evidence for the office. That the Vestalis maxima holds not only the executive
branch among the virgins, but embodies the entire priesthood is clear from CIL 6.2143: in caerimoniis antistiti deorum
Terentiae Rufillae v(irgini) V(estali) max(imae); still greater proof is the fact that the honorary statues set up in the Atrium
Vestae are without exception of virgines Vestales maximae, never of a mere Vestal; the singular form virgo (Vestalis) always
indicates the Vestalis maxima (e.g. Fasti Philocali (=CIL 12 p. 258) on February 13: virgo Vesta(lis) parentat, etc.).
61
62 This correlation is especially evident in the joint exercise of service to Vesta (in penum Vestae quod solae virgines
solique pontifices adeunt [SHA Heliogab. 6.6]; similarly with the sacrarium Opis Consivae, which no one may enter praeter virgines
Vestales et sacerdotem publicum [Varro Ling. 6.21]). Also, for this reason the pontifex maximus was ranked next to Vesta in the
ordo sacerdotum (above, p. 504), and the pontifices were later also called pontifices Vestae (above, p. 161). It is also apparent in
the parallels of their institutions; for example, the fictores pontificum and fictores virginum Vestalium (below, 519 n. 1), as well
as the arca pontificum and arca virginum Vestalium (above, p. 407), for which also occurs the expression utraeque arcae
pontificum (CIL 6.10682).
That a Vestal (or the one entity represented by the six of them) stood in relation to the pontifex maximus not
as his daughter (so still Mommsen, Rm. Strafr. 18), but as his wife, follows from her bridal-like costume and the
ceremony of captio (below, p. 510 n. 3) as, in particular, Dragendorff, Rheinisches Museum 51 (1896) 281-302, and Santinelli,
Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 32 (1904) 63f. (both following Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 47), have well explained.
63
64 Plin. HN 11.186, shows that in earlier times he also enjoyed the honor of eponymity in sacral dating: L.
Postumio L. f. Albino rege sacrorum post CXXVI olympiadem, cum rex Pyrrhus ex Italia decessisset, cor in extis haruspices inspicere
coeperunt.
65 Admittedly this is not attested, yet it is evident and follows from the the fact that the pontifex maximus
announced its decisions pro pontificum collegio (Cic. Dom. 136; Har. resp. 21); e.g. Livy 34.44.2: cum P. Licinius pontifex (sc.
maximus) non esse recte factum collegio primum, deinde ex auctoritate collegii patribus renuntiasset.
Page 10 of 29
vacancy in the other priesthoods, the highest representative of the state-priesthood (the pontifex
maximus) "seized" the appropriate person to fill the place of the rex sacrorum,66 flamines,67 and
Vestales,68 forcibly compelling them even against their will,69 and effecting their admittance into the
college (for the rex and flamines through the act of inauguration; see above, p. 490). The pontifex
maximus was later limited to a list of possible candidates for rex sacrorum and flamines maiores drawn up
probably by the college,70 while on the basis of a lex Papia of uncertain date Vestals were appointed
by lot from a group of twenty maidens nominated by the pontifex maximus.71 These modifications
were meant to restrict the caprice of the chief pontiff, but they still reveal the original state of the
law.
Yet the pontifex maximus also has the power to discipline72 and punish this same circle of
priests:73 he can impose a multa on the [511] rex sacrorum and the flamines,74 and, if need be, force them
to step down from office.75
66 When Dion. Hal. (5.1.4) describes those who are to appoint () the rex sacrorum as pontifices
() and augures () he confuses captio and inauguratio.
67 Livy 27.8.7: C. Flaccus flamen (sc. Dialis) captus a P. Licinio pontifice maximo erat; see too Gell. NA 1.12.15f. (in
the fragment of Cato at Gell. NA 1.12.17, the application of the term capi to the pontifices is non-technical). Although
both passages deal with the flamen Dialis the same facts may without hesitation be assumed for all the flamines (even the
minores); cf. also Wissowa, RE 3.1509.
The capere of a Vestal is, in respect to the legal sources, described in detail by Gell. NA 1.12; it took place as a
"bringing home of the bride," as is indicated especially by the kidnapping of the bride (pontificis manu prensa ab eo parente, in
cuius potestate erat, veluti bello capta abducitur (Gell. NA 1.12.13) and the formula ita te, amata, capio (Gell. NA 1.12.14); cf.
Dragendorff, Rheinisches Museum fr Philologie 51 (1896) 299.
68
69
On the flamen Dialis see Livy 27.8.2; Gell. NA 1.12.5f., gives the grounds on which Vestals could be excused.
70 For the rex sacrorum see Livy 40.42.11, where the crucial word nominatus has been distorted into the senseless
inauguratus. For the flamen Dialis see Tac. Ann. 4.16: patricios confarreatis parentibus genitos tres simul nominari, ex quis unus
legeretur vetusto more.
71 Gell. NA 1.12.11: sed Papiam legem invenimus, qua cavetur ut pontificis maximi arbitratu virgines e populo viginti legantur
sortitioque in contione ex eo numero fiat, et cuius virginis ducta erit, ut eam pontifex maximus capiat eaque Vestae fiat (cf. Suet. Aug. 31;
Sen. Controv. 1.2.3; Cass. Dio 55.22.5; for exceptions see Gell. NA 1.12.12 and Tac. Ann. 2.86).
Hence he granted the flamen Dialis a brief absence from the city (Tac. Ann. 3.71) and relief from his tedious
ceremonial regulations (Gell. NA 10.15.17: sine apice sub divo esse licitum non est; sub tecto uti liceret non pridem a pontificibus
constitutum Masurius Sabinus scripsit).
72
73 There are no examples of a pontifex being fined by the pontifex maximus; this was probably legally as
impossible as the nomination of the one by the other.
74
In respect to the rex: Livy 40.42.9; in respect to the flamines maiores: Livy 37.51.4, Val. Max. 1.1.2, Cic. Phil.
11.18.
In the above-mentioned cases (p. 494 n. 5) where the flamines Diales are forced to abdicate their office due to
errors at sacrifice (flamonio abire iussi sunt coactique etiam, Val. Max. 1.1.5; , Plut. Marc. 5) it is not
75
Page 11 of 29
In respect to the Vestals his powers comprise the entire authorityin its oldest and fullest
extentthat a husband possessed over a wife and included the right to inflict corporal punishment
and, in the case of incestus, even the death penalty.76 That this right of execution was in historical
times exercised only after consultation with the college77 is, no doubt, an understandable, actual
curtailment.
While within the college the pontifex maximus thus exercises extensive powers, under certain
circumstances these powers go beyond this narrow circle and assume the character of magisterial
competence, which, admittedly, was strictly limited and in the practice of later time, solidified for the
most part into a mere form. Above all we have at least one example of the pontifex maximus applying
a fine to a priest outside of the college because he refuses to assist at an official pontifical function as
sacral law required.78
Furthermore, since the judgement of the people could be appealed to
(provocatio) against any multa the pontifex maximus imposed on a priest,79 the pontifex maximus had,
according to every analogy, the right to convoke and preside over the tribal comitia voting on these
cases of provocatio.80
But even other assemblies of the people are held pro collegio pontificum and presided over by a
member of the college. Thus a pontifex (in at least the 6th century of the city) presided over the comitia
of the seventeen tribes which elected the pontifex maximus.81 But the particularly pontifical comitia
were the comitia calata,82 which differ from the other assemblies of the people in [512] name only and
expressley mentioned who forces them to do so, but it could only have been the pontifex maximus.
76
77
Dion. Hal. 2.67.3; Plut. Num. 10; more above, p. 508 n. 9.

