Rex Sacrorum

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In

Roman state religion, Festus says[3] that in the ranking of the highest Roman priests (ordo sacerdotum), the rex sacrorum was of highest prestige, followed by the flamines maiores (Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, Flamen Quirinalis) and the pontifex maximus. The rex sacrorum was based in the Regia.[4]

Description

During the Roman Republic, the rex sacrorum was chosen by the pontifex maximus from a list of patricians submitted by the College of Pontiffs.[5] A further requirement was that he be born from parents married through the ritual of confarreatio, which was also the form of marriage he himself had to enter.[6] His wife, the regina sacrorum, also performed religious duties specific to her role.[7] Marriage was thus such a fundamental part of the priesthood that if the regina died, the rex had to resign.[8] The rex sacrorum was above the pontifex maximus, although he was more or less a powerless figurehead.

The rex sacrorum wore a

Nones, he announced the dates of festivals for the month. On March 24 and May 24, he held a sacrifice in the Comitium.[10] In addition to these duties the rex sacrorum seems to have functioned as the high priest of Janus.[11]

The rex sacrorum was a feature of

Regal period.[13]

Regina sacrorum

As the wife of the rex sacrorum, the regina sacrorum ("queen of the sacred things") was a high priestess who carried out ritual duties only she could perform. On the

Jupiter) were complements to a male partner; these two priesthoods were gender-balanced and had shared duties.[15]

While performing her rituals, the regina wore a headdress called the arculum, formed from a garland of

plebeian.[17]

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.[18]

Decline and later use

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. By the time of

Antony's civil war the office was entirely in disuse, but seems to have been revived later by Augustus as there was mention of it during the empire until it was probably abolished by Theodosius I.[19]

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ "LacusCurtius • Roman Religion — Rex Sacrificulus (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  2. ^ Jörg Rüpke, Religion of the Romans (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 223 online.
  3. ^ Festus on the ordo sacerdotum, 198 in the edition of Lindsay.
  4. ^ Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press, 2005), p. 136 online.
  5. Dionysius Halicarnassus
    5.1.4.
  6. ^ Kurt A. Raaflaub, Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders (Blackwell 2005, originally published 1986), p. 223 online.
  7. ^ Rüpke, Religion of the Romans, p. 223.
  8. ^ Although scholars agree that this applied to the rex sacrorum, the requirement that the priest resign if his wife should die is better documented for the Flamen Dialis.
  9. ^ Norma Goldman, "Roman Footwear" and "Reconstructing Roman Clothing", in The World of Roman Costume (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), pp. 125 and 216 online.
  10. ^ Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 56.
  11. OCLC 760889060
    .
  12. ^ See for instance Livy 2.2.1.
  13. ^ Tim Cornell, The Beginning of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (Routledge, 1995), pp. 234–235 online; Momigliano, "The Origins of the Roman Republic", pp. 311–312 online.
  14. ^ Emily A. Hemelrijk, "Women and Sacrifice in the Roman Empire," in Ritual Dynamics and Religious Change in the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Heidelberg, July 5–7, 2007) (Brill, 2009), pp. 258–259 online, citing Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.15.19.
  15. ^ Celia E. Schultz, Women's Religious Activity in the Roman Republic (University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 79–81.
  16. Servius, note to Aeneid
    4.137; pomegranate = malus Punica, "Phoenician apple."
  17. ^ Michael Lipka, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), pp. 182–183.
  18. ^ Jörg Rüpke, Fasti sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499 (Oxford University Press, 2008, originally published in German 2005), pp. 223, 783, 840.
  19. ^ William Smith, Charles Anthon A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 1870 p. 837
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