Augustus as Pontifex Maximus
(Via Labicana Augustus)

The pontifex maximus (Latin, "greatest priest"[1][2][3]) was the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. A distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian[4] (reigned 375–383) who, however, then decided to omit the words "pontifex maximus" from his title.[5][6] Although in fact the most powerful office of Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was officially ranked fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests (ordo sacerdotum), behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores (Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, Flamen Quirinalis).[7]

The word "pontifex" and its derivative "pontiff" later became terms used for Catholic bishops,[8] including the Bishop of Rome,[9][10] and the title of "Pontifex Maximus" was applied within the Catholic Church to the Pope as its chief bishop and appears on buildings, monuments and coins of popes of Renaissance and modern times. The official list of titles of the Pope given in the Annuario Pontificio includes "Supreme Pontiff" (in Latin, Summus Pontifex) as the fourth title, the first being "Bishop of Rome".[11]


The etymology of "pontifex" is uncertain, and has been since Roman times. The word appears to consist of the Latin word for "bridge" and the suffix for "maker". However, there is a possibility that this definition is a folk etymology for an Etruscan term,[6] since Roman religion was heavily influenced by Etruscan religion, and very little is known about the Etruscan language, which is not Indo-European.

According to the common interpretation, the term pontifex means "bridge-builder" (pons + facere); "maximus" means "greatest". 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. However, it was always understood in its symbolic sense as well: the pontifices were the ones who smoothed the "bridge" between gods and men[12].

The interpretation of the word pontifex as "bridge-builder" was that of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Marcus Terentius Varro. Plutarch pointed out that the term existed before there were any bridges in Rome and derived the word from Old Latin pontis (sic) meaning a powerful or absolute master, while others derived it from potis facere in the sense of "able to sacrifice".[13] The last derivation is mentioned also by Varro, who rejected it,[14] but it was the view of Pontifex Maximus Quintus Scaevola.[15] Others have held that the word was originally pompifex (leader of public processions).[15] The word pons originally meant "way" and pontifex would thus mean "maker of roads and bridges".[15]

Another opinion is that the word is a corruption of a similar-sounding but etymologically unrelated Etruscan word.[16] Yet another hypothesis[17] considers the word as a loan from the Sabine language, in which it would mean a member of a college of five, from Osco-Umbrian ponte, five.[18] This explanation takes into account the fact 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. The pontifex would thence be a member of a sacrificial college known as pomperia (Latin quinio).[19]

The Roman title "Pontifex Maximus" was rendered in Greek inscriptions and literature of the time as "ἀρχιερεύς" archierheús (literally, "high priest"|)[20] or by a more literal translation and order of words as "ἀρχιερεὺς μέγιστος" archirheús mégistos (literally, "greatest high priest").[21] The term "ἀρχιερεύς" archierheús is used in the Septuagint text of the Old Testament and in the New Testament to refer to the Jewish high priest, also in 2Mac 4, 7.

Origins in the Regal periodEdit



Roman RepublicEdit


The official residence of the Pontifex Maximus was the Domus Publica ("State House") which stood between the House of the Vestal Virgins and the Via Sacra, close to the Regia, in the Roman Forum. His religious duties were carried out from the Regia. Unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i.e. toga with the purple border. In artistic representations, he can be recognized by his holding an iron knife (secespita)[6] or the patera,[24] and the distinctive robes or toga with part of the mantle covering the head (capite velato), in keeping with Roman practice.



Election and numberEdit

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.[4][6] The pontifices, moreover, could only come from the old nobility, the patricians. However, in 300–299 BCE 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. But it was only in 254 BCE that Tiberius Coruncanius became the first plebeian Pontifex Maximus.[25]

The lex Ogulnia also increased the number of pontiffs to nine (the pontifex maximus included). In 104 BCE the lex Domitia prescribed that the election of all pontiffs would henceforward be voted by the comitia tributa (an assembly of the people divided into voting districts); by the same law only 17 tribes, chosen by lot from the 35 tribes of the city, could vote. 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 BCE by Sulla in his dictatorship, in the lex Cornelia de Sacerdotiis, which restored to the great priestly colleges their full right of co-optatio.[26][27][28] Also under Sulla, the number of pontifices was increased to fifteen, the pontifex maximus included, and Sulla nominated Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius as the next holder of the office – the only truly unelected Pontifex Maximus in history, since even the other pontiffs did not get a vote in the matter.

