Flamen Dialis

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High priest of Jupiter in ancient Rome

title: "Flamen Dialis" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ancient-roman-religious-titles", "flamines-dialis", "jupiter-(god)"] description: "High priest of Jupiter in ancient Rome" topic_path: "society/religion" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamen_Dialis" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary High priest of Jupiter in ancient Rome ::

In ancient Roman religion, the flamen Dialis was the high priest of Jupiter.

The office of Flamen Dialis, and the offices of the other flamines maiores, were traditionally said to have been created by Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, although Numa himself performed many of the rites of the Flamen Dialis.

Appointment and privileges

The Flamen Dialis enjoyed many peculiar honours. 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), were nominated by the Comitia, one of whom was selected (captus), and consecrated (inaugurabatur) by the Pontifex Maximus.

From that time forward he was emancipated from the control of his father, and became sui juris. He alone of all priests wore the apex,{{refn| Varro, ap. Gellius

Restrictions

The Flamen Dialis was subjected to many restrictions and privations, many of considerable Indo-European vintage, a long catalogue of which was compiled by Aulus Gellius from the works of Fabius Pictor and Masurius Sabinus.

It was unlawful for him to be out of the city for a single night; a regulation which seems to have been modified by Augustus, insofar that an absence of two nights was permitted.
He was forbidden to sleep out of his own bed for three nights consecutively. Thus, it was impossible for him to undertake the government of a province.
He might not
- mount or even touch a horse,
- touch iron, or
- look at an army marshalled outside the pomerium.
He might not be elected to the consulship. Indeed, it would seem that originally he was altogether precluded from seeking or accepting any civil magistracy; but this last prohibition was certainly not enforced in later times.
The Flamen Dialis was required to wear certain unusual garments, such as the apex, a point-tipped hat, and a laena, a heavy wool cloak.
He was not allowed to swear an oath,
nor to wear a ring nisi pervio et casso ("unless plain and without stones");
nor to strip himself naked in the open air
nor to go out without his proper head-dress
nor to have a knot in any part of his attire
nor to walk along a path over-canopied by vines.
He might not touch flour, nor leaven, nor leavened bread.
He might not touch a dead body, nor enter a burial place, but he was allowed to attend a funeral.
He was forbidden either to touch or to name a dog, a she-goat, ivy, beans, or raw flesh.
None but a free man might cut his hair; the clippings of which, together with the parings of his nails, were buried beneath an arbor felix ("auspicious tree").
No one might sleep in his bed, the legs of which were smeared with fine clay
It was unlawful to place a box containing sacrificial cakes in contact with the bedstead
He was not allowed to be present of a table without food, so that he never appeared wanting.

The object of these rules was clearly to make him literally Jovi adsiduum sacerdotem (the constant priest of Jove / Jupiter), to compel constant attention to the duties of the priesthood, and to leave him effectively without any temptation to neglect them.

In the view of Dumézil, 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. Within his scope of action there are the domains of political power and right, but not battle, which belongs to Mars and the Flamen Martialis. His solidarity with the king is reflected in that of his earthly counterpart, the rex sacrorum. Similar partnerships, with similar ritual restrictions, are seen reflected in other Indo-European cultures, such as that of the Vedic rajan and his purohita, and the ancient Irish rig and the chief druid.

Flaminica Dialis

The Flaminica Dialis was the wife of the Flamen Dialis. She was required to be a virgin at the time of their wedding, which had to be conducted according to the ceremonies of confarreatio, the traditional form of marriage for patricians. (This regulation also applied to the marriages of the two other flamines maiores.) The flaminica was assigned a special ritual attire. Her hair was plaited up with a purple band in a conical form (tutulus), but when she went to participate in the ritual of the Argei, she neither combed nor arranged her hair. The flaminica and the regina sacrorum were the only ones who might wear the hairdressing named (in)arculata. 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. The rica may have been a short cloak, or less likely a sort of scarf or veil thrown over the head. The restrictions imposed upon the flaminica were similar to those placed on her husband. She was prohibited from mounting a staircase consisting of more than three steps, perhaps to prevent her ankles from being seen.