Livy 4.44.12, 8.15.8; Cic. Har. resp. 13; Asc. 45-46 C.; Plin. Ep. 4.11.6.
78 Festus 462-464 L. (according to Mommsen's restoration [Rm. Staatsr. 2.35n.1]): <Saturno> sacrificium fit
cap<ite aperto. itaque cum> Metellus pont. <max. Claudium augurem iussis>set adesse, ut eum <regis sacrorum (?) Sul>pici Ser. f.
inaug<urationi adhiberet, Claudius excu>saret se sacra sibi fam<iliaria esse Saturni, ob quae sibi sup>plicandum esset capite <aperto,
itaque si ad iussum ad>esset, futurum ut cum ap<erto capite inauguratio> facienda esset, pont<ifex eum multavit>, Claudius provocavit.
<populus negavit id ius pon>tifici esse et Claudius fa<miliaria quae oportebat> Saturno sacra fecit rel<igione confirmata>.
When in 189 B.C. the pontifex maximus P. Licinius forbade the praetor and flamen Quirinalis Q. Fabius Pictor to
go to his province, in senatu et ad populum magnis contentionibus certatum et imperia inhibita ultro citroque et pignera capta et multae
dictae et tribuni appellati et provocatum ad populum est. religio ad postremum vicit, ut dicto audiens esset flamen pontifici iussus, et multa
iussu populi ei remissa (Livy 37.51.4f.). The people gave the same decision in the cases of provocatio in 180 B.C. (Livy
40.42.9f.) and 131 B.C. (Cic. Phil. 11.18); for a decision of the people against the pontifex maximus see Festus 462-464 L.
(above, n. 78).
79
80
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 1.192; 2.57; the tribes are expressly named at Livy 40.42.10.
81 Livy 25.5.2 (212 B.C.) ascribes the conducting of the comitia sacerdotum to the consuls; see Mommsen, Rm.
Staatsr. 2.30.
82
Full evidence and more recent literature at Kbler, RE 3.1330-1334.

