1.
Collegium (ancient Rome)
–
A collegium was any association in ancient Rome with a legal personality. The organization of a collegium was often modeled on that of governing bodies. The meeting hall was known as the curia, the same term as that applied to that of the Roman Senate. By law, only three people were required in order to create a legal collegium, the exception was the college of consuls. There were four religious colleges of Roman priests, in descending order of importance, Pontifices, headed by the Pontifex Maximus, Augures, Quindecimviri. College of Aesculapius and Hygia List of Ancient Roman Collegia Media related to Ancient Roman collegia at Wikimedia Commons
Collegium (ancient Rome)
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Inscription (
CIL 14.374) from
Ostia Antica commemorating a Marcus Licinius Privatus, who was magister of a college of carpenters
2.
College of Pontiffs
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The College of Pontiffs was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the state religion. The college consisted of the Pontifex Maximus and the pontifices, the Rex Sacrorum, the fifteen flamens. The College of Pontiffs was one of the four major priestly colleges, the others being of the augurs, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and the Epulones. The title pontifex comes from the Latin for bridge builder, an allusion to a very early role in placating the gods and spirits associated with the Tiber River. Also, Varro cites this position as meaning able to do, the pontifex maximus was the most important member of the college. Until 104 BC, the pontifex maximus held the power in appointing members to the other priesthoods in the college. The flamens were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of Roman religion, the three major flamens were the Flamen Dialis, the high priest of Jupiter, the Flamen Martialis, who cultivated Mars, and the Flamen Quirinalis, devoted to Quirinus. The deities cultivated by the flamines minores were Carmenta, Ceres, Falacer, Flora, Furrina, Palatua, Pomona, Portunes, Volcanus, Volturnus. The Vestal Virgins were the female members of the college. They were in charge of guarding Romes sacred hearth, keeping the flame burning inside the Temple of Vesta, around age 6 to 10, girls were chosen for this position and were obligated to perform the rites and obligations, including remaining chaste, for 30 years. Membership in the colleges of priests, including the College of Pontiffs, was usually an honor offered to members of politically powerful or wealthy families. Membership was for life, except for the Vestal Virgins whose term was 30 years, in the early Republic, only patricians could become priests. However, the Lex Ogulnia in 300 BC opened up college to plebeians, until the 3rd century BC, the college elected the pontifex maximus from their own number. The right of the college to elect their own pontifex maximus was returned and this changed again after Sulla, when in response to his reforms, the election of the pontifex maximus was once again placed in the hands of an assembly of seventeen of the twenty-five tribes. However, the college still controlled which candidates the assembly voted on, during the Empire, the office was publicly elected from the candidates of existing pontiffs, until the Emperors began to automatically assume the title, following Julius Caesar’s example. The pontifex maximus was a political position to hold and the candidates for office were often very active political members of the college. Many, such as Julius Caesar, went on to hold consulships during their time as pontifex maximus, one of their most important duties was their guardianship of the libri pontificales. Among these were the acta, indigitamenta, ritualia, commentarii, fasti and these items were under the sole possession of the college of pontiffs and only they were allowed to consult these items when necessary
College of Pontiffs
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Flamen (250–260 AD)
3.
Augur
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The augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. This was known as taking the auspices, the ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society—public or private—including matters of war, commerce, and religion. Roman augurs were part of a college of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position, at the foundation of the Republic in 510 BC, the patricians held sole claim to this office, by 300 BC, the office was open to plebeian occupation as well. Senior members of the collegium put forth nominations for any vacancies, in the Regal period tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time, by the time of Sulla, they had reached fifteen in number. Augury sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Romes pax, fortuna, political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury, historically performed by priests of the college of augurs and by haruspices on behalf of senior magistrates. The presiding magistrate at an augural rite thus held the “right of augury”, magistracies were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the pax, fortuna and salus of Rome and everything that was Roman. The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively, the divinely ordained condition of peace was an outcome of successful augury and those whose actions had led to divine wrath could not have possessed a true right of augury. Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only Octavian could have possessed it, lucan, writing during the Principate, described the recent Civil War as unnatural - a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult. In the Stoic cosmology, pax deorum is the expression of natural order in human affairs, according to Cicero, the auctoritas of ius augurum included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law, consular election could be - and was - rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Republic, Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career. In the later Republic, augury came under the supervision of the college of pontifices, the office of pontifex maximus eventually became a de facto consular prerogative. In ancient Rome the auguria were considered to be in equilibrium with the sacra and were not the way by which the gods made their will known. The augures publici concerned themselves only with related to the state. The jus augurale was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the aspects of ceremonies. We have only the names of some auguria, e. g, the first one required the sacrifice of red dogs and took place before wheat grains were shelled but not before they had formed. Of the second we know only the name implies a ritual related to the harvest. Augurium and auspicium are terms used indifferently by the ancient, modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find a distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases
Augur
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
Augur
–
An augur holding a
lituus, the curved wand often used as a symbol of augury on Roman coins
4.
Vestal Virgin
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In ancient Rome, the Vestals or Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being were regarded as fundamental to the continuance and they cultivated the sacred fire that was not allowed to go out. Livy, Plutarch, and Aulus Gellius attribute the creation of the Vestals as a state-supported priestesshood to king Numa Pompilius, according to Livy, Numa introduced the Vestals and assigned them salaries from the public treasury. Livy also says that the priestesshood of Vesta had its origins at Alba Longa, the 2nd century antiquarian Aulus Gellius writes that the first Vestal taken from her parents was led away in hand by Numa. Plutarch attributes the founding of the Temple of Vesta to Numa, ambrose alludes to a seventh in late antiquity. Numa also appointed the pontifex maximus to watch over the Vestals, the first Vestals, according to Varro, were named Gegania, Veneneia, Canuleia, and Tarpeia. In myth, Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, was portrayed as traitorous, the Vestals became a powerful and influential force in the Roman state. When Sulla included the young Julius Caesar in his proscriptions, the Vestals interceded on Caesars behalf, augustus included the Vestals in all major dedications and ceremonies. They were held in awe, and attributed certain magical powers and this gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the degenerate moneychangers, who diverted the maintenance of sacred chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the provinces and it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary that all should lose that which they had denied to religion. The College of the Vestals was disbanded and the fire extinguished in 394. Zosimus records how the Christian noblewoman Serena, niece of Theodosius, entered the temple and took from the statue of the goddess a necklace and placed it on her own neck. An old woman appeared, the last of the Vestals, who proceeded to rebuke Serena, according to Zosimus, Serena was then subject to dreadful dreams predicting her own untimely death. The chief Vestal oversaw the efforts of the Vestals, and was present in the College of Pontiffs, the Vestalis Maxima Occia presided over the Vestals for 57 years, according to Tacitus. The last known chief vestal was Coelia Concordia, who stepped down in 394 with the disbanding of the College of the Vestals, the Vestalium Maxima was the most important of Romes high priestesses. The Flaminica Dialis and the regina sacrorum each held unique responsibility for religious rites. According to Plutarch, there were only two Vestal Virgins when Numa began the College of the Vestals and this number later increased to four, and then to six. It has been suggested by some authorities that a seventh was added later, the Vestals were committed to the priestesshood before puberty and sworn to celibacy for a period of 30 years
Vestal Virgin
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Roman depiction of the Virgo Vestalis Maxima
Vestal Virgin
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Flamen (250–260 AD)
Vestal Virgin
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House of the Vestals and Temple of Vesta from the Palatine
Vestal Virgin
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Early 18th-century depiction of the dedication of a Vestal, by
Alessandro Marchesini
5.
