When a vacancy occurred, three persons of patrician descent, whose parents had been married according to the ceremonies of confarreatio (the strictest form of Roman marriage),[5] were nominated by the Comitia, one of whom was selected (captus), and consecrated (inaugurabatur) by the Pontifex Maximus.
[19] This last privilege, after having fallen into disuse for a long period, was asserted by Gaius Valerius Flaccus (209 BC), the claim allowed however, says Livy, more in deference to his high personal character than from a conviction of the justice of the demand.
i, 20) The Rex Sacrificulus or Rex Sacrorum alone was entitled to recline above him at a banquet; if one in bonds took refuge in his house, the chains were immediately struck off and conveyed through the impluvium to the roof, and thence cast down into the street:[12](x, 15) if a criminal on his way to punishment met him, and fell suppliant at his feet, he was respited for that day,[12](x, 15)[15](p 166) similar to the right of sanctuary attached to the persons and dwellings of the papal cardinals.
The Flamen Dialis was subjected to many restrictions and privations,[20] many of considerable Indo-European vintage,[21] a long catalogue of which was compiled by Aulus Gellius[12](x, 15) from the works of Fabius Pictor and Masurius Sabinus.
[25] In the view of Dumézil,[26] these prohibitions mark the Flamen Dialis as serving a celestial god, with his attributes of absolute purity and freedom, but also wielder of lightning and kingship.
[clarification needed][31][27](IV, 137) The flaminica wore a dyed robe (venenato operitur) and a small square cloth with a border (rica), to which was attached a slip cut from a felix arbor, a tree under the protection of the heavenly gods.