Page 12 of 29
which had multiple uses. In such comitia calata the rex sacrorum and the three major flamines are
inaugurated,83 on the Nones of each month are published the feriae statae sollemnes that are due on the
next Kalends,84 wills are drawn up,85 and finally the arrogatio is carried out, i.e., the crossing over of an
independent adult citizen into another family (gens) with the requisite ceremony of detestatio sacrorum,
i.e., the severing of one's current sacral bonds.86 In this last case the proposing and passing of the
resolution proceed according to form;87 in the remaining comitia calata (of which those held on the
Nones were, since the publication of the calendar, superfluous and discontinued)88 the assembly only
accepted information or functioned as a witness;89 in all cases the pontifex maximus summoned and
presided over the assembly.90
[513] But with these ended the range of those powers by which the pontifex maximus
83
15.27.1).
calata comitia esse, quae pro conlegio pontificum habentur aut regis aut flaminum inaugurandorum causa (Labeo at Gell. NA
84 Varro Ling. 6.28: eodem die (on the Nones) in urbem ab agris ad regem conveniebat populus. harum rerum vestigia in sacris
nonalibus in arce, quod tunc ferias publicas menstruas, quae futurae sint eo mense, rex edicit populo (cf. 6.13: rex cum ferias menstruas
nonis Februariis edicit, hunc diem februatum appellat). Macrob. Sat. 1.15.12: oportebat nonarum die populares qui in agris essent
confluere in urbem accepturos causas feriarum a rege sacrorum sciturosque quid esset eo mense faciendum. The fixing of a date for and
the summoning of this assembly occurred regularly on the Kalends (thus, rightly, Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2. 39f. n. 1) and
was known technically as calare (Varro Ling. 6.57; Fasti Praen. at 1 Jan.; Macrob. Sat. 1.15.9), hence comitia calata, even if
the expression is never directly applied to them.
Labeo at Gell. NA 15.27.3; Gai. Inst. 2.101 (cf. Ps.-Ulp. Reg. 20.2; Iust. Iust. 2.10.1): testamentorum autem genera
initio duo fuerunt; nam aut calatis comitiis testamenta faciebant, quae comitia bis in anno testamentis faciendis destinata erant, aut in pro
cinctu, etc. Mommsen (Chronologie, 241 f. (cf. Hirschfeld, Hermes 8 (1874) 470-477)) suspects that these testamentary comitia
took place on the two days designated with the note Q(uando) R(ex) C(omitiavit) F(as) (see above, p. 435 n. 5 and p. 436
n. 5); but then these comitia would fall during the time of nefas which is completely impossible.
85
86 Labeo at Gell. NA 15.27.3: isdem comitiis, quae calata appellari diximus, et sacrorum detestatio (see above, p. 401 n. 8)
et testamenta fieri solebant; for the adrogatio Gellius NA 5.19.6 cites: comitia arbitris pontificibus praebentur, quae curiata appellantur,
and Tac. Hist. 1.15 speaks of the adoption lege curiata apud pontifices, ut moris est (cf. also the lead tessera with the inscription
adoptio on its obverse and on its reverse, under a picture of three sitting pontifices, the inscription collegium [sc. pontificum],
Rostovzeff, Tesserarum sylloge no. 98); Mommsen now rightly emphasizes (Rm. Staatsr. 3.38f.) that these two acts belong
together and before the same comitia. If the procedure of confarreatio (which indeed affected the legal status of the
similarly changed sacra) like that of adrogatio (cf. above, p. 401), occurred admittedly in the presence of the pontifex
maximus (Serv. Geor. 1.31), but not before the comitia calata, the reason for this is surely the inability of the wife to appear
before comitia.
Gell. NA 5.19.9 preserves the formula of the rogation which begins with velitis iubeatis and concludes with
haec ita, uti dixi, ita vos Quirites rogo. Cf. Gai. Inst. 1.99: dicitur adrogatio, quia...populus rogatur an id fieri iubeat. Cic. Dom. 77.
87
88
Labeo (at Gell. NA 15.27) says no more than this.
Thus these do not fit into the strict division in civil law between comitia and contiones; probably because they
are older than this distinction.
89
90 This is shown by the behavior of the pontifex maximus Caesar in the matter of the adoption of P. Clodius
(Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.35.3); the pontifex maximus also presided over the assembly on the Nones, even if the rex
performed the announcement of the feriae.
Page 13 of 29
encroached upon the functions of a magistrate: he never possessed a magistrate's right of command
or coercitio over public officials or private citizens.91 Rather, the outstanding importance that the
collegium pontificum has for all public and private life rests on the fact that in its archives92 are kept the
copies of all those statutes and arrangements according to which all public intercourse with the gods
was carried out, and that the college's job task is to assist in the use of these statutes in individual
cases of private and public life by providing information, help, and its expert opinions. Thus the
pontifices keep the festive calendar, i.e., the document which concerned the allotmentwhich rested
on the old religious structureof the days of the year to the property of the gods and the property
of men (see p. 434). In the period before the official publication of the calendar, they had the
related task of each month informing the people of when the forthcoming feast days would occur
(above, p. 512 n. 3). In addition they inform the people of the beginning of the intercalary months,
which were also regulated by old statute in order to preserve the agreement, also necessary on
religious grounds, between the civil year and the natural change of the seasons (above, p. 437 n. 5).
The lex Acilia of 191 B.C. even entrusted the establishment of these periods entirely to the college.93
Furthermore, the indigitamenta rest in the college's care. These are 1) the forms of the
invocations and prayers which are necessary for communicating with the individual gods at various
festivals and occasions (above, p. 37), and which must be used correctly in order for the sacral act in
progress to be valid and 2) the formulae (carmina) which are required for the effective conclusion of
legal transactions in the sacral sphere (e.g. votum, dedicatio, devotio, etc.) and whose words the pontifex
maximus would recite, if necessary, to the presiding magistrate (see above, p. 394 n. 7).
In addition, in the archives of the pontifices were stored all the cult statutes and regulations of
sacrificeboth those that went back to the oldest religious structure 94 as well as the leges templorum
91 A pontifex maximus imposed a multa for a religious offence, but only a magistrate could exact payment of that
multa (see p. 511 nn. 1 and 5 and, for other multae of religious offences, above, p. 392 n. 7). This is the case in the grove
law from Spoleto (CIL 11.4766) in which the fixing of piaculum and multa for malicious damage of the grove reads: eius
piacli moltaique dicator[ei] exactio est[od] (observe that here the magistrate's power of exactio applies to both multa and
piaculum, though technically he could not enforce payment of the latter).
92 J.A. Ambrosch, Observationum de sacris Romanorum libris particula prima (Vratislaviae, 1840); P. Preibisch,
Quaestiones de libris pontificiis (diss., Vratislaviae, 1874); idem, Fragmenta librorum pontificiorum (Gymn. Progr. Tilsit, 1878); R.
Peter, Quaestionum pontificalium specimen (diss. Argentorati, 1886); Gu. Rowoldt, Librorum pontificiorum Romanorum de
caerimoniis sacrificiorum reliquiae (diss. Halis Saxon., 1906).
93
Macrob. Sat. 1.13.21; 1.14.1; Censorinus DN 20.6; Solin. 1.43; cf. Amm. Marc. 26.1.12; Mommsen, Chronologie
40ff.
94 Livy 1.20.6: eique [a pontiff] sacra omnia exscripta exsignataque attribuit [sc. Numa], quibus hostiis, quibus diebus, ad
quae templa sacra fierent atque unde in eos sumptus pecunia erogaretur. Cic. Leg. 2.29: iam illud ex institutis pontificum et haruspicum non
mutandum est, quibus hostiis immolandum quoique deo, cui maioribus cui lactentibus, cui maribus cui feminis.
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which had been added in the course of time and which governed how a divinity was to be
worshipped at its shrine (see above, pp. 473f.). Especially important in this regard were the
instructions [514] for the piaculawhich had to be paid in the event of an error (p. 394), and about
which they could, if asked, give instructions even to private citizens (p. 401)as well as the penalties
which, in view of strict religious offences, preclude any atonement, and instead pronounce the
perpetrator impius, and with the words "sacer esto" hand him over to the offended deity for
punishment. Some of these instructions and penalties, which were termed leges regiae and ascribed to
individual kings, were later collected under the name ius Papirianum and commented upon by the
jurists.95
But the powerful influence of the pontifical college does not come solely from its
safekeeping and communication of the documents of the ius sacrum, but rather more from its
activity as a creator of new law. This activity (which the college practiced for centuries by clarifying
and developing the old statutes) admittedly always took the form of an official "experts' report"
(decretum or responsum) at the requests of a magistrate or the senate,96 but because, on the one hand,
the sacral law commanded great respect yet was in its details known by and accessible to the pontifices
alone,97 any deviation from the instruction given in the "experts' report" was in reality out of the
question, while on the other hand, the traditional statutes were impossibly incapable of handling the
diversity of the cases and the complications which could and did arise in real life. For these reasons
the pontifices were given greater latitude for sensible adaptation and interpretation.98
To draft a decretum the entire college meetshowever for the purpose of unanimity the
presence of even three members suffices99and reaches a decision by a majority of votes, by which
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.41ff., cf. Hirschfeld, Sitzungsberichte (1903) 1-12. The fragments can be found in
Bruns, Fontes iuris Romani 1ff., and Bremer, Iurisprudentiae antehadrianae 1.132ff.
95
96 The appropriate expressions are consulere collegium pontificum, referre ad collegium pontificum, and adhibere collegium
pontificum (Cic. Dom. 130-132 and Livy, passim).
Livy 6.1.10: alia ex eis [that is, foedera et leges] edita etiam in vulgus; quae autem ad sacra pertinebant, a pontificibus
maxime, ut religione obstrictos haberent multitudinis animos, suppressa. Cic. Dom. 138: nihil me de scientia vestra, nihil de sacris, nihil de
abscondito iure pontificum dicturum (cf. 33 and 121).
97
Cic. Dom. 107: equidem sic accepi, pontifices, in religionibus suscipiendis caput esse interpretari, quae voluntas deorum
immortalium esse videatur (cf. Cic. Dom. 1: religionibus sapienter interpretandis rem publicam conservarent; and 4: quos ab inconstantia
gravitas, a libidinosa sententia certum et definitum ius religionum, vetustas exemplorum, auctoritas litterarum monumentorumque deterret).
98
99 Cic. Har. resp. 12: de sacris publicis, de ludis maximis, de deorum penatium Vestaeque matris caerimoniis, de illo ipso
sacrificio (to Bona Dea), quod fit pro salute populi Romani,...quod tres pontifices statuissent, id semper populo Romano, semper senatui
semper ipsis dis immortalibus satis sanctum, satis augustum, satis religiosum esse visum est.
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even the pontifex maximus can be outvoted.100 The subjects of the decreta are extraordinarily diverse.101
With prodigies the pontifices consider the sacral tradition and the individuality of each particular case
in order to determine the manner of purification and the gods to whom it should be offered.102 If a
sacral mistake occurs in the State's worship of the gods, [515] the pontifices indicate the piaculum
necessary to restore harmony.103 They determine whether an intended vow is permissible104 and
whether it has been performed correctly.105 They decide on the right of a person to perform a
dedication106 and the legitimacy of it.107 They determine whether a place belongs to the category of
loca sacra or loca religiosa108 and whether a day is a dies feriatus or profestus, as well as the legally
prescribed extent of the period of rest on feast days.109 And they manage their superintendence of
the sacra privata (p. 401) and iura deorum manium (p. 239) in such a way that by their decreta they
establish the general legal norms as well decide individual cases.110 Thus there arose an extensive and
100 In 200 B.C. the pontifex maximus raised some doubts in the Senate about the form of an intended votum (see
above, p. 398 n. 3), whereupon the consul, at the Senate's instruction, referred the question to the collegium pontificum which
ended up deciding against the pontifex maximus (Livy 31.9.7ff.).
101 Cic. Leg. 2.47: quid enim ad pontificem de iure parietum aut aquarum aut ullo omnino nisi eo, quod cum religione
coniunctum est?...de sacris, credo, de votis, de feriis et de sepulcris et si quid eiusmodi est.
According to Livy 1.20.7 Numa decided: ut pontifex edoceret, quae prodigia fulminibus aliove quo visu missa
susciperentur atque curarentur; the procuration took place ex decreto pontificum, Livy 24.44.9; 27.4.15; 37.4.7; 30.2.13; 34.45.8;
39.22.4; 40.37.2; 41.16.6 (the expression prodigia per pontifices procurari placuit at Livy 37.3.1 states only that the pontifices
declared the procuration, not that they themselves performed it; cf. Cic. Dom. 120: sidomum eius per pontificem dedicaverit).
102
