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Augustus as pontifex maximus (Via Labicana Augustus) <-The pontifex maximus (Latin for "supreme pontiff" [1] [2] [3]) was the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first held ...
According to legend, the first Pontifex Maximus was Numa Marcius, who was appointed by his friend, Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome.No other Pontifices Maximi are mentioned in surviving sources until the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally occurring in 509 BC.
Quintus Mucius Scaevola "Pontifex" (140–82 BC) was a politician of the Roman Republic and an important early authority on Roman law. He is credited with founding the study of law as a systematic discipline. [2] He was elected Pontifex Maximus (chief priest of Rome), as had been his father and uncle before him. [3]
The term Pontifex Maximus is commonly found in inscriptions on buildings, paintings, statues, and coins about the popes, and is usually abbreviated as "Pont Max" or "P.M" (the popes began to use the title of supreme pontiff in the Italian Renaissance, [26] from then on, the abbreviations "Pont Max" and "P M" appear several times, as in the ...
The pontifex maximus was the most important member of the college. Until 104 BC, the pontifex maximus held the sole power in appointing members to the other priesthoods in the college. The flamens were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of Roman religion, each assigned to a particular god.
The Annales maximi were annals kept by the pontifex maximus during the Roman Republic. [1] The chief priest of the Capitoline would record key public events and the names of each of the magistrates. He would keep a detailed record and publish an abbreviated version on a white board (tabula dealbata) outside the Regia or the Domus Publica.
He is first mentioned by Livy in his Histories in connection with the death of the Pontifex Maximus Lentulus in 213 BC. In the election for Pontifex Maximus, two censors, the patrician Titus Manlius Torquatus and the plebeian Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, were suddenly joined by Licinius Crassus, who was then standing for election as curule aedile.
The office of Pontifex Maximus, or head of the College of Pontiffs, was held by Julius Caesar and thereafter, by the Roman emperors, until Gratian (375–383) relinquished it. [ 160 ] [ 170 ] [ 171 ] Tertullian, when he had become a Montanist , used the title derisively of either the pope or the bishop of Carthage . [ 172 ]