List of Pontifices Maximi
This annotated list of Pontifices maximi, the high priest of the collegium of the Pontifices, the most important position in Roman religion,[1] is based on readings from Livy and other classical historians, but also from lists available elsewhere. Suggested identifications are made where possible, but are tentative.
Incomplete list of Pontifices maximi
- 183 BC - Gaius Servilius Geminus (d. 180 BC), possibly Gaius Servilius C.f. Geminus who was consul in 203 BC with his Servilius cousin (both patricians, and both from the same gens in a late breach of the lex Licinia Sextia!)
- 152 BC-150 BC - Vacant; the position was not immediately filled after the death of Lepidus
- 132 BC - Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus (killed in battle 131 BC, Asia Minor), consul in 131 BC
- Like Scipio Nasica Serapio, he was Pontifex before being consul; like Serapio, he left Italy, being the first Pontifex to do so willingly, contrary to the mos maiorum.
- He was apparently the first Pontifex to die in battle (deliberately to avoid capture).
- 6 March 12 BC - Augustus, (adoptive son of Caesar, above).
- Like his adoptive father, Augustus consolidated political, military, and religious power in his own hands; unlike his adoptive father, he also assumed the title of Princeps Senatus. The careers of both Caesars can be compared with that of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in the Middle Republic.
- 12 BC to 376 - Held by the Emperors. Gratian was the 1st emperor of the Western Roman Empire refuse to hold the office of Pontifex Maximus.[5]
From some indeterminate later date to present, the title "Pontifex Maximus" is applied to the Popes.
Notes and references
- ^ Bowersock, p. 380. The date is provided by inscribed calendars; see also Augustus, Res Gestae 10.2. Dio 27.2 reports this under 13 BC, probably as the year in which Lepidus died (Bowersock, p. 383).
- ^ T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
- ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 44.
- ^ # ^ Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 2.43; Plutarch, Caesar 7; Suetonius, Julius 13
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Gratian
References
- Bowersock, G. W. (1990). "The Pontificate of Augustus", in Kurt A. Raaflaub and Mark Toher (eds.): Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and his Principate. Berkeley: University of California Press, 380–394. ISBN 0-520-08447-0.
External links