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, also called Tatius Sabinus, was 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 dec ...

with creating the college to superintend and preserve the ''Titienses'', one of the three original tribes ''( tribus)'' in the

Regal period The Roman Kingdom, also known as the Roman monarchy and the regal period of ancient Rome, was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to tradition, the Roman Kingdom began with the c ...

, which may have represented the Italic tribe of

Sabines The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

. 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 th ...

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

History

During the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

the Titii are no longer mentioned, as the cults of all Italic tribes became gradually united into Roman religion. The Titii were restored under the

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

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

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

, like those of

Sodales Augustales The Sodales or Sacerdotes Augustales (''singular'' Sodalis or Sacerdos Augustalis), or simply Augustales,Tacitus, ''Annales'' 1.54 were an order ('' sodalitas'') of Roman priests originally instituted by Tiberius to attend to the maintenance of t ...

. Augustus may have been a member of the Titii.

References

Ancient Roman religious titles {{Ancient-Rome-stub