ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

and praetorian experience had been primarily generals, there is no guarantee that theywould have had direct experience with the courts, however, or indeed knowledge of thelaws beyond what they gleaned through participation in the Roman system.The Roman experts on matters of tradition, law, and especially religious practice,were the pontifwes and augurs. Many of the functions of founding a colony required apriest under the Roman system: co-opting new priests, determining of a ritual action wasperformed properly, and maintaining sacral laws. The priests and magistrates in Romewere often the same men, as noted by Cicero:Cum multa divinitus, pontifices, a maioribus nostris inventa atque instituta sunt,turn nihil praeclarius quam quod eosdent et religionibus deorum immortalium etsummae rei publicae praeesse voluerunt, ut amplissimi et clarissimi cives rempublicam bene gerendo religiones, religiones sapienter interpretando rempublicam conservarent. Cic.Dom. 1.1Among the many things, gentlemen of the pontifical college, that our ancestorscreated and established under divine inspiration, nothing is more renowned thantheir decision to entrust the worship of the gods and the highest interests of thestate to the same men - so that the most eminent and illustrious citizens mightensure the maintenance of religion by the proper administration of the state, andthe maintenance of the state by the prudent interpretation of religion. [Trans, asin Beard, North, and Price (1998) Vol. II, 8.2a]Although Cicero wrote this around 57 BCE for an audience of the priests themselves, itapplied throughout the Republic. Nonetheless, the coincidence of these two roles ingeneral does not indicate that every magistrate would possess the same knowledge as themagistrate who was also a pontiff or augur.It is true that magistrates took auspices before meetings and battles, dedicatedtemples, conducted the census and its ceremonies, performed public vows, and held