Pontifex maximus
This was perhaps originally meant in a literal sense: the position of bridge-builder was indeed an important one in Rome, where the major bridges were over the Tiber, the sacred river (and a deity): only prestigious authorities with sacral functions could be allowed to "disturb" it with mechanical additions.
[16] This explanation takes into account that the college was established by Sabine king Numa Pompilius and the institution is Italic: the expressions pontis and pomperias found in the Iguvine Tablets may denote a group or division of five or by five.
Numa is said to have founded Roman religion after dedicating an altar on the Aventine Hill to Jupiter Elicius and consulting the gods by means of augury.
[citation needed] In the Roman Republic, the pontifex maximus was the highest office in the state religion of ancient Rome and directed the College of Pontiffs.
In artistic representations, he can be recognized by his holding an iron knife (secespita)[9] or the patera,[23] and the distinctive robes or toga with part of the mantle covering the head (capite velato), in keeping with Roman practice.
In practice, particularly during the late Republic, the office of pontifex maximus was generally held by a member of a politically prominent family.
The major Republican source on the pontiffs would have been the theological writings of Varro, which survive only in fragments preserved by later authors such as Aulus Gellius and Nonius Marcellus.
Other sources are Cicero, Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Valerius Maximus, Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius, Festus's summaries of Verrius Flaccus, and in later writers, including several of the Church Fathers.
The number of Pontifices, elected by co-optatio (i.e. the remaining members nominate their new colleague) for life, was originally five, including the pontifex maximus.
However, in 300–299 BC the lex Ogulnia opened the office of pontifex maximus to public election and permitted the plebs (plebeians) to be co-opted as priests, so that part of the exclusivity of the title was lost.
The law's promulgator, L[ucius] Domitius Ahenobarbus, was shortly afterwards elected pontifex maximus after the death of the incumbent Metellus Dalmaticus: Something of a personal revenge because, the previous year, he had expected to be co-opted as a pontiff to replace his late father, but the pontifical college had appointed another candidate in his place.
The office's next holder, Q[uintus] Mucius Scaevola, was also elected under the same law, though without controversy or opposition since he was a former consul and long-serving pontiff.
This law was abolished in 81 BC by Sulla in his dictatorship, in the lex Cornelia de Sacerdotiis, which restored to the great priestly colleges their full right of co-optatio.
(Possibly because Caesar's own long absences from Rome necessitated the appointment of a deputy pontiff for those occasions when fifteen needed to be present.)
[24] The office came into its own with the abolition of the monarchy, when most sacral powers previously vested in the King were transferred either to the pontifex maximus or to the Rex Sacrorum, though traditionally a (non-political) dictator[30] was formally mandated by the Senate for one day, to perform a specific rite.
According to Livy in his "History of Rome," an ancient instruction written in archaic letters commands: "Let him who is the Praetor Maximus fasten a nail on the Ides of September."
"[32] The immense authority of the sacred college of pontiffs was centered on the pontifex maximus, the other pontifices forming his consilium or advising body.
His real power lay in the administration of ius divinum or divine law;[33] the information collected by the pontifices related to the Roman religious tradition was bound in a corpus which summarized dogma and other concepts.
The chief departments of jus divinum may be described as follows: The pontifices had many relevant and prestigious functions such as being in charge of caring for the state archives, the keeping the official minutes of elected magistrates,[35] the list of magistrates, and they kept the records of their own decisions (commentarii) and of the chief events of each year, the so-called "public diaries", the Annales maximi.
Plutarch described Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (141–132 BC) as the first to leave Italy, after being forced by the Senate to do so, and thus break the sacred taboo.
Thus, from the time of Augustus, the election of pontifices ended and membership in the sacred college was deemed a sign of imperial favour.
[10] In post-Severan times (after 235 AD), the small number of pagan senators interested in becoming pontiffs led to a change in the pattern of office holding.
[37] When Tertullian, a Montanist, furiously applied the term to a bishop with whom he was at odds (either Pope Callixtus I or Agrippinus of Carthage),[38][39] ca.
[44] This practice was followed by Gratian's junior co-emperor Theodosius the Great and was used by emperors thereafter, including the co-augusti Valentinian III (r. 425–455), Marcian (r. 450–457) and the augustus Anastasius Dicorus (r. 491–518), for whom examples of official usage survive.
[44] Another inscription dedicated to Justin II (r. 565–574) and naming him pontifex has long been recognized as a forgery, though there is no evidence to suggest the title could not have been used by Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) or even by Constantine IV (r. 654–685).
[20]In the 15th century, when the Renaissance drove new interest in ancient Rome, pontifex maximus became a regular title of honour for Popes.
[citation needed] Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 220 AD), in his work "De Pudicitia" (On Modesty), criticized Pope Callixtus I for allowing repentant adulterers and fornicators back into the Church, even if they were repeat offenders, sarcastically referring to him as "Pontifex Maximus.
[citation needed] In December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI adopted @pontifex as his X (formerly known as Twitter) handle,[49] prompting users to pose questions with the #askpontifex hashtag.
