Flamen

• 1. Introduction

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  The flamen was one of the oldest classes of priest in ancient Rome, with origins that likely stretch back before the Republic itself. Fifteen of them served the Roman state religion, each dedicated to a specific deity and bound by rules so strict that breaking them could spell disaster. Their story touches the founding of Rome, the assassination of Julius Caesar, and a vacancy that lasted over 70 years.

  Who were these priests, and what made their office so powerful that rivals could nominate enemies to it simply to destroy their careers? What was so dangerous about ivy, raw meat, and beans that the holiest of their number could not even look at these things? And how did a priesthood rooted in the Roman Kingdom survive long enough to outlast the Republic and reshape itself for a world ruled by emperors?

• 2. Founding and the Archaic Triad

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  Numa Pompilius, the legendary second King of Rome, was credited by the Romans themselves with creating the offices of the three most senior flamines. According to the historian Livy, Numa did this to fulfill the intensive religious duties that had previously fallen to the King. Each of the three flamines maiores served one god of the Archaic Triad: Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus.

  The flamen Dialis oversaw the cult of Jupiter, ruler of the gods. The name of this particular office likely came from older forms of the god's name, Diespiter and Diovis. The flamen Martialis served Mars, the god of war and guardian of farmers. On the days of certain festivals, this priest would ritually shake the god's sacred spears when the Roman legions were preparing for battle. The flamen Quirinalis served Quirinus, a god of Roman social order who may at some points have also been seen as the deified form of Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome.

  Numa gave each of these major priests a fine robe of office and a curule seat, a symbol of high civic authority. The great age of the priesthood shows itself in the obscure deities assigned to the twelve lesser flamines, known as the minores. Gods like Falacer, Palatua, and Volturnus were considered archaic even by the Romans of Augustus's time, suggesting the flaminate reached back to the earliest days of the city.

• 3. A Web of Taboos

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  Lucius Cornelius Merula, the flamen Dialis, died by suicide in 87 BC. That event left the office vacant for over 70 years, a fact that speaks directly to how impossibly demanding the position had become.

  The stability of Rome itself was believed to rest on the continued purity of the flamen Dialis. To protect that purity, the priest and his wife, the flaminica Dialis, were forbidden from touching, seeing, or referring to yeast, raw meat, goats, dogs, ivy, or beans. These objects were symbolically linked to pollution and death. The flaminica was further barred from wearing shoes made from the skin of an animal that had died of natural causes, and could not wash or comb her hair on certain days of religious significance.

  Flamines maiores could not ride horses. They could not leave the city of Rome for longer than a single day. They were explicitly barred from running for or holding any political office, a restriction that set them apart from other Roman priests who could still pursue careers in government and even used their religious standing as an advantage. These rules were effective enough that rivals could nominate enemies to the flaminate purely to halt their political or military advancement.

  The restrictions even extended to the marital bed. The flamen and flaminica Dialis could not sleep apart for more than three consecutive nights. Their bed's legs had to be covered with a thin layer of clay, and at the foot of the bed sat a box kept constantly filled with freshly-made sacrificial cakes.

• 4. Appointment and the Long Selection Process

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  In 104 BC, the Roman law known as the Lex Domitia de sacerdotis formalized the selection process for Roman priests, shifting the nomination of flamines from the Curiate Assembly, the oldest legislative body in the city, to the more egalitarian Tribal Assembly.

  Candidates put forward by the Tribal Assembly were then passed to the pontifex maximus, the head of the Pontifical College, who scrutinized each candidate's qualifications to ensure he was fit to serve. After selection, the new flamen and, in the case of the three maiores, also his wife had to participate in a ceremony called the captio. An augur would ask the relevant deities for a blessing, and the gods were expected to respond with proper signs visible to those present. These ceremonies, called comitia calata, took place on the Capitoline Hill.