Cic. Leg. 2.22.37. Thus the instauratio of the Feriae Latinae occurred pontificum decreto (Livy 32.1.9), and when
foreign temples were damaged by the Roman generals the pontifices gave their verdict about the expiation (Livy 29.20.10;
38.44.5), but the performance of the sacra piacularia that they ordered fell to the magistrates (Livy 29.21.4). During the
Empire the the pontifices themselves are for the first time charged with carrying out the piacular sacrifices, Tac. Ann. 12.8:
addidit Claudius sacra ex legibus Tulli regis piaculaque apud lucum Dianae per pontifices danda (cf. Philargyrius on Verg. G. 2.162:
nuntiatumsimulacrum Averni sudasse, propter apud pontifices ibi piacularia sacra fecerunt).
103
104
Livy 22.9.11; 22.10.1; 31.9.7f. (see above, p. 514 n. 6).
105
Livy 5.23.8f; 5.25.7; 33.44.2; 34.44.2; 39.5.9.
106
Cic. Dom. 136; Att. 4.2.3.
107
Livy 27.25.7.
108 Macrob. Sat. 3.3.1: inter decreta pontificum hoc maxime quaeritur, quid sacrum, quid sanctum, quid religiosum; cf. Cic.
Leg. 2.58; Cass. Dio 48.53.6. Similarly, Livy 26.34.12: signa, statuas aeneas, quae capta de hostibus dicerentur, quae eorum sacra ac
profana essent, ad pontificum collegium reiecerunt.
109 Macrob. Sat. 1.16.24 (Gell. NA 5.17.2); 1.16.28; cf. Serv. Georg. 1.272: sane quae feriae, a quo genere hominum vel
quibus diebus observentur vel quae festis diebus fieri permissa sint (cf. Macrob. Sat. 1.16.9ff. and above, p. 441 nn.7 and 8) si quis
scire desiderat, libros pontificales legat. Columella Rust. 2.21.2; 2.21.5; Macrob. Sat. 3.3.11; Gell. NA 4.6.10.
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comprehensive ius pontificium, which, considering the close connection of all aspects of Roman life to
the service of the gods, also comprised a great part of the public and private law,111 and from which
the civil law was emancipated slowly and only comparatively late.
Providing advice and technical expertise represents one side of pontifical activity; the other
is composed of the care of all routine worship of the gods of the sacra patria.112 In fact not only do
the flamines (each originally appointed as an individual priest for one god) take part in these ritual acts
of sacrifice, as well as the rex sacrorum and Vestales for the service of Janus and Vesta,113 but the
pontifices themselves do as well, [516] who, because of their office, wield the sacrificial knife as do the
flamines and Vestales.114 When the practice of appointing one specific priest of sacrifice for each
divine rite ended, the new duties which arose because of the enlargement of the pantheon naturally
fell to the existing members of the pontifical college. A few of these new duties the flamines took
over115 in addition to their original obligations,116 but the majority of the sacrifices devolved to the
110
Cic. Leg. 2.48 and 2.55; concerning the pontifical decrees on matters of the tomb law see above, p. 479.
The activity of the pontifices in the field of civil lawespecially their position in relation to the legis actiones
can here be investigated only as briefly as the fasti and the annales maximi, both of which were based on the pontiffs'
records.
111
Cic. Leg. 2.29 distinguishes between respondendi iuris and conficiendarum religionum facultas; the enumeration of
pontifical competencies at Livy 1.20.5-7 and Dion. Hal. 2.73.2 almost completely disregards the second of these.
112
113 The rex appears as the priest of Janus at the Agonium on January 9 (see above, p. 103) and together with the
regina sacrorum at the sacrifice of the Kalends (Macrob. Sat. 1.15.10; 1.15.19), as well as at the ceremony (which might as
well be unknown) of the Regifugium, and the days designated with the letters Q(uando) R(ex) C(omitiavit) F(as) (see above,
p. 436 n. 5), and at the sacra nonalia in arce (Varro Ling. 6.28, cf. above, p. 512 n. 3). To the "housewife" duties of the
Vestals (besides the service in the Temple and Atrium of Vesta, p. 158 ff.) belong the preparation and distribution of the
implements of expiation required for the Parilia (p. 200) and the parentatio on February 13 (see above, p. 233).
114 Festus 472 L. (completed according to Serv. Aen. 4.262): <s>ecespitam esse Antisti<us Labeo ait cultrum> ferreum
oblongum, mani<brio eburneo rotund>o solido, vincto ad ca<pulum argento auroque>, fixum clavis aeneis ae<re Cyprio, quo flamin>es
flaminicae virgi<nes pontificesque (cf. Suet. Tib. 25) ad sac>rificia utuntur, ea<que iam sacra est>; the sacrificial cup made of clay
(culullus) no doubt belonged to the entire college, even if it is only evidenced for the pontifices and Vestales (Porphyrio on
Hor. Carm. 1.31.11), and the same holds true for the sacrificial implements known from documents and coins as
pontifical insignia (cf. also above, p. 501), the aspergillum, the sacrificial axe (scena sive sacena dolabra pontificalis, Paul. Fest.
423 L.; cf. pontificum securim Hor. Carm. 3.23.12; Petersen, Ara Pacis Augustae 96 n. 1) and the scoop ladle (simpuvium, Paul.
Fest. 455 L.; Varro Ling. 5.124; on the form of the word see Brinkmann, Arch. f. lat. Lexikogr. 15 (1908) 139-143).
115 Thus the flamen Quirinalis oversees the feast of Robigalia (Ov. Fast. 4.910) and performs the sacrifice on the
Larentalia at the "tomb" of Larenta (Gell. NA 7.7.7; Plut. (Rom. 4) incorrectly writes ; Macrob. Sat.
1.10.15: per flamines; Cic. Ad Brut. 1.15.8: pontifices; Varro Ling. 6.23: sacerdotes nostri); he celebrates the Consualia on August
21 together with the Vestals (Tert. De spect. 5); in contrast it is striking that we find the flamen Portunalis active in the
service of Quirinus (Festus 238 L.: persillum vocant sacerdotes rudusculum picatum, ex quo unguine flamen Portunalis arma Quirini
unguet).
116 The flamen Dialis serves as priest of Jupiter at the feast on the Ides (a flamine, Macrob. Sat. 1.15.16; Iovis
sacerdos, Ov. Fast. 1.587; see above, p. 117) and at the Vinalia (above, p. 115), as well as at the ceremony of confarreatio
(above, p. 118); likewise the flaminica sacrifices on every Nundinae in the Regia a ram to Jupiter (Macrob. Sat. 1.16.30; that
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pontifices, and the gradual increase in their numbers corresponds to the increase in their sacral
dealings.117
What the tradition reports about the pontiffs' participation in the regular acts of sacrifice is
extremely paltry and depends entirely on chance occurences.118 In general, for the great majority of
the sacrifices on the ancient feriae and for all the sacrificia publica on the natales templorum it has not
been transmitted who performed the sacrifice, but considering the nature of the action (in so far as it
does not pertain to the religious service of the graecus ritus, which brought [517] its own priests and
priestesses with it), all other priests are out of the question except for the pontifices119 themselves as
the sacerdotes publici par excellence (see above, p. 404 n. 6). Likewise the undertaking of other
ceremonies that had to be performed in the same way again and again on recurring occassions (like
the burial of lightning,120 which was accompanied by fixed sacrifices121) fell to them.
Often we encounter an act shared by two priests of the college, most frequently the pontifex
maximus and a Vestal,122 but other groupings also occur. Thus we find the pontifex maximus united
she was a priestess of Juno is only a hypothesis of Plut. Quaest. Rom. 86). The flamen Martialis officiates at the sacrifice of
the October Horse (above, p. 145).
117 Hence at Livy 10.7.10 it is stated as a pontifex's duty: capite velato victimam caedere; cf. Dig. 2.4.2: in ius vocari non
oportetpontificem dum sacra facit.
Pontifices are attested at the Carmentalia (sacrum pontificale, Ov. Fast. 1.462), Fordicidia (Ov. Fast. 4.630; Lydus
Mens. 4.72: ), Carnaria (Ov. Fast. 6.106), a sacrifice to Consus on July 7 (Tert. De spect. 5), the Vitulatio on July 8
(Macrob. Sat. 3.2.11 and 14), and the Angeronalia (Macrob. Sat. 1.10.7); completely obscure are the meanings of the
sacrifice of the caviares hostiae (Paul. Fest. 50 L.) which occurred pro collegio pontificum quinto quoque anno, and the sacrifice
mentioned but once, in 38 B.C.that the pontifices performed in the casa Romuli (Cass. Dio 48.43.4).
118
119 That the di novensides of Italian origin were also assigned to the pontifical administrative circle can be
deduced from the fact that the pontifices also cared for the sacra municipalia (above, p. 44).
The correctness of Livy's statement (1.20.7) that Numa had decreed ut pontifex edoceret, quae prodigia fulminibus
aliove quo visu missa susciperentur atque curarentur, is even confirmed by the late inscription CIL 11.4172: Iovi Fulmini Fulguri
Tonanti Rustius L. f. Aepio pont(ifex) ex s(enatus) c(onsulto) dedicavit; the ancient Roman origin of the burial of lightning is also
proven by the distinction between fulgur Dium and fulgur Summanum in the inscription on the lightning tombs (see above,
p. 122) and the close relationship of the sacerdotes bidentales to Semo Sancus Dius Fidius (above, p. 131).
120
Onions, hair, and anchovies were offerred (Ov. Fast. 3.339; Arn. Adv. nat. 5.1; Plut. Num. 15); the report of a
sacrifice of a sheep (= bidens, Paul. Fest. 30 L.; Nigidius at Non. 53, 23 (p. 92 in Swoboda); Scholia to Persius, 2.26f.;
Fronto, de Differentiis (Gramm. Lat. 7 Keil) 523.4, but see Porphyrio on Hor. Ars P. 471) rests no doubt only on the false
interpretation of the name bidental, which rather refers to the two-pronged thunderbolt (Usener, Rheinisches Museum 60,
(1905) 22-23; Thulin, Die etruskische Disciplin 1.96-98).
121
As a pontifex and a Vestal are the only ones allowed to enter the temple of Vesta (above, p. 159), so they
alone have access to the sacrarium Opis Consivae in the Regia (Varro Ling. 6.21); which sacrifice Horace describes at Carm.
3.30.8: dum Capitolium scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex, must remain undecided (cf. Santinelli, Rivista di filologia e di istruzione
classica 30 (1902) 263ff.); the connection to the sacra Idulia, accepted by most scholars, is impossible, since this sacrifice is
performed not by a pontifex, but by the flamen Dialis (above, p. 516 n. 2). Likewise at the pontifices-led (Varro at Non. 547;
Serv. Aen. 3.175) prayer procession of the Aquaelicium (above, p. 121) the Vestals will also have taken part, as matronae.
122
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with the flamen Dialis at the ceremony of confarreatio (Servius on Georg. 1.31), with the flamen Martialis
at the sacrifice of the October Horse (Cass. Dio 48.24.4), the flamen Quirinalis with a Vestal at the
Consualia of August 21 (Tert. De spect. 5). Even between the rex sacrorum and the Vestals there existed
an official relationship (see above, p. 157 n. 2); and the three greater flamines acted together at the
sacrifice to Fides (Livy 1.21.4). The participation of the pontifices at sacral acts undertaken by other
priests is repeatedly attested; indeed probably the entire college participates not only in those of
ancient Roman priests such as the Salii123 and Luperci,124 but later even at those of the graecus [518]
ritus, such as the procession of the Argei;125 and the nocturnal celebration of the Bona Dea is
celebrated by the Vestals together with the wife of a magistrate (see above, p. 217 n. 5). We find the
college joined with magistrates at the sacrifice which the consuls performed each year soon after
entering office to Vesta and the Penates in Lanuvium to celebrate the sacra principia populi Romani
Quiritium nominisque Latini, quae apud Laurentis coluntur (CIL 10.797);126 in the Empire the feast of
votorum nuncupatio was celebrated by all magistrates and priesthoods.127
Because of the increase in its sacral duties, the pontifical college had very heavy demands
placed on it, but was given some relief from these in 196 B.C. by the branching off of a priesthood
containing first one, then three, later seven, and at last ten members128 instituted for the performance
In the Augustan Era the pontifices and Vestals celebrated the sacrificia anniversaria in remembrance of the establishment of
the Ara Fortunae Reducis and the Ara Pacis Augustae (January 30), Mon. Anc. or Res Gestae 2.30.40.
Thus at the celebration of the Armilustrium (March 19) the pontifices are joined by the Salii and Tribuni celerum
(Fast. Praen., see above, p. 450 n. 3), and the Saliae virgines participate in the act of sacrifice of the pontifices in the Regia
(Festus 439 L.); the Salii (without the rex sacrorum) take part in the cultic act of those days designated by Q(uando) R(ex)
C(omitiavit) F(as); that is the only thing that the mutilated passage of Festus 346 L. allows us to understand clearly.
123
Before the Lupercalia there occurs within the college a distribution of the februa by the rex and the flamines
(Ov. Fast. 2.21f.: pontifices ab rege petunt et flamine lanas, quis veterum lingua februa nomen erat; cf. verses 27f.: ipse ego flaminicam
poscentem februa vidi / februa poscenti pinea virga datast), the Vestals prepared the mola salsa (Serv. Ecl. 8.82), and at the
celebration of the Lupercalia itself the flamen Dialis participates in someway (Ov. Fast. 2.282).
124
pontifices and Vestales are mentioned by Dion. Hal. 1.38.3 (a sacerdotibus, Varro Ling. 7.44), the Vestales alone by
Paul. Fest. 14 L., Ov. Fast. 5.621; the flaminica by Plut. Quaest. Rom. 86 (cf. Gell. NA 10.15.30 and above, p. 444 n. 8).
125
126 Sch. Veron. ad Aen. 1.239: Aeneae Indigeti templum dicavit, ad quod pontifices quot annis cum consulibus [ire solent
sacrificaturi]. Serv. Aen. 8.664: (flamines) cum sacrificarent apud Laurolavinium.
, Cass. Dio 59.3.4 (cf. 51.19.7: ). Tac. Ann. 4.17;