Epulones
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The epulones formed one of the four great religious corporations of ancient Roman priests. The two most important colleges were the College of Pontiffs and the augurs, the fourth was the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, the epulones arranged feasts and public banquets at festivals and games, duties that had originally belonged to the pontiffs. Initially there were three epulones, but later their number was increased to seven, hence they were known as the septemviri epulonum. Julius Caesar temporarily expanded the college to ten, but after his death and their college was founded in 196 BC, long after reforms had opened the magistracies and most priesthoods to plebeians, who were thus eligible from the beginning. The necessity for such a college arose as the increasingly elaborate festivals required experts to oversee their organization, the patera was the sacred bowl used by the epulones. It was shallow with a raised center so that when held in the palm, the patera was the special emblem of the epulones. The paten used today by Roman Catholic priests, omits the raised center, lacus Curtius website, Epulones from William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London,1875. Roman Magistrates religio Romana, Patera Epulones
Epulones
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
6.
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis
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In ancient Rome, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis were the fifteen members of a college with priestly duties. Most notably they guarded the Sibylline Books, scriptures which they consulted and interpreted at the request of the Senate and this collegium also oversaw the worship of any foreign gods which were introduced to Rome. Originally these duties had been performed by duumviri, two men of patrician status and their number was increased to ten by a Licinio-Sextian law in 367 BC, which also required for half of the priests to be plebs. During the Middle Republic, members of the college were admitted through co-option, at some point in the third century BC, several priesthoods, probably including the quindecimviri, began to be elected through the voting tribes. Decemviri Sacris Faciundis in Smiths Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities at LacusCurtius
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
7.
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
–
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans and this legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Western Church. For theonyms, or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities, for public religious holidays, see Roman festivals. For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples, individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list, see Roman temple. The verb abominari was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum, the noun is abominatio, from which English abomination derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices, the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation. He might, however, take actions in order to ignore the signa, including avoiding the sight of them. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline, thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it. The aedes was the place of a god. It was thus a structure that housed the image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district. Aedes is one of several Latin words that can be translated as shrine or temple, for instance, the Temple of Vesta, as it is called in English, was in Latin an aedes. See also the diminutive aedicula, a small shrine, in his work On Architecture, Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury, with aedes the usual word for the building itself. The design of an aedes, he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension, the word aedilis, a public official, is related by etymology, among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works, including the building and maintenance of temples. The temple of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles, the plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres. In religious usage, ager was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia, there were five kinds of ager, Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus. The ager Romanus originally included the space outside the pomerium. According to Varro, the ager Gabinus pertained to the circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
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Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
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Ruins of the
aedes of Vesta
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
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Altar (ara) from
Roman Spain
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
–
Augustus, capite velato
8.
Fetial
–
A fetial was a type of priest in Ancient Rome. They formed a collegium devoted to Jupiter as the patron of good faith, the duties of the fetials included advising the senate on foreign affairs and international treaties, making formal proclamations of peace and of war, and confirming treaties. They also carried out the functions of traveling heralds or ambassadors, the first mention of the fetials by Livy occurs in the context of the war between Alba Longa and Rome, during which the Roman king Tullus Hostilius appointed M. Valerius as a fetial and Sp. Fusius as pater patratus, for the purpose of binding Rome, according to Livy, the ritual by which the fetials were to declare war, the ritual of rerum repetitio, was introduced to Rome by Ancus Marcius, borrowing on the traditions of the Aequicolae. However he had described the ritual actions of the fetials when recording the wars of Tullus Hostilius. Thus some scholars think the mentions of the Aequi may be a due to a folk etymology connecting Aequi to aequus. On the other ancient sources support the tradition that the priesthood was created under the influence of Aequian king Ferter Resus. The ritual of rerum repetitio, a request of restitution or reparations, if the demands are not met, the pater patratus declares war within 33 days and returns to Rome to await the resolution of the Roman king and senate. Once they have resolved to go to war, a returns to the enemy frontier carrying a javelin with a steel or burnt tip. He declares war on the enemy, and throws the javelin into their territory, the fetial is connected to matters of law and not directly to war, hence in his formulae he never invokes Mars, but Jupiter, Juno and Quirinius. The religious relevance of the collegium or sodalitas lay in ensuring that Rome enjoyed the protection of gods in its relationships with foreign states and this collegium was probably common to other Latin cities as Livy makes reference to the fetials of Alba. According to some scholars, the name derives from the noun root *feti- and it is allied to the basic religious concept of fas, both being rooted in IE *dhs, originally meaning to set, setting. This root has given the verb facere, to do, make by a semantic shift, both fetial and fas preserve the original sense of foundation here, as in Vedic dhaman, dhatu in its religious sense. The implications of this etymology would hint to the fact that outside their own ager Romans felt the need for a religious, a need was felt to go beyond the sphere of human law or right. While juridical justification was acknowledged as necessary Romans wanted to ensure the approval of what founds right and makes it possible and we know the ceremonies and formulae of two circumstances, conclusion of a treaty and request of reparations and declaration of war. Oaths were made by Jupiter Lapis, the flintstone was believed to be a seat of Jupiters because if struck it emitted sparks, thus being analogous to lightning. The ceremony has two known variants, when Rome asked for reparations for an offense or damage, the fetials were sent as ambassadors to the foreign country concerned. The fetials were an institution of the Latins and of other Italic people
Fetial
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
9.
