PONTIFEX. The collegium of the pontifices was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome, being specially charged with the administration of the jus divinurn; i.e., that part of the civil law which regulated the relations of the community with the deities recognized by the State officially, together with a general superintendence of the worship of gens and family. The name is clearly derived from pons and facere, but whether this indicates any special connexion with the sacred bridge over the Tiber (Pons Sublicius) cannot now be determined. The college existed under the monarchy, when its members were probably three in number; they may be considered as legal advisers of the rex in all matters of religion. Under the republic they emerge into prominence under a pontifex maximus, who took over the king's duties as chief ad ministrator of religious law, just as his chief sacrificial duties were taken by the rex sacrorum; his dwelling was the regia, "the house of the king." During the republican period the number of pontifices increased, probably by multiples of three, until after Sulla (82 B.c.) we find them 15; for the year 57 B.C. we have a complete list of them in Cicero (Harusp. resp. 6, 12). Included in the collegium were also the rex sacrorum, the famines, three as sistant pontifices (minores), and the vestal virgins, who were all chosen by the pontifex maximus. Vacancies in the body of pon tifices were originally filled by co-optation ; but from the second Punic war onwards the pontifex maximus was chosen by a pe culiar form of popular election, and in the last age of the republic this held good for all the members. They all held office for life.
consecration of all temples and other sacred places and objects dedicated to the gods by the State through its magistrates; (3) the regulation of the calendar both astronomically and in detailed application to the public life of the State; (4) the administration of the law relating to burials and burying-places, and the worship of the Manes, or dead ancestors; (5) the superintendence of all marriages by confarreatio; i.e., originally of all legal patrician marriages; (6) the administration of the law of adoption and of testamentary succession. They had also the care of the State archives, of the lists of magistrates, and kept records of their own decisions (commentarii) and of the chief events (annales).
It is obvious that a priesthood with such functions and holding office for life, must have been a great power in the State, and for the first three centuries of the republic it is probable that the pontifex maximus was in fact its most powerful member. The office might be combined with a magistracy, and, though its powers were declaratory rather than executive, it may be de scribed as quasi-magisterial. Under the later republic it was coveted chiefly for the great dignity of the position; Julius Caesar held it for the last 20 years of his life, and Augustus took it after the death of Lepidus in 12 B.C., after which it became in separable from the office of the reigning emperor.