see above, p. 448 n. 6. The priests of the four great colleges are named together at the feast that the Fast. Praen. notes at
January 17: pontifices a[ugures XViri s(acris) f(aciundis) VII] vir(i) epulonum victumas imm[ol]ant n[umini Augusti ad aram q]uam
dedicavit Ti. Caesar. Cf. Mon. Anc. or Res Gestae 2.15-17; Cass. Dio 53.1.5, 58.12.5; Tac. Ann. 3.64.
127
Lists of the known epulones of the Republic at Bardt, Die Priester der vier groen Collegien, 31f. and Klose, Rm.
Priesterfasten I, 1ff.; for the Empire at Howe, Fasti Sacerdotum, 39ff.
128
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of the ludorum epulare sacrificium129 of the ludi Romani and ludi Plebei. By doing this the epulum of the
latter was promoted (probably at that time) to a permanent feast, and both epula (probably from then
onward) were celebrated with the pomp of the Greek lectisternia (see above, p. 423). When these
IIIviri or VIIvirithis last name they kept even after their number was increasedepulones developed
out of the pontifices, they were treated equally with the three great priesthoods of pontifices, augures, and
quindecimviri according to rank, honorary rights, and their manner of appointment (see above, pp.
483f.), but although they formed one individual collegium, legally they always maintained a certain
dependence on the pontifical college.130
More considerable was the easement in their activity that the pontifices effected in another
way. For the great extent of the scope of their operations they, more than the other priesthoods,
must have relied at all times on the assistance of attendants and [519] subordinates,131 and we will
have to assume that a great part of the ritual acts of sacrifice, especially the sacrifices on the natales
templorum, were conducted by subordinates in the name and on the instructions of the pontifices, as is
known also from elsewhere.132 The calatores pontificum et flaminum appear to have played the main role
in this. They were originally caretakers or porters attached to individual priests (above, p. 497), but
later formed a unified corporation.133 They had an official office by the Regia (above, p. 502 n. 7)
and exercised certain powers vis--vis any member of the general public who performed a sacrifice
or consecration/dedication.134 The office of pontifices minores, which later existed side by side with the
Cic. De or. 3.73: pontifices veteres propter sacrificiorum multitudinem tresviros epulones esse voluerunt, cum essent ipsi a
Numa, ut etiam illud ludorum epulare sacrificium facerent, instituti (cf. Paul. Fest. 68 L.). Livy 33.42.1 relates the year of their
introduction by tribunician law. For the increase from seven to ten members by Caesar, see Cass. Dio 43.51.9.
129
130 Any violations that occurred within their official administrative circle they submitted to the pontifices for
decision (Cic. Har. resp. 21: pontifices, ad quos epulones Iovis O. M., si quid est praetermissum aut commissum, afferunt); also, they are
represented in their duties by the pontifices (Cass. Dio 48.32.4).
131 Aside from the common priestly apparitores and slaves (see on this, 496f.) we find specifically with the
pontifices the fictores pontificum (Varro Ling. 7.44; Cic. Dom. 139; CIL 5.3352; 6.786, 1074, 10247, 2125 = 14.2413; also the
fictores v(irginum) V(estalium): CIL 6.2134, 2136, 32413, 32418f., 32423), strufertarii (Paul. Fest. 75 L. cf. 377 L. and on the
strues and fertum above, p. 412 n. 4), praeciae (specifically with the flamines maiores, Festus 292 L., where with Madvig praeciae
viatores is to be read instead of praeciamitatores; Paul. Fest. 250 L.; in the same function Macrob. Sat. 1.16.9 mentions
praeconem, Serv. G. 1.268 calatores), and the sacerdos virginum Vestalium (freedman, CIL 6.2150, see above, p. 483).
132 The magister of the Arval Brethren has the piacular sacrifice in the grove performed per calatorem et publicos in
the great majority of cases, Henzen, Acta 132f., 139.
133 Lists of the kalatores pontificum et flaminum with 36 or 27 names (freedmen) from the time of Trajan (A.D. 101
and 102) CIL 6.31034, 32445 (see Bildt, Mitteilungen des deutschen Archologischen Instituts, rmische Abteilung 16 (1901) 10-12;
von Domaszewski, Abhandlungen 183ff., see above, 501 n. 2); cf., moreover, NSc (1899) 128, 431 (Hlsen, Klio 2 (1902)
241-242, 279); an individual kalator pontif(icum), CIL 10.1726.
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kalatores, also appears to have developed out of them.135 The pontifices minores were orriginally
servants to, but became colleagues of, the pontifices.136 They were three in number and existed in a
fixed, ranked relationship to one another; at least at the end of the Republic they took part in the
meetings and deliberations of the entire pontifical college,137 and in the Empire the office of pontifex
minor publicorum p. r. sacrorum (CIL 11.1421, cf. 10.3901) is one of the most distinguished equestrian
priestly offices.138
Not belonging to the pontifical college, but under its command were a series of priesthoods
charged with caring for the sacra of the ancient Latin communities, some of which were extinct and
others incorporated into the Roman state.139 In general the communities of half-citizens [520]
retained their old forms of worship after losing their independence and from then on continued
practicing them as Roman ones under the supervision of the pontifices, while the gods of a destroyed
city were brought to Rome by evocatio and were enrolled there among the state-gods (above, p. 44);
but the former close sacral relationship that Rome had with its nearest neighboring Latin states led
to a special legal status for those states' sacra.
The ancient connection with Lavinium, the (Dion. Hal.
5.12.3; cf. 8.49.6), which had ceased to exist as a political community in 338 B.C., and whose sacra
had since then passed on to neighboring Laurentum,140 found its expression not only in the statesacrifice performed each year in Lavinium by the consuls (in cooperation with the state-priests) soon
134
permissu kalator(um) pon[tif(icum)] et flaminum, cui immunitas data est ab eis sacrum faciend[i], CIL 6.712, 2186, cf.
2185.
135 Indeed Livy 22.57.3 says, scriba pontificis, quos nunc minores pontifices appellant (copied at SHA Opil. Macr. 7.2); but
that the pontifex minor was originally a kalator is evident from the fact that his main duty was calare on the Kalends (Macrob.
Sat. 1.15.9f.; cf. 1.15.19; Fast. Praen. at Jan. 1); the Tusculan monitor sacrorum perhaps performed a similar function (CIL
14.2603, cf. 2580).
136 Festus 160 L.: in commentario sacrorum usurpatur hoc modo: "pontifex minor ex stramentis napuras nectito," id est
funiculos facito, quibus sues adnectantur.
Festus 152 L.: minorum pontificum maximus dicitur, qui primus in id collegium venit, item minimus, qui novissimus. The
three pontifices minores took part in the deliberation on Cicero's house, they come at the end of the list (Cic. Har. resp. 12)
of participants, and they are listed among the guests at the inaugural feast of the flamen Martialis (Macrob. Sat. 3.13.11) in
the exact same position (after the participating members of the pontifical college and before the augurs, who were also
invited), and there even without emphasis on their character as (pontifices) minores.
137
138
Habel, De pontificum Romanorum 93ff.
139
Wilmanns, De sacerdotiorum (Berlin 1868); Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 3.579f.
Lanciani, Monum. Antichi dei Lincei 13 (1903) 133ff. Of importance is the inscription from Laurentum at Eph.
Epigr. 9.571: sacrm...Romano mo[re......] e iure Quiritium.
140
Page 21 of 29
after entering office,141 and in the likewise yearly renewal of the alliance with Laurentum,142 which
was formally celebrated ten days after the feriae Latinae, but also in the fact that the entire priesthood
of the joint sacral community of Laurentum-Lavinium (which was organized in the manner of the
Roman priesthood)143 was incorporated into the Roman sacerdotia.144
An entirely similar Roman state priesthood existed for the sacra of Alba Longa,145 destroyed
at an early date, which were as joined with those of Bovillae, as those of Lavinium were with those
of Laurentum;146 a third existed for those of Caenina,147 likewise annihilated at a very early date.
Finally, there are the sacerdotes Cabenses148 and sacerdotes [521] Suciniani,149 priests who preserve in their
name a reminder of two long extinct Latin states, and who are charged with caring for the sacral
obligations of those states, especially at the Latin league festival.150
141 Macrob. Sat. 3.4.11; Serv. Aen. 2.296 and 3.12 (on the participation of the pontifices and flamines, see above, p.
518); examples at Val. Max. 1.6.7; Asc. 21 C.; cf. above, p. 164.
Livy 8.11.15: cum Laurentibus renovari foedus iussum, renovaturque ex eo quotannis post diem decimum Latinarum;
accordingly the pater patratus populi Laurentis foederis ex libris Sibullinis percutiendi cum p(opulo) R(omano), CIL 10.797.
143 Demonstrable are the titles of pontifex (CIL 6.1531, 1635 = 11.3940; 8.9368; 12.408; 14.171, 354), flamen (CIL
3.1198; flamen lucularis 11.5215), augur (Eph. Epigr. 9.593), salius (CIL 14.390f.; Cagnat, AE 1896, 86), under Claudius there
is even one man who alone is sacrorum principiorum p(opuli) R(omani) Quirit(ium) nominisque Latini, quai apud Laurentis coluntur,
flam(en) Dialis, flam(en) Martial(is), salius praesul, augur, pontifex (CIL 10.797; cf. 14.4176).
142