Arval Brethren
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In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide evidence of their oaths, rituals and sacrifices, Roman legend held that the priestly college was originated by Romulus, who took the place of a dead son of his nurse Acca Laurentia, and formed the priesthood with the remaining eleven sons. They were also connected originally with the Sabine priesthood of Sodales Titii who were originally their counterpart among the Sabines. Their task was the worship of Dea Dia, an old fertility goddess, on the three days of her May festival, they offered sacrifices and chanted secretly inside the temple of the goddess at her lucus the Carmen Arvale. The magister of the selected the exact three days of the celebration by an unknown method. The celebration began in Rome on the first day, was transferred to a sacred grove outside the city wall on the second day, Arval Brethren formed a college of twelve priests, although archaeologists have found only up to nine names at a time in the inscriptions. They were appointed for life and did not lose their status even in exile, according to Pliny the Elder, their sign was a white band with the chaplet of sheaves of grain. The Brethren assembled in the Regia and their duties included ritual propitiations or thanksgivings as the Ambarvalia, the sacrifices done at the borders of Rome at the fifth mile of the Via Campana or Salaria. Archaic traits of the rituals included the prohibition of the use of iron, the importance of Arval Brethren apparently dwindled during the Roman Republic, but emperor Augustus revived their practices to enforce his own authority. After Augustus time emperors and senators frequented the festivities, at least two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus, were formally accepted as members of the Brethren. The first full descriptions of their rituals also originate from this time, the last inscriptions about the Arval Brethren date from about 325 AD. They were abolished along with Romes other traditional priesthoods by 400 AD
Arval Brethren
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Flamen (250–260 AD)
Arval Brethren
–
Portrait of
Lucius Verus as an Arval Brother (ca. 160 AD)
10.
Salii
–
In ancient Roman religion, the Saliī were the leaping priests of Mars supposed to have been introduced by King Numa Pompilius. They were twelve patrician youths, dressed as warriors, an embroidered tunic, a breastplate, a short red cloak, a sword. They were charged with the twelve bronze shields called ancīlia, which, like the Mycenaean shield, each year in March the Salii made a procession round the city, dancing and singing the Carmen Saliare. Ovid, who relates the story of Numa and the heavenly ancīle in his Fasti, found the hymn, during the Principate, by decree of the Senate, Augustus name was inserted into the song. They ended the day by banqueting, saliaris cena became proverbial for a sumptuous feast. King Tullus Hostilius is said to have established another collegium of Salii in fulfilment of a vow which he made in the war with Fidenae. These Salii were also twelve in number, chosen from the patricians and they were called the Saliī collīnī, Agonales, or Agonenses. It is unclear whether the aim of the ritual was to protect Romes army. In addition to the myth of the ancile, several explanations are offered in Greek. An origin among the Etruscans is attributed to a founding by Morrius, georges Dumézil interpreted the rituals of the Salii as marking the opening and the closing of the yearly war season. The opening would coincide with the day of the Agonium Martiale on March 19, the first date was also referred to as ancilia movere, to move the ancilia, and the second as ancilia condere, to store the ancilia. Dumezil views the two groups of Salii — one representing Mars and the other Quirinus — as a dialectic relationship showing the interdependency of the military and economic functions in Roman society. Classical philologist Georg Wissowa maintained that the ritual of the Salii is a war dance or a sword dance, with their costumes clearly indicating their military origin. On the Ides of March, a man named as Mamurius Veturius was beaten with long white sticks in the sacrum Mamurii. Mamurius was the blacksmith who forged eleven replicas of the original divine shield that had dropped from the sky. According to Usener and Ludwig Preller Mars would be a god of war, Mars is himself a dancer, and the head of the Salian dancers, patrician young men whose parents were both living. Wissowa compares the Salii with the youth who dance the Lusus Troiae. The ritual dance of the Salii would thus be a coalescence of a initiation into adulthood, other 19th-century scholars have compared the rituals of the Salii with the Vedic myths of Indra and the Maruts
Salii
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
11.
Titii
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The Titii was a college of Roman priests. There are two versions of how the college was established, the other says that Romulus created it in honour of king Tatius, who after his death was worshipped as a god. During the Republic the Titii are no longer mentioned, as the cults of all Italic tribes became gradually united into Roman religion, the Titii were restored under the Empire, but their functions were changed to conduct the worship of an emperor, like those of Sodales Augustales
Titii
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
12.
Pontifex Maximus
–
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, a distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian who, however, although the most influential office within Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was ranked the fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests, behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores. It is not included in the Popes official titles, but appears on buildings, monuments and coins of popes of Renaissance, according to the usual interpretation, the term pontifex literally means bridge-builder, maximus literally means greatest. However, it was understood in its symbolic sense as well. The last derivation is mentioned also by Varro, who rejected it, others have held that the word was originally pompifex. The word pons originally meant way and pontifex would thus mean maker of roads, another opinion is that the word is a corruption of a similar-sounding but etymologically unrelated Etruscan word for priest. Yet another hypothesis considers the word as a loan from the Sabine language, in which it would mean a member of a college of five, from Osco-Umbrian ponte, the pontifex would thence be a member of a sacrificial college known as pomperia. The term ἀρχιερεύς is used in the Septuagint text of the Old Testament, the Collegium Pontificum was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this college and the office of Pontifex Maximus is attributed to the second king of Rome. Much of what is known about the Regal period in Roman history is semi-legendary or mythical, the Collegium presumably acted as advisers to the rex in religious matters. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus, and all the pontifices held their office for life, Numa is said to have founded Roman religion after dedicating an altar on the Aventine Hill to Jupiter Elicius and consulting the gods by means of augury. Numa wrote down and sealed these religious instructions, and gave them to the first Pontifex Maximus, in the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the highest office in the state religion of ancient Rome and directed the College of Pontiffs. The rex sacrorum was explicitly deprived of military and political power, the official residence of the Pontifex Maximus was the Domus Publica which stood between the House of the Vestal Virgins and the Via Sacra, close to the Regia, in the Roman Forum. His religious duties were carried out from the Regia, unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i. e. toga with the purple border. The Pontifex was not simply a priest and he had both political and religious authority. It is not clear which of the two came first or had the most importance, in practice, particularly during the late Republic, the office of Pontifex Maximus was generally held by a member of a politically prominent family. It was a position mainly for the great prestige it conferred on the holder, Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC
Pontifex Maximus
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Augustus as Pontifex Maximus (
Via Labicana Augustus)
Pontifex Maximus
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
Pontifex Maximus
–
Engraving by
Christoph Weigel the Elder of
Pope Clement XI, giving him the title Pontifex Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
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Gate to the Vatican inscribed Benedictus XVI Pont[ifex] Max[imus] Anno Domini MMV Pont[ificatus] I ("
Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff, in the year of Our Lord 2005, in the first year of his pontificate")
13.
