Flamen
The fifteen Republican flamens were members of the Pontifical College, who administered state-sponsored religion.
[3][4][5] However, the link remains uncertain since it is impossible to decide whether the Latin form reflects an earlier flă-men, flăd-men or flăg-smen.
[4][5] Indo-European scholar G. Dumézil attempted to link the term to the Sanskrit word brahman.
[a] Dumézil himself notes that the etymology has problems in terms of phonological shifts, and the cognates have not been universally accepted by modern scholars.
[7][5][b] Andrew Sihler considers the claim that flamen might be a cognate of the Vedic term to be as plausible.
He notes that the hypothesis of a connection to Gothic blotan and via Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₂d-m(e)n- is equally plausible.
[2] At the time of the religious reformation by Augustus, the origins and functions of many of the long-neglected gods resident in Rome were confusing even to the Romans themselves.
The obscurity of some of the deities assigned a flamen (for example Falacer, Palatua, Quirinus and Volturnus) suggests that the office dated back to Archaic Rome.
assume that the flamines existed at least from the time of the early Roman kings, prior to the establishment of the Republic.
For example, flamines were not allowed to ride a horse; therefore, this would make it extremely difficult for such a person to lead and command an army.
By the Pontifical College, three nominations were given to the pontifex maximus, those whom Romans believed to be the most worthy of such position.
The Pontifex Maximus did not just select a new Flamen Dialis, but "scrutinized each candidate's qualifications in order to ensure that he and his wife were fit to serve.
[16] Such a position in Roman society came with many privileges which in turn gave flamines a unique power.
Ralph Mathisen writes, "Their sacred cult should not be abandoned as long as a single person survived to observe it".
They were not allowed to wear Calcei Morticini, "shoes made from the skin of an animal that had died of natural causes."
[19] Another disadvantage for the flamines was that they "were also forbidden to touch, see, or refer to yeast, raw meat, goats, dogs, ivy, or beans," because it was thought that these could interfere with the flamen's religious practices.
When these flamines would have to perform ritual sacrifices, it was almost impossible for the flamen to avoid contact with raw meat.
The flamen and his wife, the flaminica, were required to be patricians, and their parents had to be married through the ancient ceremony of confarreatio.
The laena was a double-thick wool cloak with a fringed edge, and was worn over the flamen's toga with a clasp to hold it around his throat.
One example would be the honour killing and sacrifice of a ram, which was known as an offering to Jupiter and could only be done by the flaminica on market days.
The change to an urban way of life may explain why these deities lost their importance or fell into oblivion.
[35] Also preserved is the list of deities invoked by the flamen Cerialis when he officiated at sacrifices to the goddesses Ceres and Tellus.
[37] Others, among them Dumézil,[38] believe that inherent differences lay in the right of the auspicia maiora and the ritual of inauguration that concerned only the maiores[39] by birth as farreati, that is, as children of parents married through the ritual of confarreatio, which was the form of marriage in turn required for maiores.