144 The name is sacerdos Laurens Lavinas (CIL 9.4686, NSc (1888) 408), sacerdos Laurentium Lavinatium (CIL 3.1180,
6270, 7795; 5.6357; 6.2176; 8.1439, 7978; 9.4686. Cagnat-Besnier, AE 1909, 176; , Ramsay, Bulletin de
correspondance hellnique 7 (1883) 275), Laurentino sacerdotio ornatus (CIL 11.5635), sacerdoti aput Laurentes Lavinates (ILS 2748),
often even simply Laurens Lavinas (or Lavinatium); cf. Bruzza, Iscrizioni Vercellesi (Rome 1874) 68ff.; Dessau, CIL 14 p.
187f.; Mommsen, Mitteilungen des deutschen Archologischen Instituts, rmische Abteilung 3 (1888) 78-79; Howe, Fasti sacerdotum
72f.
145 Attested are pontifex (CIL 6.2161, 2168; 9.1595; 14.2264 = 6.1460), salius (CIL 6.2170f.; 14.2947), virgo
Vestalis (CIL 6.2172; 14.2410; Asc. 40 C.; Symm. Epist. 9.147f., cf. Juv. 4.61; Livy 1.20.3) and probably a rex sacrorum (CIL
6.2125 = 14.2413: L. Manlio L. f. Pal(atina) Severo regi sacrorum, fictori pontificum p. R., IIII viro Bovillensium; at Rome it was
impossible for a man to be both rex sacrorum and fictor of the pontifices; accordingly the office evidently belongs to the sacra
Albana that had been transferred to Bovillae).
146
Dessau, CIL 14 p. 231.
Sacerdos Caeninensium (CIL 11.2699) or Caeninensis (also Caeniniensis), CIL 5.4059, 5128; 6.1598; 9.4885f.;
10.3704; 11.2699, 3103; 12.671; a (IG 3.623.7= 624.4), cf. Marquardt, Eph.
Epigr. 1 p. 203.
147
Sacerdotes Cabenses feriarum Latinarum montis Albani CIL 6.2021=2173=14.2228; sacerdotes Cabenses montis Albani,
CIL 6.2174f. on the location (Plin. HN 3.64; Dion. Hal. 5.61.3), see Mommsen, Bulletino dell' instituto (1861) 205ff., and
Gesammelte Schriften 5.77; G. B. de Rossi, Annali dell' Instituto (1873) 168ff.
148
149
CIL 6.2178-2180; IG 14.1082.
150
Indicated by the full name of the sacerdotes Cabenses, see above, p. 520 n. 9.
Page 22 of 29
The status of the Roman sacerdotes Lanuvini151 and sacerdotes Tusculani152 is rather different,
insofar as they are cults of states that still exist as political and sacral communities. The sacra of
these communities are doubly cared for,153 on one side by the municipal priests, on the other by the
Roman priests. Our knowledge of these Roman priests of the cults of Latin cities (of which there
were perhaps even more)154 comes exclusively from inscriptions from the Empire; thus it is
completely unknown in what way this branch of the sacral constitution was cared for during the
Republic. The organization that we do know something aboutin which all these priesthoods
number among the sacerdotia equestria155 and belong to the pontifical college156goes back, in any
case, to the reorganization of the sacral and priestly system under Augustus.
The flamines Divorum were probably affiliated with the pontifical college in a different way.
Each Divus received one of these individual priests, a practice which persisted well into the 3 rd
century A.D. (see above, p. 347). Consequently the number of flamines was constantly increasing,157
151 CIL 9.4206-4208, 4399 (throughout here this term occurs along with pontifex); 10.4590; 11.3014; 5.6992,
7814; the flamen maximus in Lanuvium (CIL 14.2092; cf. Cic. Mil. 27 and 46; Asc. 31 C.) certainly belongs to the
municipal cults as much as the rex sacrorum and flamen Dialis (CIL 14.2689).
152 Sacerdos Tusculanus, CIL 5.27; 9.2565: (sacer(dos) Tuscul(anus) fanitalis); sodalis sacrorum Tusculanorum, CIL 5.5036;
praesul sacerdoti Tusculanorum, CIL 6.2177 (a six year old girl!); on the other hand the following Tusculan offices are
municipal ones: augur (CIL 14.2580, 2628), rexs sacrorum (CIL 14.2634), monitor sacrorum (CIL 14.2603, cf. 2580), among
others.
153 Livy 8.14.2: Lanuvinis civitas data sacraque sua reddita cum eo, ut aedes lucusque Sospitae Iunonis communis Lanuvinis
municipibus cum populo Romano esset (when Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 3.579.4, explains this away by saying "that the sacra all
transferred to the Roman citizenry, but the pontifical college chose the priests for the sacra from the cives Romani
Lanuvini," his interpretation appears to me incompatible with the phrasing of the passage; here probably occurred the
yearly consular sacrifice mentioned by Cic. Mur. 90; on the Roman state cult of Juno Lanuvina, see above, p. 188).
154 Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 3.580 n. 5, ranks here the flamen Virbialis (CIL 10.1493), hardly reasonably since in
the inscription this office stands right beside the certainly municipal one of augur and aedilis Augustalis (from Naples).
155
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 3.567f.; highest in rank was the sacerdotium Caeninense, see Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr.
568 n. 7.
156 This is shown both by the obvious completion of the inscription CIL 11.3103: Caeniniensis a po[ntificibus
factus], as well as by the occasional designation of the Alban pontifex as pontifex Albanus minor (CIL 9.1595), which is
meant in contrast to the Roman pontifices, as Juv. 4.61 shows: Vestam colit Alba minorem. In keeping with this, all these
priests are appointed by the emperor as pontifex maximus (see above, p. 489 n. 3).
157 Such flamines are attested for Caesar (Cass. Dio 44.6.4; Suet. Iul. 76; Cic. Phil. 2.110; 13.41 and 47; Plut. Ant.
13; flamen Iulianus, CIL 5.1812, [flamen] Iulialis in the inscription Cagnat-Besnier, AE 1907, 18, according to the expansion
of Cagnat, comptes rend. de l'acad. d. inscript. (1906) 476, [ ], IG 3.612), Augustus (flamen Augustalis,
(frequently), e.g. CIL 2.1517, 2198; 3.2808; 5.3223 (cum additamentis at CIL 52 p. 1074), 6.909, 913, 921; 10.798; 11.3098,
3336; 12.147; 13.1036, cf. IG 3.612), Claudius (flamen Claudialis, CIL 9.1123; 10.6566), Nerva (Plin. Pan. 11), Trajan
(flamen Ulpialis, CIL 6.1383), Hadrian (SHA Hadr. 27.3), Antoninus Pius (SHA Ant. Pius 13.4; M. Ant. Phil. 7.11), L.
Verus (SHA M. Ant. Phil. 15.4), M. Aurelius (SHA M. Ant. Phil. 18.8), Commodus (SHA Comm. 17.11; flamen
Commodianus, CIL 6.1577), Pertinax (SHA Pert. 15.4; Sev. 7.8), and Septimius Severus (flamen Divi Severi, CIL 5.7783); on
the flaminicae of individual Divae see above, p. 344 n. 5.
Page 23 of 29
and although they did not form a [522] collegium, they must have been joined to one of the great
priesthoods. That it was the pontifical college158 follows from the fact that the organization of the
flamines Divorum was completely modeled after the three flamines maiores:159 as these were each lifelong
priesthoods, they were nominated probably by the emperor as pontifex maximus, they had to be
patrician (see above, p. 492 n. 1), and were inaugurated (see above, p. 490 n. 3). But for all that
their relationship to the pontifices was looser than that of the flamines of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, as
is shown by the fact that it was possible to hold the offices of pontifex and flamen of the emperor
simultaneously.160
Elevated by the high rank of its holders161 and by the office of Princeps, the pontificate
remained even throughout the entire Imperial Period not only by far the most distinguished and
most significant priesthood at Rome, but also was a vital element of the imperial administration,
performing in its supervision of the entire sacral apparatus and especially in its policing of tombs
(above, p. 479), a considerably more extensive and more deeply involved function than it had
before.162
When Aurelian usurped the venerable name of pontifex for the priests of his sun god (above,
pp. 367f.), the representatives of the old priesthood proudly named themselves pontifices maiores in
contrast to these new pontifices Solis, a designation which persisted until the end of antiquity next to
the more modest pontifices Vestae or combined with it in the title pontifices maiores Vestae.163
The offices of the rex sacrorum and flamines we cannot follow beyond the middle of the 3rd
The hypothesis of Borghesi, Oeuvres 3.402 and 5.202, that they may have been members of a corresponding
guild of Sodales Divorum, has been refuted by Dessau, Eph. Epigr. 3.221f.
158
159 Of the flamen Julianus Cass. Dio 44.6.4 says: ; cf. Cic. Phil. 2.110: est ergo flamen, ut Iovi, ut
Marti, ut Quirino, sic Divo Iulio M. Antonius; for that reason also the statute of the provincial flamen of Narbonensis (CIL
12.6038) copied that of the flamen Dialis (above, p. 506 n. 8), and the stately flamines Divorum were not called flamen Divi
Iulii, flamen Divi Augusti (this designation was born by the provincial and municipal priests of the emperor), but flamen
Iulianus, Augustalis, Claudialis, etc., as flamen Dialis Martialis Quirinalis (above, p. 521 n. 9, the first exception is the flamen
Divi Severi).
Pontifex and flamen Augustalis, CIL 5.3223 (cum additamentis at CIL 52 p. 1074), pontifex and flamen Divi Severi,
CIL 5.7783, only pontifex and flamen (at any event of a Divus, see above, p. 493 n. 1), CIL 14.4242, just as rex sacrorum and
flamen, CIL 9.2847.
160
161 Complete list of the known pontifices maximi and pontifices from the Republic at Bardt, Priester der vier groen
Collegien, 2-17; for the period from Augustus to Aurelian see Habel, De pontificum Romanorum 3ff., the reges sacrorum,
flamines, Vestales, and pontifices minores of the Republic at Klose, Rmische Priesterfasten I, 8ff., all of the members of the
entire college from Augustus on at Howe, Fasti sacerdotum, 18ff., 51f., 69f., 72ff.
162
Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.70.
163
The evidence can be found at Habel, De pontificum Romanorum, 99 n. 8.

