1 Earliest Rome

8. P R I E S T S A N D P R I E S T E S S E S
Cicero, On his House 1.1
Among the many things, gentlemen of the pontifical college, 5
that our ancestors created
and established under divine inspiration, nothing is more renowned than their decision
to entrust the worship of the gods and the highest interests of the state to the same men -
so that the most eminent and illustrious citizens might ensure the maintenance of
religion by the proper administration of the state, and the maintenance of the state by the
prudent interpretation of religion. And if ever a case of great importance has depended
on the judgement and authority of the priests of the Roman people, then surely this case
before you now is of such magnitude that the whole prestige of the state, the well-being
of all citizens, their lives, their liberty, their altars, their hearths, their household gods , their property, their prosperity, their homes - all of these things seem to have
been entrusted and made over to your good sense, your impartiality your authority.
1. Cicero is addressing the fifteen pontifices and some odier priests (the rex sacrorum and
major jlamines) who were counted as part of the college.
8.2b The scandal of Bona Dea < 'The Good Goddess'>, 61 B. c.
The major colleges of priests regularly acted in association with (or even in a
subordinate role to) the senate. Here Cicero is informing his friend Atticus of
a notorious disruption of the festival of Bona Dea (see also 13.4): although
strictly a festival of women only, it had been infiltrated by a man - who had run
off before he could be caught. Cicero's account shows how the senate, magis­
trates and priests were all involved in resolving the crisis. For a similar proce­
dure, see 7.2.
See further: Vol. 1, 129-30; Balsdon (1966); Wiseman (1974) 130-7*;
* Moreau (19S2); Brouwer (1989) 363-70; Tatum (1990).
Cicero, Letters to Atticus 1.13.3.
I expect you have heard that, when the state sacrifice 1
was being carried out in Caesar's
house, 2
a man in woman's clothes got in; and that after the Virgins 3
had repeated the
sacrifice, the incident was raised in the senate by Q. Cornificitis (he was the prime mover,
by the way - in case you imagine it was one of us 4
). Then what happened is that the
senate voted to refer the matter back to the Virgins and the pontifices- who pronounced
that it was a sacrilege. After that, by senatorial decree, the consuls brought forward a bill/
198
1. The festival of Bona Dea.
2. The festival took place in the house of a magistrate; Caesar was then praetor.
3- The Vestal Virgins (see 8.4) were in charge of the ritual.
4. By 'us' Cicero probably means the most senior senators - the ex-consuls (like Cicero
himself)-
5. A bill to constitute a tribunal to try the case of sacrilege.