In 63 BC, the law of Sulla was abolished by the tribune Titus Labienus, and a modified form of the lex Domitia was reinstated providing for election by comitia tributa once again: Gaius Julius Caesar followed Ahenobarbus's precedent by being elected by public vote, although Caesar at least had previously been a pontiff. Marcus Antonius later restored the right of co-optatio to the college[29], in time for the election of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Also under Julius Caesar, the number of pontifices were increased to sixteen, the pontifex maximus included. (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.) The number of pontifices varied during the Empire but is believed to have been regular at fifteen.[4]

Extraordinary appointment of dictatorsEdit

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.




The main duty of the Pontifices was to maintain the pax deorum or "peace of the gods."[32][33][34]

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 functions were partly sacrificial or ritualistic, but these were the least important. His real power lay in the administration of ius divinum or divine law;[35] 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[36] and 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.[37]

The Pontifex Maximus was also subject to several taboos. Among them was the prohibition to leave Italy. Plutarch described Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio (141–132 BCE) as the first to leave Italy, after being forced by the Senate to do so, and thus break the sacred taboo. Publius Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus (132–130 BCE) was the first to leave Italy voluntarily. Afterwards it became common and no longer against the law for the Pontifex Maximus to leave Italy. Among the most notable of those who did was Julius Caesar (63–44 BCE).

Denarius depicting Julius Caesar as Pontifex Maximus



Roman EmpireEdit

After Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE, his ally Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was selected as Pontifex Maximus. Though Lepidus eventually fell out of political favor and was sent into exile as Augustus consolidated power, he retained the priestly office until his death in 13 BCE, at which point Augustus was selected to succeed him and given the right to appoint other pontifices. Thus, from the time of Augustus, the election of pontifices ended and membership in the sacred college was deemed a sign of imperial favour.[6] With this attribution, the new office of Emperor was given a religious dignity and the responsibility for the entire Roman state cult. Most authors contend that the power of naming the Pontifices was not really used as an instrumentum regni, an enforcing power.


In post-Severan times (after 235 CE), the small number of pagan senators interested in becoming pontiffs led to a change in the pattern of office holding. In Republican and Imperial times no more than one family member of a gens was member of the College of Pontiffs, nor did one person hold more than one priesthood in this collegium. However, these rules were obviously loosened in the later part of the 3rd century A.D. In periods of joint rule, at first only one of the emperors bore this title, as it occurred for the first time during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, when only Marcus Aurelius was pontifex maximus, but later two pontifices maximi could serve together, as Pupienus and Balbinus did in 238 A.D.—a situation unthinkable in Republican times.

In the crisis of the Third Century, usurpers did not hesitate to claim for themselves the role not only of Emperor but of Pontifex Maximus as well. Even the early Christian Emperors continued to use it; it was only relinquished by Gratian, possibly in 376 A.D. at the time of his visit to Rome,[12] or more probably in 383 when a delegation of pagan senators implored him to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House.[38] A more recent article suggests that the title may have been kept by Gratian and even accepted by Theodosius and Valentian.[39]

Tradition of sovereign as high priestEdit





Even in countries where there was no formal break with the Holy See, various sovereigns assumed similar authority. An example is Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, whose ecclesiastical policy is described in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) article on him.[41]

Catholic Church use of the titleEdit


When Tertullian, a Montanist, furiously applied the term to some bishop with whom he was at odds (either Pope Callixtus I or Agrippinus of Carthage),[42][43] c 220, over a relaxation of the Church's penitential discipline allowing repentant adulterers and fornicators back into the Church, it was in bitter irony:


— Tertullian, On Modesty ch. 1











In December 2012 Pope Benedict XVI adopted @pontifex as his Twitter handle,[50] prompting users to pose questions with the #askpontifex hashtag.[51][52] This has been maintained by his successor Pope Francis, who now uses it as his Twitter handle.[53]

Summus pontifexEdit

Various forms of summus pontifex (highest pontiff or bishop) were for centuries used not only of the Bishop of Rome but of other bishops also. Hilary of Arles (d. 449) is styled summus pontifex by Eucherius of Lyons (P. L., L, 773), and Lanfranc is termed primas et pontifex summus by his biographer, Milo Crispin (P. L., CL, 10. The term was originally applied to the High Priest of Israel (cf. Judith 15:9 in the Vulgate), whose place the Christian bishops were regarded as holding each in his own diocese (I Clement 40), but from the 11th century it appears to be applied only to the Pope.[54]