Page 24 of 29
century A.D., as is the case for by far the majority of Roman priesthoods. But the pontifices and the
Vestales Virgines survived even Gratian's refusal of the title of pontifex maximus and became extinct
only [523] when in the last decade of the 4th century A.D. the pagan state cult perished in Rome as
well (see above, p. 99).
Literature: J. A. AMBROSCH, Quaestionum pontificalium prooemium und caput I, II, III. (Univ.-Prog. von Breslau 18471851). A. BOUCH-LECLERCQ, Les Pontifes de l'ancienne Rome (Paris 1871). C. SCHWEDE, De pontificum collegii
pontificisque maximi in republica potestate (Diss. Lipsiae 1875). MOMMSEN, Rmisches Staatsrecht 2.17ff. MARQUARDT,
Rmische Staatsverwaltung 3.235ff. MADVIG, Verfassung und Verwaltung des rmischen Staates 2.612ff. H. JORDAN, Der
Tempel der Vesta und das Haus der Vestalinnen (Berlin 1886). P. HABEL, De pontificum Romanorum inde ab Augusto usque ad
Aurelianum condicione publica (Breslauer philol. Abhandl. 3.1) (Vratislaviaae 1888). On the Flamines, E. SAMTER in RE
6.2484ff. and E. ESPRANDIEU in RUGGIERO, Dizionario epigrafico di Antichit romane 3.139-150.
Page 25 of 29
ABBREVIATIONS
AE
L'Anne pigraphique (Paris, 1888-).
CIL
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863-).
Eph. Epigr. =
Ephemeris Epigraphica, Corporis Inscriptionum Latinarum Supplementum (Rome and Berlin, 1872-1913).
IG
Inscriptiones Graecae (1873-).
ILS
H. Dessau (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae. (Berlin, 1892-1916).
NSc
Notizie degli Scavi di antichit (1876-).
RE
A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll (edd.), Real-Encyclopdie der klassichen Altertumswissenschaft.

