The apex (plural: ''apices'') was a cap worn by certain priests (the
flamines
A (plural ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of fifteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who served the importan ...
and
Salii
The Salii, Salians, or Salian priests were the "leaping priests" of Mars in ancient Roman religion, supposed to have been introduced by King Numa Pompilius. They were twelve patrician youths dressed as archaic warriors with an embroidered tunic, ...
) in
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
.
The essential part of the apex, to which alone the name properly belonged, was a pointed piece of olive-wood called diminutively an ''apicula'', the base of which was surrounded with a lock of wool. This was worn on the top of the head, and was held there either by
fillets only, or, as was more commonly the case, was also fastened by means of two strings or bands, or ''offendices'', though the latter word is also interpreted to mean a kind of button, by which the strings were fastened under the chin.
The flamines were forbidden by law to go into public - or even into the open air - without the apex, and hence we find the expression of ''alicui apicem dialem imponere'' used as equivalent to the appointment of a ''
Flamen Dialis
In ancient Roman religion, the was the high priest of Jupiter. The term ''Dialis'' is related to ''Diespiter'', an Old Latin form of the name ''Jupiter''. There were 15 '' flamines'', of whom three were ''flamines maiores'', serving the thr ...
''. Sulpicius was deprived of the priesthood, only because the apex fell from his head whilst he was sacrificing.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.
...
describes the cap as being of a conical form. On ancient monuments it can appear round or conical.
The albogalerus, or albus galerus was a white cap worn by the , made of the skin of a white victim sacrificed to Jupiter, and had the apex fastened to it by means of an olive-twig.
From the word ''apex'' was formed the epithet ''apicatus'', applied to the by
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
.
[Fast. iii.197]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Apex (Headdress)
Caps