Rex Sacrorum
–
In ancient Roman religion, the rex sacrorum was a senatorial priesthood reserved for patricians. The rex was based in the Regia, during the Roman Republic, the rex sacrorum was chosen by the pontifex maximus from a list of patricians submitted by the College of Pontiffs. A further requirement was that he be born from parents married through the ritual of confarreatio and his wife, the regina sacrorum, also performed religious duties specific to her role. Marriage was thus such a part of the priesthood that if the regina died. The rex sacrorum wore a toga, the undecorated soft shoeboot, the rex held a sacrifice on the Kalends of each month. On the Nones, he announced the dates of festivals for the month, on March 24 and May 24, he held a sacrifice in the Comitium. The rex sacrorum was a feature of Italic religion and possibly also Etruscan, the title is found in Latin cities such as Lanuvium, Tusculum, and Velitrae. At Rome the priesthood was deliberately depoliticized, the rex sacrorum was not elected, and his inauguration was witnessed by a comitia calata. Like the flamen Dialis but in contrast to the pontiffs and augurs and it is a matter of scholarly debate as to whether the rex sacrorum was created during the formation of the Republic, as Arnaldo Momigliano argued, or had existed in the Regal period. Another Roman priest given the king was the rex Nemorensis. As the wife of the rex sacrorum, the regina sacrorum was a priestess who carried out ritual duties only she could perform. On the Kalends of every month, the regina presided at the sacrifice of a sow or female lamb to Juno, unlike the Vestals, however, the regina sacrorum and the flaminica Dialis were complements to a male partner, these two priesthoods were gender-balanced and had shared duties. While performing her rituals, the regina wore a headdress called the arculum, inscriptions record the names of a few reginae sacrorum, including Sergia Paullina, the wife of Cn. Pinarius Cornelius Severus, shortly before 112 AD, and Manlia Fadilla around the 2nd/3rd century AD, the office of rex sacrorum was not a highly coveted position among the patricians for although the rex sacrorum was technically superior to the pontiffs the rank conferred no real political gain. Because of this there would be some years without a rex sacrorum at all, the King of Sacrifices by John Maddox Roberts appears in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives, edited by Michael Ashley
Rex Sacrorum
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
14.
Flamen Dialis
–
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Dialis was the high priest of Jupiter. There were 15 flamines, of three were flamines maiores, serving the three gods of the Archaic Triad. According to tradition the flamines were forbidden to touch metal, ride a horse, the Flamen Dialis enjoyed many peculiar honours. From that time forward he was emancipated from the control of his father, and became sui juris. He alone of all priests wore the apex, he had a right to a lictor, to the toga praetexta, the Sella Curulis and this last privilege, after having been suffered to fall into disuse for a long period, was asserted by C. Valerius Flaccus, the claim allowed however, says Livy, more in deference to his personal character than from a conviction of the justice of the demand. Thus, it was impossible for him to undertake the government of a province and he might not mount or even touch a horse, touch iron, or look at an army marshalled outside the pomerium, or be elected to the consulship. Indeed, it would seem that originally he was precluded from seeking or accepting any civil magistracy. The Flamen Dialis was required to wear certain unusual garments, such as the apex, a hat, and a laena. The origins of the following superstitions are not so clear, but there is speculation in Plutarch, Festus, and Pliny the Elder. He might not touch flour, nor leaven, nor leavened bread, nor a dead body, he not enter a burial place. He was forbidden either to touch or to name a dog, none but a free man might cut his hair, the clippings of which, together with the parings of his nails, were buried beneath a felix arbor. No one might sleep in his bed, the legs of which were smeared with fine clay, and it was unlawful to place a box containing sacrificial cakes in contact with the bedstead. In the view of Dumézil, these mark the Flamen Dialis as serving a heavenly god, with his attributes of absolute purity and freedom. Within his scope of action there are the domains of power and right, but not battle. His solidarity with the king is reflected in that of his earthly counterpart, such a partnership has parallels in other Indo-European cultures, such as that of the Vedic rajan and his purohita and the ancient Irish rig and the chief druid. The Flaminica Dialis was the wife of the Flamen Dialis and she was required to be a virgin at the time of their wedding, which had to be conducted according to the ceremonies of confarreatio, the traditional form of marriage for patricians. The couple were not permitted to divorce, and if the flaminica died the Dialis was obliged to resign, the assistance of the flaminica was essential in the performance of certain rituals
Flamen Dialis
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
15.
Flamen Quirinalis
–
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Quirinalis was the flamen devoted to the cult of god Quirinus. He was one of the three flamines maiores, third in order of importance after the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis, as the other ones he had to reside in Rome and was not allowed to leave the city for any reason. The theology of Quirinus is complex and difficult to interpret, from early times, he was identified with the deified Romulus, who originally seems to have shared some common theological and mythological elements with Quirinus. The flamen Quirinalis presided over at least three festivals, the Consualia Aestiva on August 21, Robigalia on April 25, and Larentalia on December 23. These festivals were all devoted to the cult of deities of remarkable antiquity, robigus was an evil spirit that could cause mildew and thus damage growing wheat. Larenta was a figure connected to the primordial legendary times of Rome or to the founding of the city itself, during the Consualia Aestiva the flamen Quirinalis and the Vestals offered a sacrifice at Consuss underground altar in the Circus Maximus. Four days later the Vestals took part in the rites of the festival of Ops, goddess of agricultural plenty, the Opiconsivia. This occasion was related to Consus too and was performed in the Regia of the forum, where Ops had a sacred chapel, open only to the pontifex maximus. The Robigalia of April 25 required the offering of blood and entrails from a puppy. The rite took place near the fifth milestone of the Via Claudia, ovid talks of a lucus on the site and reports a long prayer he says was pronounced by the flamen Quirinalis. While the prayer may contain elements from an actual formulation, Ovids text is a poetic recreation, the Larentalia of December 23 were a parentatio, an act of funerary cult in memory of Larunda or Larentia. A sacrifice was offered at the site of her supposed tomb on the Velabrum. She was not a goddess but a sort of heroine, with two conflicting legends, in the first Larentia is a courtesan who had become rich after spending a night in the sanctuary of Heracles. Later she had bestowed her fortune on the Roman people on the condition that a named after her were held yearly. In the second she is Romulus and Remuss wet nurse, also considered the mother of the Fratres Arvales, Gellius in a detailed passage on Larentia makes a specific reference to the flamen Quirinalis. Macrobius makes reference to the presence of a flamen, per flaminem. This flamen could neither be the Dialis nor the Martialis, let alone the minores, beside these festivals that of Quirinus himself, the Quirinalia, would logically and probably require the participation of the flamen Quirinalis. The Quirinalia were held on February 17 and must be among the oldest Roman yearly festivals, the Quirinalia occurred on February 17 in the Roman calendar
Flamen Quirinalis
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
16.
