Flamen Divi Julii

Origin and attributes of the office

In early 44 BC the Senate had decided that Caesar would be made a god of the Roman state, under the name and title of Divus Iulius. During the same session the inauguration of the respective priestly office was also decreed and Mark Antony was designated as the first flamen Divi Iulii. The original rationale for the creation of a new flamen maior can be found in early Roman history, when legendary king Numa fathered the third great flamen, the flamen Quirinalis, archpriest of Quirinus, a god of the Roman state who was later identified as the deified Romulus. Julius Caesar identified himself as a "re-founder" of Rome, a descendant of Romulus, the god Mars and, by way of the Trojan hero Aeneas, a descendant of Venus. Romulus' legendary successor, Numa, set a precedent for Caesar to appoint his own flamen maior to serve his cult after his planned apotheosis.

Office holders in the city of Rome

Mark Antony

In his function as pontifex maximus, Julius Caesar himself had chosen his friend and ally Mark Antony for the office, using the ritual of captio (sacred capture). He could not designate his nephew Octavian, because Octavian was his intended political heir. Mark Antony was a close confidant, and a near relative through his mother Iulia, but he was also a plebeian. He had been an augur since 50 BC, and later magister of the newly established luperci Iulii but he had to be elevated to patrician status, and married in a confarreato ceremony, before he could use his augurate on Caesar's behalf as flamen maior. After the peace conference and negotiations at Brindisi in October 40 BC Mark Antony was officially recognised as flamen Divi Iulii by Octavian and Lepidus, Antony's co-rulers in the so-called Second Triumvirate.

Sextus Apuleius

After Antony's death the position of flamen Divi Iulii in the city of Rome was assumed by a Sextus Apuleius, perhaps the urban praetor of the same name, or more probably his son; the latter had served with Octavian as consul in 29 BC (and therefore held an augurate), and was promoted to patrician status in that year. He might have been inaugurated before the consecration of Augustus's Ara Pacis Augusteae in 13 BC; some modern scholars speculate that he is portrayed as one of the four flamines maiores on its southern frieze.

Lucius Iunius Silanus Torquatus

For urban Rome only one other flamen Divi Iulii is known, namely Lucius Iunius Silanus Torquatus. He was related to the imperial family, was made a patrician in AD 29 and was elected flamen under emperor Claudius, most probably around AD 41. His official title is given as flamen Divi Iuli et Augusti; the separate offices of flamen Divi Iulii and flamen Divi Augusti were united some time after Augustus' death in AD 14, probably under Tiberius.

Municipal and provincial priesthoods

Imperial priests played an important role in provincial politics and religion. They held "a status recognized by their privileged position in the assembly, and as eponymous officials." While most Roman priests held their religious office for life, provincial priests in client or allied states might be elected for no more than a year, and be simultaneously rewarded with Roman citizenship. The first developments in provincial cults to Caesar as a living god were in the east, where the worship of mortals and heroes was a long-standing tradition. commonplace. They spread after Caesar's death and promotion as divus, especially in the Caesarian and Augustan colonies such as Ephesus, Corinth, Nicaea, Caesarea Maritima. In the West, they were slower to develop.

Inscriptional sources from Italy

Listed are the known titles of municipal priests of Divus Iulius in Italy from inscriptional sources.

Caesar, emperors and some Imperial family members were the subject of prayers offered by the twelve Fratres Arvales, an archaic and probably ancient priesthood reformed or supported by Augustus in his revival, or possibly reinvention, of traditional Roman cults. Augustus was pontifex maximus and a supernumery member of the Arval priesthood. It is not known how the duties of the Brethren were dispersed among its members, but their calendrical responsibilities included vows and sacrifice on January 3 for the safety of the ruling emperor, and the festival and the May rites to Dea Dia. --

Footnotes

References

References

1. In the municipalities the office was sometimes also called ''flamen Divi Iuli'' (old Republican genitive case), ''flamen Iulialis'', ''flamen Iulianus'', ''flamen Caesaris'' and ''flamen Divi Caesaris perpetuus'', maybe also generalized as ''sacerdos Caesaris''.
2. [[Cassius Dio. Lucius Claudius Cassius Dio Cocceianus]], ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/44*.html#4 44.4–6]; [[Cicero. Marcus Tullius Cicero]], ''Philippics'' [http://attalus.org/cicero/philippic2_2.html#110 2.110], [http://attalus.org/cicero/philippic13.html#41 13.41] & [http://attalus.org/cicero/philippic13.html#47 13.47]
3. Richard D. Draper, ''The Role of the Pontifex Maximus and its Influence in Roman Religion and Politics'', Ann Arbor 1988, pp. 337–341
4. [[Plutarch]], ''Antony'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html#33 33.1]; the note stating that Mark Antony was made ''pontifex maximus'' is incorrect. This office was held by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus at the time until his death in 13 or 12 BC. Lepidus as ''pontifex maximus'' will also have been the one repeating Caesar's original ''captio''.
5. Cp. e.g. Walther Sontheimer & Konrat Ziegler, ''Der kleine Pauly – Lexikon der Antike in fünf Bänden'', München 1979, p. 470
6. ''CIL'' 8.24583 = ''ILS'' 8963; alternative spelling: ''Sextus Appuleius''.
7. John Pollini, "Ahenobarbi, Appuleii and Some Others on the Ara Pacis", ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 90, No. 4 (October 1986), pp. 453–460; the son of the praetor as ''flamen'' is also preferred by Martha W. Hoffman-Lewis, ''The Official Priests of Rome under the Julio-Claudians. A Study of the Nobility from 44 B.C. to 68 A.D.'', Rome 1955, p. 37
8. ''Act. Arv.'' 41; ''CIL'' 6.37162
9. ''CIG'' 369 = ''IG'' 3.612
10. S. R. F. Price, ''Rituals and Power – The Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor'', Cambridge 1984, pp. 62–63
11. Duncan Fishwick, ''The Imperial Cult in the Latin West'', Leiden/Boston 1980–2005, ''passim''.
12. Ittai Gradel, ''Emperor Worship and Roman Religion'', Oxford 2002, pp. 376 & 379
13. Usually interpreted as a priest of [[Augustus]]. The inscription could in principle also refer to Julius Caesar, since the ''flamines'' are considered a subcategory of the general ''sacerdotes''.
14. The title denotes a priest for all [[Divus. ''Divi'']], possibly including Divus Iulius. The term ''flamen Divorum'' was introduced after Augustus' apotheosis. The cult of Divus Iulius was not typical of Imperial cult in general, due to the extraordinary circumstances of his unofficial worship as divine while still living, his murder, and his subsequent apotheosis.
15. Maybe also ''CIL'' XIV.444 (''flamen Divorum [ . . . ] [?]'')
16. Beard, Mary. “Writing and Ritual: A Study of Diversity and Expansion in the Arval Acta.” Papers of the British School at Rome 53 (1985): 114–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40310817.