Holders of the office

Publius Cornelius Sulla, probably appointed flamen by the Pontifex Maximus Publius Cornelius Calussa . He may have been the son of Publius Cornelius Rufinus, and the first member of his family named Sulla.
Lucius Quinctius, appointed in the middle of the 3rd century BC. He was probably a son of Caeso Quinctius Claudus, and the ancestor of the Quinctii Flaminini.
Publius Cornelius Scipio, grandson of Scipio Africanus, became Flamen Dialis in 174 BC. He died soon after between 170 and 168 BC.
Lucius Cornelius Merula was likely chosen flamen at the end of the 2nd century BC. He is mostly known for his death in 87 BC, during the civil war between the two consuls of 87 BC, Octavius and Cinna. Appointed suffect consul in replacement of Cinna, who had been expelled by Octavius, Merula resigned when Cinna returned to Rome with an army. Targeted by Cinna's and Marius' purge, he instead committed suicide in Dec. 87 in the Temple of Jupiter, calling down curses on his enemies with his dying breath.
Gaius Julius Caesar, the future dictator, was chosen at the instigation of Cinna, his father-in-law, at the end of 87 BC, or before 13 January 86 BC, while Marius was still alive. Due to inclusive counting, it is hard to be certain if this means 71 or 72 years).
Servius Cornelius Lentulus Maluginensis, probably a son of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Augur. Born , he seems to have become flamen , after the long hiatus that followed the removal of Caesar. But since the first mention of him in office appears in Tac. Ann. 3.58.1 for AD 22, it is very likely he was not the first man to hold the post after the long vacancy. Accordingly, the exact date that Maluginensis became Flamen Dialis is uncertain. Cassius Dio 54.36.1 says the post was filled about 11 BC, a date unwisely accepted by many modern scholars who forget that Tacitus is more reliable and closer to the events than Dio. Tacitus
Cornelius Lentulus Maluginensis, succeeded his father as flamen in AD 23, probably at a very young age.
Terentius Gentianus is mentioned as flamen in an inscription commissioned for his sister. The last known Flamen Dialis. Since he was also consul in AD 211 it seems the restrictions on holding political offices had been removed.

Footnotes

References

Broughton, —. (–). ——, vol II, p 52.

Dumézil, G. (1977). ——, It. tr. Milan pp. 146-148 and 31-32.

Sextus Pompeius Festus, ——, s.v. tutulum and rica

|author=Gaius |title=Institutes

|author=Aulus Gellius |title=Noctes Atticae |trans-title=Attic Nights

|author=Kirchmann |title=De Annulis |page=14

|author=Livy |title=Ab urbe condita

|author=Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius |title=Saturnalia

Paulus, ——, p 237 L 2nd.

|author=Plutarch |script-title=el:Αἰτίαι Ῥωμαϊκαί |trans-title=Roman Questions |editor=Reiske

|author=Maurus Servius Honoratus |title=Ad Aeneidem |trans-title=On the Aeneid

|author=Tacitus |title=Annales

Ulpian, Frag. x.5

|author=Valerius Maximus |title=Facta et dicta memorabilia |at=ix 12.5

|author=Velleius |title=Paterculus |at=ii, 20; ii, 22

Bibliography

Henri Etcheto, Les Scipions. Famille et pouvoir à Rome à l’époque républicaine, Bordeaux, Ausonius Éditions, 2012.
Friedrich Münzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families, translated by Thérèse Ridley, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 (originally published in 1920).
Jörg Rüpke, Anne Glock, David Richardson (translator), Fasti Sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499, Oxford University Press, 2008.

This article is based on a portion of the article "Flamen" from Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, in the public domain.

References

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Many scholars have however debated the possibility that Caesar was never formally appointed, because of his age. The theory that religious technicalities interfered as if his mother [[Aurelia (mother of Caesar)
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(2018). "A Flamen Dialis Recorded on a Decorated Marble Slab from Ptolemais-Acco". Jerusalem and Eretz Israel.

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