There was no cast of Roman priests. It was a job performed by
magistrates, who were elected for life. Originally a magistrate could
only hold one priesthood, but this changed with Julius Caesar.
Initially
only patricians could become priest. After ca. 300bc also plebeians
could
be elected.
There was a great variety of Roman priests, all with their own specific
task:
Pontifex
The pontifices formed
most important group. They made the religious laws,
acted as
judges in religious matters. The Pontifex
Maximus was the chief of the pontifices. He also disciplined the
Vestal
virgins,
who belonged to college of the pontifices. The rex sacrorum, who
performed the religious duties of the old kings was also a member
of
that college. Initially there were 4. After 300bc 8 pontifices and 4 of them had to be
plebeians. Sulla
would raise the number to 15.
The title Pontifex Maximus still exists today: it's the title of the
pope in Rome. The early christians adopted a lot more habits from the
Romans.
The
Flamen Martialis was clearly dedicated
to Mars.
Flamen Quirinalis to Quirinus
the deified Romulus.
Flamen Dialis worshipped Jupiter.
He and his wife had to live with a lot restraints:
And so on.
Imagine that Julius
Caesar who in his
young days had been appointed Flamen Dialis and Sulla
when he came to power not had cancelled all appointments, how the world
would have looked like. Later Julius Caesar would buy his priesthood.
He bribed himself an appointment to Pontifex Maximus.
There were also 12 minor flamines. For only ten of them the god's names
are still known: Carmenta, Ceres,
Falacer,Flora,
Palatua, Pomona, Portunus,Volturnus,Vulcanus and Furrina.
Salii
The college of the Salii, another group of 12 priests, was formed by 12 young nobles who were dressed in broided tunics and special shields. They were to sing and dance in honour of Mars.
Fetiales
Fetiales were
Roman priests responsible for the rituals associated to declaration of
war and peace-treaties. When something happened between two (or more) states, first the fetials were sent to demand compensation. If that state refused, which often was the case the senate and the ppeople would decide wether to go to war or not. When it was decided to go to war, the fetiales
would
ride to the border of the enemy territory to perform a ritual that
ended with throwing a blood tipped spear across the border.
See Livius (1.32) and here
This worked fine as long as the borders were nearby Rome. Later when the borders were too far off, the ceremony took place in Rome itself. The Romans would take a lot of trouble to make (believe that) every war was a just war (bellum iustum) even when that was (often) not the case.
Augurs
To learn the will of the gods, they
were consulted before an important decision was taken. This
consultation for approval was carried out by the college of augurs. One might
call them birdwatchers. The augurs would observe a
part of the sky and report everything the birds did up there. It is
obvious that they could easily cheat with these Roman omens.
There were 4 augurs. Until 300 bc all of them being patrician, from
then on also plebeians and the number of augurs was increased to 9. Sulla would increase the number
to 15.
Haruspex
Haruspices were Etruscan priests specialized in reading entrails of sacrificed
animals. They were also
specialized in explaining the will of the gods from lightning.