Rex Nemorensis
–
The rex Nemorensis was a priest of the goddess Diana at Aricia in Italy, by the shores of Lake Nemi, where she was known as Diana Nemorensis. The priesthood played a role in the mythography of James George Frazer in The Golden Bough. The tale of the rex Nemorensis appears in a number of ancient sources, the Latin name of the priesthood is given by Suetonius, He caused the rex Nemorensis, who had held his priesthood for many years, to be supplanted by a stronger adversary. That same passage indicates that by the time of the early Principate, a possible allusion to the origins of the priesthood at Nemi is contained in Vergils Aeneid, as Virgil places Hippolytus at the grove of Aricia. An alternative story has the worship of Diana at Nemi instituted by Orestes, surviving lore concerning the rex Nemorensis indicates that this priest or king held a very uneasy position. Macaulays quatrain on the institution of the rex Nemorensis states, Those trees in whose dim shadow The ghastly priest doth reign The priest who slew the slayer, And shall himself be slain. However, a candidate had first to test his mettle by plucking a golden bough from one of the trees in the sacred grove. The human sacrifice conducted at Nemi was thought to be highly unusual by the ancients, Suetonius mentions it as an example of the moral failings of Caligula. Strabo calls it Scythian, implying that he found it barbaric, the violent character of this singular institution could barely be justified by reference to its great antiquity and mythological sanctity. The ancient sources appear to concur that an escaped slave who seeks refuge in this uneasy office is likely to be a desperate man. While later anthropology is sceptical of Frazers broad hypothesis, it had an extensive influence, in 1990, a radio programme entitled The Priest of Nemi was produced by Michael Bakewell and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. This programme was based on the 1990 book The Making of the Golden Bough by Robert Fraser, the novel Nemorensis, by Simon Spurrier, is based on the legend. The Making of the Golden Bough, The Origins and Growth of An Argument Macmillan,1990, ISBN 0-333-49631-0 Frazer, Sir James G. The Golden Bough Macmillan,1950, abridged edition
Rex Nemorensis
–
Ruins by the shores of Lake Nemi, in an 1831 engraving
Rex Nemorensis
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
Rex Nemorensis
–
Denarius depicting
Diana Nemorensis, who was conceived as a triple goddess (diva triformis)
Rex Nemorensis
–
Diana in hunting boots, from a 2nd-century Roman
mosaic
17.
Curio maximus
–
The curio maximus was an obscure priesthood in ancient Rome that had oversight of the curiae, groups of citizens loosely affiliated within what was originally a tribe. Each curia was led by a curio, who was admitted only after the age of 50 and held his office for life. The curiones were required to be in health and without physical defect, and could not hold any other civil or military office. In the early Republic, the curio maximus was always a patrician, the earliest curio maximus identified as such is Servius Sulpicius, who held the office in 463. The first plebeian to hold the office was elected in 209 BC, when the patricians objected to the candidacy of C. Mamilius Atellus, the tribunes of the plebs, who withheld themselves from religious affairs, were called in. They followed procedure by referring the matter to the senate, who tossed it back to them. Political jockeying no longer discernible in the record was perhaps in play. Mamilius was duly elected, and held the office until he died of plague in 175 BC and his successor, also a plebeian, was C. Scribonius Curio, whose new cognomen passed to his descendants, most notably the father, the electoral procedure for the office of curio maximus probably resembled that of pontifex maximus, that is, election through the tribes. Others known to have held the office include C, calvisius Sabinus, the consul of 39 BC. The curio maximus presided over the Quirinalia, and also the agricultural festivals of the such as the Fordicidia, when pregnant cows were sacrificed. The Fornacalia had no fixed date, and though each curia might celebrate the festival separately, although the curio was a kind of priest, he had the power to convene meetings for political purposes, and each curia also had a flamen curialis whose duties were specifically religious. Another duty of the curio maximus was collecting religious contributions from the curiae
Curio maximus
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
18.
Regina sacrorum
–
In ancient Roman religion, the rex sacrorum was a senatorial priesthood reserved for patricians. The rex was based in the Regia, during the Roman Republic, the rex sacrorum was chosen by the pontifex maximus from a list of patricians submitted by the College of Pontiffs. A further requirement was that he be born from parents married through the ritual of confarreatio and his wife, the regina sacrorum, also performed religious duties specific to her role. Marriage was thus such a part of the priesthood that if the regina died. The rex sacrorum wore a toga, the undecorated soft shoeboot, the rex held a sacrifice on the Kalends of each month. On the Nones, he announced the dates of festivals for the month, on March 24 and May 24, he held a sacrifice in the Comitium. The rex sacrorum was a feature of Italic religion and possibly also Etruscan, the title is found in Latin cities such as Lanuvium, Tusculum, and Velitrae. At Rome the priesthood was deliberately depoliticized, the rex sacrorum was not elected, and his inauguration was witnessed by a comitia calata. Like the flamen Dialis but in contrast to the pontiffs and augurs and it is a matter of scholarly debate as to whether the rex sacrorum was created during the formation of the Republic, as Arnaldo Momigliano argued, or had existed in the Regal period. Another Roman priest given the king was the rex Nemorensis. As the wife of the rex sacrorum, the regina sacrorum was a priestess who carried out ritual duties only she could perform. On the Kalends of every month, the regina presided at the sacrifice of a sow or female lamb to Juno, unlike the Vestals, however, the regina sacrorum and the flaminica Dialis were complements to a male partner, these two priesthoods were gender-balanced and had shared duties. While performing her rituals, the regina wore a headdress called the arculum, inscriptions record the names of a few reginae sacrorum, including Sergia Paullina, the wife of Cn. Pinarius Cornelius Severus, shortly before 112 AD, and Manlia Fadilla around the 2nd/3rd century AD, the office of rex sacrorum was not a highly coveted position among the patricians for although the rex sacrorum was technically superior to the pontiffs the rank conferred no real political gain. Because of this there would be some years without a rex sacrorum at all, the King of Sacrifices by John Maddox Roberts appears in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives, edited by Michael Ashley
Regina sacrorum
–
Flamen (250–260 AD)
19.
