PONTIFEX

PONTIFEX . The Latin noun pontifex, designating certain Roman high priests, is thought of as deriving from pons ("bridge") and facere ("to make"). This etymology, held by Varro (De lingua Latina 5.83), is accepted by the majority of modern scholars. Yet the discrepancy between this definition of "bridge maker" and the broad extent of the pontifical function has aroused some resistance among scholars both ancient and modern. At the beginning of the first century bce the pontifex maximus Q. Mucius Scaevola (cited by Varro, ibid.) preferred to see in the word pontifices a corruption of the word potifices (from posse, "to be able," and facere, "to do," undoubtedly in the sense of "to sacrifice"). Today, there are those who think that pons originally meant "path," even "obstacle path," by reason of its likeness to the Vedic pānthāh.

Commentators since antiquity have been struck by the contrast between the apparent specialization of the titleholder (Varro referred to the construction and restorations of the bridge of Sublicius by the pontiffs) and the importance of the role. The contrast is transparent in Festus: In one and the same paragraph he points out the attribution to the pontifex maximus of the fifth and last rank in the hierarchy of priests, even while defining him as the "judge and arbiter of things divine and human" (Festus, ed. Lindsay, 1913, p. 198 L.). Indeed, the pontifex maximus (aided by the pontifical college, which successively numbered three, nine, fifteen, and sixteen members) had become, from simple adviser to the king, the true head of Roman religion. Under the republic, it was he who sat in the Regia, which had become the domus publica of the pontifical college. He was the one who named—more precisely, it was said that he "seizes" (capit; Gallius, 1.12.15)—the rex sacrorum ("king of the sacrifices"), the flamines, and the Vestals whenever a vacancy occurred, and he had the right of supervision over all of them. He convoked and presided over the Comitia Calata, the assembly that witnessed the inauguration of the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores ("greater priests"). During that same assembly there also took place each month on the nones the proclamation by the rex of the month's holidays (feriae primae menstruae; Varro, De lingua Latina 5.83).

For a long time the pontiffs were the true regulators of time, in that the calendar was not published until 304 bce, when this was finally done at the instigation of the aedilis curulis, G. Flavius (Cicero, Pro Murena 25). In their archives the high priests kept all documents concerning the sacra publica, the public religion: lists of divinities to invoke (indigitamenta ); prayer formulas (carmina ) for the fulfillment of vows, dedications, and consecrations; cultic rules (leges templorum ); and prescriptions for expiatory sacrifices (piacula ).

Fundamentally, pontifical activity was carried out on two levels. On the liturgical level the high priests participated actively in public ceremonies, as for instance the anniversaries of temples. (The sacrificial utensils, the knife, secespita, and the ax, sacena, are among the pontifical symbols; Festus, op. cit., p. 422 L.) On the theological level the high priests provided decisions and responses (decreta and responsa ), which came to constitute the ius pontificium ("pontifical law"). The authority acquired by the pontifex maximus explains why, following the example of Julius Caesar, Augustus chose to add this dignity to his set of titles in 12 bce. Thereafter it remained attached to the imperial function.

Bibliography

Bleicken, Jochen. "Oberpontifex und Pontifikalkollegium." Hermes 85 (November 1957): 345–366.

Bouché-Leclercq, Auguste. Les pontifes de l'ancienne Rome. Paris, 1871.

Dumézil, Georges. La religion romaine archaïque. 2d ed. Paris, 1974. See pages 573–576. This work has been translated from the first edition by Philip Krapp as Archaic Roman Religion, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1970).

Hallett, Judith P. "Over Troubled Waters: The Meaning of the Title Pontifex." Translations and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 101 (1970): 219–227. A reconciliation of pons with the Vedic pānthāh.

Rhode, Georg. Die Kultsatzungen der römischen Pontifices. Berlin, 1936.

Szemler, G. J. "Pontifex." In Real-encyclopädie die Altertumwissenschaft, vol. 15. Munich, 1978.

Wissowa, Georg. Religion und kultus der Römer. 2d ed. Munich, 1912. See pages 501–521.

New Sources

Campanile, Enrico. "Sulla preistoria di lat. pontifex." Studi Classici e Orientali 32 (1982): 291–297.

Champeaux, Jacqueline. "Pontifes, haruspices et decemvirs. L'espiation des prodiges des 207." Revue des Études Latines 74 (1996): 67–91.

Desnier, Jean-Louis. "Les débordements du Fleuve." Latomus 57 (1998): 513–522.

Draper, Richard D. The Role of the Pontifex Maximus and Its Influence in Roman Religion and Politics. Ann Arbor, 1988.

Dupuis, Xavier. "Pontifes et augures dans les cités d'Afrique: modèle romain et specificités locales." In Idéologies et valeurs civiques dans le monde romain. Hommages à Claude Lepelley, ed. by Hervé Ingelbert, pp. 215–219. Paris, 2002.

Seguin, Roger. "Remarques sur les origines des pontifes romains. Pontifex maximus et Rex sacrorum." In Hommage a Henry Le Bonniec. Res sacrae, edited by Danielle Porte et Jean Pierre Néraudau, pp. 405–418. Brussels, 1988.

Robert Schilling (1987)

Translated from French by Paul C. Duggan
Revised Bibliography