  A flamen's tenure was expected to last for life. A holder could be compelled to resign for a breach of duty, or if an ill omen occurred during the performance of ceremonial obligations, which was understood as a divine signal that the priest had lost the favor of his patron deity. If a flamen maiore needed to be temporarily replaced, a proflamen drawn from the College of Pontiffs could stand in. The lone exception was the flamen Dialis, whose substitute could only be the pontifex maximus himself.

• 5. Dress and Ritual Identity

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  The official costume of the flamen Dialis allegedly dated back to the very founding of his office. It combined a white leather skull-cap called an albogalerus, a heavy double-thick wool cloak called the laena, and a laurel wreath. The albogalerus had a chin-strap and a point of olive wood on top called the apex, shaped like a spindle with a small tuft of wool at its base.

  The laena was worn over the toga praetexta and fastened at the throat with a clasp. The flaminica Dialis was required to weave this cloak herself by hand, cutting the fabric with a ritual blade called a secespikta. The laena could only be made of wool, possibly because wool carried apotropaic qualities and associations with purity. The flamen also wore senatorial boots called calcei, though this ritual outfit was worn only during sacrifices and ceremonies, not as daily dress.

  The flaminicae wore a dyed robe of unspecified color, with hair arranged in a tutulus-style bun and secured with a purple ribbon. A square cloak called a rica was draped over the head and across the shoulders and pinned in place with a branch cut from an arbor felix, a tree sacred to the gods. The specific tree used likely corresponded to the patron deity of that particular flaminica, offering a small point of individuality within an otherwise uniform costume.

• 6. Beyond the Three Maiores

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  Ten of the twelve flamines minores are known by name with reasonable certainty. Their deities span the range of Roman life: Carmentis, goddess of childbirth and prophecy, credited with creating the Latin alphabet; Ceres, goddess of agriculture; Flora, goddess of springtime; Pomona, goddess of fruitful abundance; Portunus, god of openings and gateways; and Vulcan, god of fire.

  Two of the twelve are entirely unknown. Ancient sources offer contradictory candidates, among them a possible flamen for Fontus, god of wells and fountains; one for the Lares or for Acca Larentia, goddess of fertility and caregiver to the infants Romulus and Remus; one for Neptune; and one for Virbius, an obscure forest god. Scholars have even proposed a flamen Lavinialis dedicated to Lavinia, the final wife of the legendary Roman progenitor Aeneas, though some evidence suggests this figure may have been a municipal priest for the nearby port city of Lavinium.

  The flamines Floralis and Pomonalis do not appear in ancient calendars because their festivals were moveable rather than fixed to specific dates. Some ritual records do survive for others: the Portunalis had connections to the cult of Quirinus, the Volcanalis to the cult of the goddess Maia on the Kalends of May, and the Cerealis performed recorded sacrifices to Ceres and Tellus.

• 7. Caesar, Augustus, and the Imperial Cult

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  A teenage Julius Caesar was once nominated to fill the vacancy left by Merula's suicide in 87 BC. He did not take the office. Decades later, two years after Caesar's assassination, the Senate voted in 42 BC to create a fourth flamen maior, the flamen Divi Iulii, to oversee the cult of the deified Caesar. Mark Antony became the first holder of that title in 40 BC.

  From that point forward, any deceased emperor could be declared divus by a vote of the Senate with the current emperor's consent, and a flamen would be assigned to his cult. Surviving titles include the flamen Augustalis, the flamen Tiberii Caesaris, and, for those assigned to multiple emperor-cults simultaneously, the flamen Divorum Omnium, meaning the priest of all the divine ones.

  The regulations governing these imperial flamines appear to have been modeled on those of the flamen Dialis. Their appointment helped spread and standardize the imperial cult across the provinces, with priests assigned to specific cities and regions. Some provinces used the traditional title of flamen; others used the more widely understood sacerdos, as was the case with the Sacerdotes Augustales. The last known incumbent of the original flamen Dialis position was Terentius Gentianus, recorded around 211 AD.