Religion in ancient Rome
–
The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety in maintaining good relations with the gods. According to legends, most of Romes religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome, who negotiated directly with the gods. This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, the way of the ancestors or simply tradition, as Rome came into contact with foreign cultures, and conquered them, foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. The emperors promoted the Imperial cult around the empire, and this, ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes, there was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, the men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives, Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, Roman religion was thus practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, I give that you might give. Even the most skeptical among Romes intellectual elite such as Cicero, for ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a shrine at which prayers and libations to the familys domestic deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances, women, slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. The Romans are known for the number of deities they honored. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature, etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of magic, conspiratorial, or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, one way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the worship of local and Roman deities. Because Romans had never been obligated to one god or one cult only
Religion in ancient Rome
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Religion in ancient Rome
–
Relief panel from an altar to
Venus and
Mars depicting Romulus and Remus suckling the she-wolf, and gods representing Roman topography such as the
Tiber river and
Palatine Hill
Religion in ancient Rome
–
Aeneas urged by the Penates to continue his journey to found Rome (4th century AD illustration)
Religion in ancient Rome
–
Twelve principal deities (
Di Consentes) corresponding to those honored at the
lectisternium of 217 BC, represented on a 1st-century altar from
Gabii that is rimmed by the
zodiac
20.
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
–
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State. Augustuss reforms transformed Romes Republican system of government to a de facto monarchy, couched in traditional Roman practices, the princeps was expected to balance the interests of the Roman military, Senate and people, and to maintain peace, security and prosperity throughout an ethnically diverse empire. A deceased emperor held worthy of the honor could be voted a state divinity by the Senate, in the development of Imperial rule from Principate to Dominate, the role of the Senate was increasingly marginalised and military loyalty became the key to Imperial authority. The Imperial cult was inseparable from that of Romes official deities, whose cult was essential to Romes survival, Traditional cult was a focus of Imperial revivalist legislation under Decius and Diocletian. Christian apologists and martyrologists saw the cult of the Emperor as a particularly offensive instrument of pagan impiety and it therefore became a focus of theological and political debate during the ascendancy of Christianity under Constantine I. The emperor Julian failed to reverse the declining support for Romes official religious practices, Romes traditional gods and Imperial cult were officially abandoned. However, many of the rites, practices and status distinctions that characterized the cult to emperors were perpetuated in the theology, for five centuries, the Roman Republic did not give worship to any historic figure, or any living man, although surrounded by divine and semi-divine monarchies. Romes legendary kings had been its masters, with their removal, Republican Romans could identify Romulus, similarly, Aeneas was worshipped as Jupiter Indiges. The aristocrats who held almost all Roman magistracies, and thereby occupied almost all of the Senate, among the highest of honors was the triumph. The triumphator rode in a chariot, bearing divine emblems, in a supposed to be inherited from the ancient kings of Rome. Whatever his personal ambitions, his victory and his triumph alike served the Roman Senate, people, in private life, however, tradition required that some human beings be treated as more or less divine, cult was due from familial inferiors to their superiors. A client could call his patron Jupiter on earth, the dead, collectively and individually, were gods of the underworld or afterlife. A prominent clan might claim divine influence and quasi-divine honors for its leader, death masks were made for all notable Romans and were displayed in the atria of their houses, they were used to represent their ghostly presence at family funerals. The mask of Scipio Africanus, Cornelias father and victor over Hannibal, was stored in the temple of Jupiter, a tradition arose in the centuries after his death that Africanus had been inspired by prophetic dreams, and was himself the son of Jupiter. There are several cases of unofficial cult directed at men viewed as saviors and this celebration, in Spain, featured a lavish banquet with local and imported delicacies, and a mechanical statue of Victory to crown Metellus, who wore a triumphators toga picta for the occasion. These festivities were organized by the quaestor Gaius Urbinus, but were not acts of the state, Metellus liked all this, but his older and pious contemporaries thought it arrogant and intolerable. After Gaius Marius defeated the Teutones, private citizens would offer food and drink to him alongside their household gods, when the Romans began to dominate large parts of the Greek world, Romes senior representatives there were given the same divine honours as were Hellenistic rulers. There were similar instances of divine cult to humans in the century, although some rulers, like Agesilaus
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
–
Venus and Mars sculpture group reworked to portray an Imperial couple (created 120–140 AD, reworked 170–175)
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
–
Repoussé pendant of Alexander the Great, horned and diademed like
Zeus Ammon: images of Alexander were worn as magic charms (4th-century Roman).
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
–
Augustus as Jove, holding scepter and orb (first half of 1st century AD)
21.
Gallo-Roman religion
–
It was the result of selective acculturation. In some cases, Gaulish deity names were used as epithets for Roman deities, in other cases, Roman gods were given Gaulish female partners – for example, Mercury was paired with Rosmerta and Sirona was partnered with Apollo. In at least one case – that of the equine goddess Epona – a native Celtic goddess was also adopted by Romans. The Jupiter Column was a type of religious monument from Roman Gaul and Germania. Eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on and these included the cults of Orpheus, Mithras, Cybele, and Isis. The imperial cult, centred primarily on the numen of Augustus, came to play a prominent role in the religion of Gaul. This gave rise to a characteristic Gallo-Roman fanum, identifiable in archaeology from its concentric shape, Roman Gaul Gallo-Roman culture Interpretatio romana Celtic mythology Burnand, Y. Notes sur le vocabulaire épigraphique de la de la divinité en Gaule romaine in Signa deorum. Debal, J. Vienne-en-Val, divinités et sanctuaires, bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique de lOrléanais,42 Deyts, S. A la rencontre des Dieux gaulois, un défi à César, faudet, I. Les temples de tradition celtique en Gaule Romaine. ISBN 2-87772-074-8 Green, M. Gods of the Celts, jufer, N. Luginbühl, T. Répertoire des dieux gaulois. ISBN 2-87772-200-7 Weisgerber, G. Das Pilgerheiligtum des Apollo und der Sirona von Hochscheid im Hunsruck, woolf, G. Becoming Roman, the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul
Gallo-Roman religion
–
Epona from Auxois
22.