See alsoEdit


  1. ^ Peck, Harry Thurston (1896). "s. v. Pontifex". Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 1299.
  2. ^ Lewis, Chartlon T.; Short, Charles (1879). "s. v. pontifex". A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press – via Perseus Project.
  3. ^ "s. v. pontifex". American Heritage Dictionary (Fifth ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Smith, William (1875). "Pontifex Maximus". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 939–942. Retrieved August 15, 2006 – via LacusCurtius.
  5. ^ Tikkanen, Amy (February 3, 2008). "Gratian". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2019 – via Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  6. ^ a b c d e Lendering, Jona. "Pontifex Maximus". Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2011 – via Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ Forsythe, Gary (January 1, 2006). A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-520-24991-2. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  8. ^ Pascal, Paul (February 1966). "Medieval Uses of Antiquity". The Classical Journal. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. 61 (5): 193–197. JSTOR 3294702. In the matter of hierarchical nomenclature, one of the most striking instances is the adoption of the term pontifex for a bishop
  9. ^ Edictum Gratiani, Valentiani et Theodosii de fide catholica. The Roman Law Library. February 27, 380. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  10. ^ "Pontiff: 1a. The pope. b. A bishop. 2. A pontifex.". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2000. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  11. ^ Annuario Pontificio. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 2012. p. 23. ISBN 978-88-209-8722-0.
  12. ^ a b c Van Haeperen[citation needed]
  16. ^ [1]
  18. ^ Cf. Greek πέντε
  20. ^ Polybius 23.1.2 and 32.22.5; Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum 3.43, 3.428 und 3.458
  21. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum 2.2696 and 3.346; Plutarch Numa 9.4
  22. ^ a b Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:20
  23. ^ Roman Public Religion Archived March 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Roman Civilization, retrieved August 17, 2006
  25. ^ Titus Livius. Ex Libro XVIII Periochae, from retrieved August 16, 2006
  26. ^ Liv. Epit. 89
  27. ^ Pseudo-Ascon. in Divinat. p 102, ed. Orelli
  28. ^ Dion Cass. xxxvii. 37
  29. ^ Dion Cass. xliv. 53
  30. ^ see also: basileus, interrex
  31. ^ Livy (Titus Livius). "History of Rome". Ancient History Sourcebook: Accounts of Roman State Religion, c. 200 BCE – 250 CE. Paul Halsall © August 1998 (public domain), Fordham University; Retrieved August 23, 2006.
  33. ^ Pax Deorum retrieved August 17, 2006
  34. ^ "Roman Mythology" Archived May 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006. Retrieved August 17, 2006
  35. ^ jus divinum, Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary retrieved August 24, 2006
  36. ^ Ovid, Fasti
  37. ^ Fowler, William Warde (1911). "Pontifex" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 66.
  38. ^ A. Cameron, A. (1969). Gratian's repudiation of the pontifical robe. The Journal of Roman Studies, 58: 96–102. The confusion in dates arises from Zosimus, who writes that it was repudiated at Gratian's accession, impossible from epigraphic and literary references
  39. ^ Cameron, A. (2007). The Imperial Pontifex. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 103: 341–384
  40. ^ Myth Notes; Archived January 22, 2008, at the Wayback Machine; Mitchell, John Malcolm (1911). "Archon" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 444–445.; "Archon". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  41. ^   Franz, Hermann (1910). "Joseph II" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  44. ^ Pontifex Maximus Archived August 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Columbia Encyclopedia Sixth Edition. 2001–05., retrieved August 15, 2006
  45. ^ Emperor Gratian Roman Emperors retrieved August 15, 2006
  47. ^ Odyssey, VI, 57
  49. ^ Theodosian Code XVI.1.2; and Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History", VII, iv. Emperor Theodosius I. "IMPERATORIS THEODOSIANI CODEX Liber Decimus Sextus" (web). Retrieved December 4, 2006.
  53. ^ The official Twitter page of Pope Francis
  54. ^   Joyce, George Hayward (1911). "Pope § Titles" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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