The ''Titii'' (or ''Titii sodales'', later ''Titienses'', ''Sacerdotes Titiales Flaviales'') was a college ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests.

Origins

There are two versions of how the college was established. One credits

Titus Tatius According to the Roman foundation myth, Titus Tatius was the king of the Sabines from Cures and joint-ruler of the Kingdom of Rome for several years. During the reign of Romulus, the first king of Rome, Tatius declared war on Rome in respo ...

with creating the college to superintend and preserve the ''Titienses'', one of the three original tribes ''( tribus)'' in the Regal period, which may have represented the Italic tribe of Sabines. The other says that

Romulus Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...

created it in honour of king Tatius, who after his death was worshipped as a god.

History

During the

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

the Titii are no longer mentioned, as the

cults In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. Thi ...

of all Italic tribes became gradually united into Roman religion.Ambrosch, Studien u. Andeut., p. 192 The Titii were restored under the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, but their functions were changed to conduct the worship of an

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (emp ...

, like those of Sodales Augustales.

References

Ancient Roman religious titles {{Ancient-Rome-stub