ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, the were the fifteen () members of a college (''collegium'') with priestly duties. They guarded the Sibylline Books, scriptures which they consulted and interpreted at the request of the Senate. This ''collegium'' also oversaw the worship of any foreign gods which were introduced to Rome. Originally these duties had been performed by ''

duumviri The duumviri ( Latin for "two men"), originally duoviri and also known in English as the duumvirs, were any of various joint magistrates of ancient Rome. Such pairs of magistrates were appointed at various periods of Roman history both in Rome i ...

'' (or ''duoviri''), two men of

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

status. Their number was increased to ten by the Licinian-Sextian Law in 367 BC, which also required for half of the priests to be plebeian. During the Middle Republic, members of the college were admitted through

co-option Co-option (also co-optation, sometimes spelt coöption or coöptation) has two common meanings. It may refer to the process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manage opposition and so maintai ...

. At some point in the third century BC, several priesthoods, probably including the ''quindecimviri'', began to be elected through the voting tribes.

Andrew Lintott Andrew William Lintott (born 9 December 1936) is a British classical scholar who specialises in the political and administrative history of ancient Rome, Roman law and epigraphy. He is an emeritus fellow of Worcester College, University of Oxfor ...

, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 183–18
online.
/ref>

References

External links

in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities at

LacusCurtius LacusCurtius is a website specializing in ancient Rome, currently hosted on a server at the University of Chicago. It went online on August 26, 1997; in July 2021 it had "3707 webpages, 765 photos, 772 drawings & engravings, 120 plans, 139 maps." T ...

Ancient Roman religious titles {{AncientRome-stub