Roman Republic
–
It was during this period that Romes control expanded from the citys immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. During the first two centuries of its existence, the Roman Republic expanded through a combination of conquest and alliance, by the following century, it included North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, and what is now southern France. Two centuries after that, towards the end of the 1st century BC, it included the rest of modern France, Greece, and much of the eastern Mediterranean. By this time, internal tensions led to a series of wars, culminating with the assassination of Julius Caesar. The exact date of transition can be a matter of interpretation, Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. Over time, the laws that gave exclusive rights to Romes highest offices were repealed or weakened. The leaders of the Republic developed a tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military. Many of Romes legal and legislative structures can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states, the exact causes and motivations for Romes military conflicts and expansions during the republic are subject to wide debate. While they can be seen as motivated by outright aggression and imperialism and they argue that Romes expansion was driven by short-term defensive and inter-state factors, and the new contingencies that these decisions created. In its early history, as Rome successfully defended itself against foreign threats in central and then northern Italy, with some important exceptions, successful wars in early republican Rome generally led not to annexation or military occupation, but to the restoration of the way things were. But the defeated city would be weakened and thus able to resist Romanizing influences. It was also able to defend itself against its non-Roman enemies. It was, therefore, more likely to seek an alliance of protection with Rome and this growing coalition expanded the potential enemies that Rome might face, and moved Rome closer to confrontation with major powers. The result was more alliance-seeking, on the part of both the Roman confederacy and city-states seeking membership within that confederacy. While there were exceptions to this, it was not until after the Second Punic War that these alliances started to harden into something more like an empire and this shift mainly took place in parts of the west, such as the southern Italian towns that sided with Hannibal. In contrast, Roman expansion into Spain and Gaul occurred as a mix of alliance-seeking, in the 2nd century BC, Roman involvement in the Greek east remained a matter of alliance-seeking, but this time in the face of major powers that could rival Rome. This had some important similarities to the events in Italy centuries earlier, with some major exceptions of outright military rule, the Roman Republic remained an alliance of independent city-states and kingdoms until it transitioned into the Roman Empire. It was not until the time of the Roman Empire that the entire Roman world was organized into provinces under explicit Roman control
Roman Republic
–
Route of Pyrrhus of Epirus
Roman Republic
–
Roman consul accompanied by two
lictors
Roman Republic
–
Gaius Gracchus, tribune of the people, presiding over the
Plebeian Council
Roman Republic
–
A Roman
denarius struck in 56 BC showing on one side the bust of the
Goddess Diana, and on the reverse the Roman general
Lucius Cornelius Sulla is offered an olive branch by his ally
Bocchus I as the captive
Jugurtha kneels beside Sulla with his hands bound.
23.
Capitoline Triad
–
The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Romes Capitoline Hill. Two distinct Capitoline Triads were worshipped at various times in Romes history, the one most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad is the more recent of the two, consisting of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The earlier triad, sometimes referred to in modern scholarship as the Archaic Triad, consisted of Jupiter, Mars, each triad held a central place in the public religion of Rome during its time. The three deities who are most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad are a group that supplanted the original Archaic Triad. This group, mirroring the Etruscan divine triad, consisted of Jupiter, the king of the gods, Juno, his wife and sister, and Jupiters daughter Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Unlike the earlier Archaic Triad, which was typical of a trio of supreme divine beings. It is almost certainly derived from the Etruscan trio of Tinia, the deity, Uni, his wife, and Menrva, their daughter. The earliest known example of a Capitolium outside of Italy was at Emporion in Spain, according to Ovid, Terminus also had a place there, since he had a shrine there before it was built and, as the god of boundary stones, refused to yield. The temple was built under the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, although the temple was shared by Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, each deity had a separate cella, with Juno Regina on the left, Minerva on the right, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the middle. It included a podium and a tetrastyle pronaos, another shrine dedicated to Jupiter, Juno Regina and Minerva was the Capitolium Vetus on the Quirinal Hill. It was thought to be older than the famous temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. The original three deities thus worshipped, now commonly referred to as the Archaic Triad, were Jupiter, Mars. This structure was no longer detectable in later times, and only traces of it could be identified from various literary sources. However Wissowa did not pursue further the analysis of the meaning, however it had disappeared from most societies since prehistoric times, with the notable exception of India. Indra incarnated the military function and the twins Ashvins the function of production, wealth, fertility and pleasure. As recorded by sources and confirmed by archeological data it was devised to lodge the three major deities Iupiter, Mars, and Ops, the deity of agricultural plenty, in three separate rooms. The spolia opima were dedicated by the person who had killed the king or chief of the enemy in battle. They were dedicated to Jupiter in case the Roman was a king or his equivalent, to Mars in case he was an officer and to Quirinus in case he was common soldier
Capitoline Triad
–
Jupiter, the supreme
Roman god of the sky, was the only deity represented in both Capitoline Triads.
Capitoline Triad
–
Capitoline Triad – Museum of
Palestrina
24.
Roman Empire
–
Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
Roman Empire
–
The
Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
Roman Empire
–
Aureus of
Augustus, the first
Roman Emperor.
Roman Empire
–
A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
Roman Empire
–
A 5th-century
papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by
Cicero
25.
Toga
–
The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between 12 and 20 feet in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tradition, it is said to have been the favoured dress of Romulus, Romes founder, as Roman women gradually adopted the stola, the toga was recognised as formal wear for Roman citizen men. Women engaged in prostitution might have provided the main exception to this rule, the type of toga worn reflected a citizens rank in the civil hierarchy. Various laws and customs restricted its use to citizens, who were required to wear it for public festivals, from its probable beginnings as a simple, practical work-garment, the toga became more voluminous, complex and costly, increasingly unsuited to anything but formal and ceremonial use. When circumstances allowed, those otherwise entitled or obliged to wear it opted for more comfortable and it gradually fell out of use, firstly among citizens of the lower class, then those of the middle class. Eventually, it was only by the highest classes for ceremonial occasions. The toga was an approximately semi-circular woolen cloth, usually white, worn draped over the shoulders and around the body and it was considered formal wear, and was generally reserved for citizens. Toga virilis also known as toga alba or toga pura, A plain white toga, worn on occasions by adult male commoners. It represented adult male citizenship and its attendant rights, freedoms, toga praetexta, a white toga with a broad purple stripe on its border, worn over a tunic with two broad, vertical purple stripes. It was formal costume for, Curule magistrates in their functions, and traditionally. Freeborn boys, and some girls, before they came of age. It marked their protection by law from sexual predation and immoral or immodest influence, a praetexta was thought effective against malignant magic, as were a boys bulla, and a girls lunula. Some priesthoods, including the Pontifices, Tresviri Epulones, the augurs, toga candida, Bright toga, a toga rubbed with chalk to a dazzling white, worn by candidates for public office. Thus Persius speaks of a cretata ambitio, chalked ambition, toga candida is the etymological source of the word candidate. It was worn mainly by mourners, but could also be worn in times of danger or public anxiety. It was sometimes used as a protest of sorts—when Cicero was exiled, mourners with a toga praetexta could turn it inside out, to conceal the stripe, or wear a toga pura. Toga picta, Dyed solid purple, embroidered with gold, and worn over a similarly decorated tunica palmata, during the Empire, it was worn by consuls and emperors
Toga
–
Marcus Aurelius wearing a toga
Toga
–
A toga
Toga
–
The toga picta may have had an Etruscan origin, as in this portrayal of a cloaked figure identified as Vel Saties (from the
François Tomb,
Vulci. Circa 350 BCE).
26.
Augustus
–
Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
Augustus
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The statue known as the
Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century
Augustus
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The Death of Caesar, by
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1867). On 15 March 44 BC, Octavius's adoptive father Julius Caesar was assassinated by a conspiracy led by
Marcus Junius Brutus and
Gaius Cassius Longinus.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
Augustus
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A statue of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated ca. 30 BC
Augustus
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Bust of Augustus in
Musei Capitolini, Rome
27.
