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 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 A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. This ''collegium'' also oversaw the worship of any foreign gods which were introduced to Rome. They were also responsible for responding to divine advice and omens. Originally these duties had been performed by '' duumviri'' (or ''duoviri''), two men of patrician 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 In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

. During the Middle Republic, members of the college were admitted through

co-option Co-option, also known as co-optation and sometimes spelt cooption or cooptation, is a term with three common meanings. It may refer to: 1) The process of adding members to an elite Social group, group at the discretion of members of the body, us ...

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

increased the number of priests to fifteen. The ''Lex Domitia'' removed their ability to select their own members in 104 BCE. Afterwards candidates from wealthy Roman gentes would be elected. At some point in the third century BC, several priesthoods, probably including the ''quindecimviri'', began to be elected through the voting tribes. Andrew Lintott, ''The Constitution of the Roman Republic'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 183–18
online.
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References

External links

in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities at

LacusCurtius LacusCurtius is the ancient Graeco-Roman part of a large history website, hosted as of March 2025 on a server at the University of Chicago. Starting in 1995, as of January 2004 it gave "access to more than 594 photos, 559 drawings and engravings, ...

Ancient Roman religious titles {{AncientRome-stub