(Stuttgart, 1893-).
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Translation of Georg Wissowa Religion und Kultus der Rmer. 2nd ed. (Munich, 1912).

67. The Pontifical College [pgs. 501-523]

Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.21.

Republic and in the Empire.28

Livy Per. 59, cf. Oros. 5.10.1.

Val. Max. 1.1.4f.; Livy 26.23.8; Plut. Marc. 5.

Gai. Inst. 1.145; Plut. Num. 10.

On this: Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 56.

Plut. Num. 13; more at Jordan, Tempel der Vesta 60f.

Furthermore, since the judgement of the people could be appealed to

Dion. Hal. 2.67.3; Plut. Num. 10; more above, p. 508 n. 9.

Full evidence and more recent literature at Kbler, RE 3.1330-1334.

Labeo (at Gell. NA 15.27) says no more than this.

Livy 22.9.11; 22.10.1; 31.9.7f. (see above, p. 514 n. 6).

Livy 5.23.8f; 5.25.7; 33.44.2; 34.44.2; 39.5.9.

Cic. Dom. 136; Att. 4.2.3.

, Cass. Dio 59.3.4 (cf. 51.19.7: ). Tac. Ann. 4.17;

Habel, De pontificum Romanorum 93ff.

Wilmanns, De sacerdotiorum (Berlin 1868); Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 3.579f.

Dessau, CIL 14 p. 231.

CIL 6.2178-2180; IG 14.1082.

Mommsen, Rm. Staatsr. 2.70.

The evidence can be found at Habel, De pontificum Romanorum, 99 n. 8.

L'Anne pigraphique (Paris, 1888-).

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863-).

Inscriptiones Graecae (1873-).

H. Dessau (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae. (Berlin, 1892-1916).

Notizie degli Scavi di antichit (1876-).

A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll (edd.), Real-Encyclopdie der klassichen Altertumswissenschaft.

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