1 Earliest Rome

8.2 Priests and politics
pontifices; and it is said that some other obligations have been relaxed and some have been
entirely dispensed with. It is not lawful for him to touch flour mixed with yeast. He does
not take off his under-tunic except indoors, so that he should not be naked in the open
air, as if that was under the eyes of Jupiter. No one else, except the rex sacrificulus 1
' has a
place at the dining table above the flamen Dialis. If he has lost his wife, he resigns from
the fiaminate. The marriage of flamen cannot lawfully be dissolved, except by death.
He never enters a place where there is a tomb, he never touches a dead body; he is not,
however, prohibited from attending a tuneral. 7
1. Writer of a treatise On the PontificalLaw(mid second century B.C.); almost certainly not
rhe historian of the same name, who wrote (around 200 B.C.) a history ol Rome in
Greek.
2. See 4.8.
3. The opening in the roof of the central hall {atrium) of a Roman house.
4. The distinctive pointed headdress of the flamen; see Vol. 1, fig. 1.4.
5- A jurist of the first half of the first century A.D,
6. An alternative title of the priest more commonly known as the rex sacrorum ('the king of
rites'). He was believed to have taken over the religious functions of the early kings of
Rome, when the monarchy was overthrown; see Vol. 1, 54—61.
7- The passage continues with a short section on taboos applying to the flamen s wile, ihe
flaminica.
8.2 Priests and politics in the Roman Republic
Most of the major state priesthoods were 'part-time' posts. They were held by
men of the Roman elite, alongside more strictly political offices - although,
unlike Roman magistracies, priesrhoods were normally held not just for one
year but for life (after entry into the priesthood in early adulthood or later).
Priesthoods were an integral part of the public, political career of many Roman
senators, not (as in some societies - like our own) the monopoly oi religious
specialists.
See further: Vol. 1, 99-108, 134-7; Szemler (1972); Scheid (1984); Beard
(1990)"; North (1990a)*.
8.2a Cicero addresses the college of'pontifices
In 57 B.C. Cicero appealed before the college oi pontifices, who were adjudicat­
ing in the matter of his house. This had been destroyed during Cicero's exile
and its site consecrated by his enemy Clodius; and it was up to the priests to
decide whether the consecration was valid, or whether the house could be
rebuilt (see also 7.4a n 3). Cicero opens his speech with a clear statement of the
close links between political and religious office-holding and decision-making.
See further: Vol. 1, 114-5; (for the context of the speech) Rawson (1975)
122-5*; Mitchell (1991) 158-61.
197