Quirinus
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In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus and his name may be derived from the Sabine word quiris spear. Quirinus is probably an adjective meaning wielder of the spear, other suggested etymologies are, from the Sabine town Cures, from curia, i. e. he was the god of the Roman state as represented by the thirty curies, first proposed by Krestchmer. Cook explains Quirinus as the oak-god, and Quirites as the men of the oaken spear, Quirinus was most likely a Sabine god of war. The Sabines had a settlement near the site of Rome. When the Romans settled in the area, the cult of Quirinus became part of their belief system. This occurred before the later influences from the classical Greek culture and he claimed that the king had instructed him to tell his countrymen that he, Romulus was Quirinus. By the end of the first century BC, Quirinus would be considered to be the legendary king. Historian it, Angelo Brelich has argued that Quirinus and Romulus were originally the same divine entity which was split into a founder hero and a god when Roman religion became demythicised. To support this, he points to the association of both Romulus and Quirinus with the grain spelt, through the Fornacalia or Stultorum Feriae, according to Ovids Fasti, the last day of the festival is called the Quirinalia and corresponds with the traditional day of Romulus death. On that day, the Romans would toast spelt as an offering to the goddess Fornax. In the traditional legend of Romulus death, he was killed and cut into pieces by the nobles and each of them took a part of his body home and buried it on their land. The association of Quirinus and Romulus is further supported by a connection with Vofionos, Vofionos would be the equivalent of Liber or Teutates, in Latium and among the Celts respectively. His early importance led to his inclusion in the first Capitoline Triad, along with Mars, overtime, however, he became less significant, and he was absent from the later, more widely known triad. Varro mentions the Capitolium Vetus, a cult site on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Eventually, Romans began to favor personal and mystical cults over the official state belief system and these included those of Bacchus, Cybele, and Isis, leaving only his flamen to worship him. The Flamen Quirinalis who remained, however, were the flamines maiores who had oversight over the Pontifex Maximus. In earlier Roman art, he was portrayed as a man with religious
Quirinus
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Denarius picturing Quirinus on the
obverse, and
Ceres enthroned on the reverse, a commemoration by a
moneyer in 56 BC of a
Cerialia presented by an earlier
Gaius Memmius as
aedile
Quirinus
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Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
28.
Roman Kingdom
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The Roman Kingdom was the period of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a monarchical form of government of the city of Rome and its territories. The site of the founding of the Roman Kingdom and eventual Republic, the Palatine Hill and hills surrounding it presented easily defensible positions in the wide fertile plain surrounding them. All of these contributed to the success of the city. The Gauls destroyed much of Romes historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC, with no contemporary records of the kingdom existing, all accounts of the kings must be carefully questioned. The insignia of the kings of Rome were twelve lictors wielding the fasces bearing axes, the right to sit upon a Curule chair, the purple Toga Picta, red shoes, of all these insignia, the most important was the purple toga. The imperium of the king was held for life and protected him from ever being brought to trial for his actions. As being the owner of imperium in Rome at the time. Also, the laws that kept citizens safe from magistrates misuse of imperium did not exist during the monarchical period, another power of the king was the power to either appoint or nominate all officials to offices. The king would appoint a tribunus celerum to serve as both the tribune of Ramnes tribe in Rome and as the commander of the personal bodyguard. The king was required to appoint the tribune upon entering office, the tribune was second in rank to the king and also possessed the power to convene the Curiate Assembly and lay legislation before it. Another officer appointed by the king was the praefectus urbi, who acted as the warden of the city. When the king was absent from the city, the prefect held all of the powers and abilities. The king even received the right to be the person to appoint patricians to the Senate. The people knew the king as a mediator between them and the gods and thus viewed the king with religious awe and this made the king the head of the national religion and its chief executive. Having the power to control the Roman calendar, he conducted all religious ceremonies and appointed lower religious offices and it is said that Romulus himself instituted the augurs and was believed to have been the best augur of all. Likewise, King Numa Pompilius instituted the pontiffs and through them developed the foundations of the dogma of Rome. They could only be called together by the king and could discuss the matters the king laid before them. While the Curiate Assembly did have the power to pass laws that had submitted by the king
Roman Kingdom
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Capitoline Wolf
Roman Kingdom
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The ancient quarters of Rome.
29.
Numa Pompilius
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Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Romes most important religious, according to Plutarch, Numa was the youngest of Pomponiuss four sons, born on the day of Romes founding. He lived a life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home. Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines and a colleague of Romulus, gave in marriage his daughter, Tatia. After 13 years of marriage, Tatia died, precipitating Numas retirement to the countryside, according to Livy, Numa resided at Cures immediately before being elected king. Livy and Plutarch refer to the story that Numa was instructed in philosophy by Pythagoras, Plutarch reports that some authors credited him with only a single daughter, Pompilia. Pompilias mother is identified as Numas first wife Tatia or his second wife Lucretia. She is said to have married the future first pontifex maximus Numa Marcius, still other writers, writes Plutarch, believed these were fictional genealogies to enhance the status of these families. After the death of Romulus, there was an interregnum of one year in which the power was exercised by members of the Senate in rotation for five days in a row. In 715 BC, after much bickering between the factions of Romulus and Tatius, a compromise was reached, and the Sabine Numa was elected by the senate as the next king, according to Plutarch, Numa was a cunning and calculating person. At first he refused the offer and his father and Sabine kinsmen, including his teacher and the father of Numas son-in law, Marcus, along with an embassy of two senators from Rome, banded together to persuade him to accept. In the account of Plutarch and Livy, Numa, after being summoned by the Senate from Cures, was offered the tokens of power amid an enthusiastic reception by the people of Rome. He requested, however, that an augur should divine the opinion of the gods on the prospect of his kingship before he accepted, Jupiter was consulted and the omens were favourable. Thus approved by the Roman and Sabine people as well as the heavens, according to Plutarch, Numas first act was to disband the personal guard of 300 so-called Celeres with which Romulus permanently surrounded himself. The gesture is variously interpreted as self-protection in the face of their questionable loyalty, based on Roman chronology, Numa died of old age in 673 BC. He was succeeded by Tullus Hostilius, Numa was traditionally celebrated by the Romans for his wisdom and piety. According to Livy, Numa claimed that he held consultations with Egeria on the proper manner of instituting sacred rites for the city. Numa was said to have authored several sacred books in which he had written down divine teachings, mostly from Egeria, the other books dealt with philosophy
Numa Pompilius
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Numa Pompilius, as imagined on a Roman coin minted by
Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso during the reign of Emperor
Augustus. Piso himself claimed descent from the king.
