List of Pontifices Maximi

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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.

Contents

Incomplete list of Pontifices maximi [edit]

  • 280 BC-254 BC ...
  • 254 BC - Tiberius Coruncanius (died 241 BC), consul in 280 BC.
    • He was the first plebeian to hold this office, and was the first Roman jurist and legal teacher
  • 243 BC - Lucius Caecilius Metellus (died 221 BC), probably the consul of 251 BC and 247 BC
    • Interestingly, he was removed from office or resigned c. 237 BC before his death in 221 BC; later Pontifices usually held the position until death.
  • 212 BC - Publius Licinius Crassus Dives (died 183 BC),
    • In his unusual political career (per Livy), this handsome amiable and wealthy man was first elected Pontifex Maximus while not yet a curule aedile, and then as Pontifex Maximus, chosen Censor c. 211 BC and then becoming Master of the Horse, then praetor in 208 BC and consul in 205 BC, i.e., doing everything the wrong way around. He also refused to leave Italy for Sicily, citing religious law and the mos maiorum.
  • 180 BC - Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (died 152 BC), consul in 187 BC and 175 BC, elected censor in 179 BC
    • also Princeps Senatus in 179 BC, thus in control of the top priestly role and the first man in the Roman Senate for nearly 28 years until his death.
  • 152 BC-150 BC - Vacant; the position was not immediately filled after the death of Lepidus
  • 141 BC - Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (died 132 BC Pergamum, Asia Minor), consul in 138 BC
    • (son of the above); another man to become Pontifex before he was consul,
    • the first Pontifex to leave Italy (being sent off by the Senate to escape Gracchan plots against his life). He died in Asia Minor, presumably poisoned, being the first Pontifex to die outside Italy.
  • 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).
  • 130 BC - Publius Mucius Scaevola, consul in 133 BC
    • (elder brother of the above), chosen to replace his brother; died 115 BC most probably, but died 113 BC per other sources.
    • He is the last Pontifex Maximus to have published the Annales Maximi, the list of events of the year.
  • 89 BC - Quintus Mucius Scaevola (murdered 82 BC in the Temple of Vesta, during the last stages of the Social War), consul 95 BC
    • (son of a previous Pontiff);
    • he was the first Pontiff to be openly murdered, that too in a temple sacred to Rome, and his body then being thrown into the Tiber
  • 81 BC - Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (d. ca 63 BC), consul in 80 BC,
    • first cousin once removed of an earlier Pontiff
    • chosen Pontifex Maximus before becoming consul, as Sulla's friend and ally.
  • 44 BC - Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, triumvir (died 13 BC), consul in 46 BC (as Caesar's nominee) during his Dictatorship, and in 42 BC as a triumvir.
    • Lepidus rapidly lost political power to the other triumvirs, and was removed from the triumvirate in 36 BC which became a contest between Augustus and Mark Antony. He was however allowed to retain the position of Pontifex Maximus until his death.
    • Lepidus was a direct descendant of the earlier Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, who had been Pontifex Maximus from 180 BC to his death in 152 BC.
  • 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 AD - 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 [edit]

  1. ^ 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).
  2. ^ T. Robert S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1952).
  3. ^ Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita iv. 44.
  4. ^ # ^ Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 2.43; Plutarch, Caesar 7; Suetonius, Julius 13
  5. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Gratian

References [edit]

  • 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 [edit]

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