Patrician (ancient Rome)
- This page is about the social and political class in ancient Rome. For other uses of the term see Patrician (disambiguation).
The term patrician (Latin: patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος, patrikios) originally referred to a group of elite families in ancient Rome, including both their natural and adopted members. In the late Roman Empire, the class was broadened to include high council officials, and after the fall of the Western Empire it remained a high honorary title in the Byzantine Empire. Medieval patrician classes were once again formally defined groups of elite burgher families in many medieval Italian republics, such as Venice and Genoa, and subsequently “patrician” became a vaguer term used for aristocrats and elite bourgeoisie in many countries.
Etymology
The word “patrician” is derived from the Latin word patricius (plural patricii), which comes from patrēs, the plural of the Latin word pater (father). Pater was one of the terms applied to the original members of the Roman Senate. The word comes down in English as “patrician” from the Middle English patricion, from the Old French patrician. In modern English, the word patrician is generally used to denote a member of the upper class, often with connotations of inherited wealth, elitism, and a sense of noblesse oblige.
Origin
According to Livy, the first 100 men appointed as senators by Romulus were referred to as “fathers” (patres),[1] and the descendants of those men became the Patrician class.[2] The patricians were distinct from the plebeians because they had wider political influence, at least in the times of the Republic. As the middle and late Republic saw this influence gradually stripped, non-patricians (i.e. plebeians) were granted equal rights on a range of areas, and quotas of officials, including one of the two consulships, were exclusively reserved for plebeians.
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus (Latin, literally: “greatest pontiff“) was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. A distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian[1] (reigned 375–383) who, however, then decided to omit the words “pontifex maximus” from his title.[2][3]
The word “pontifex” later became a term used for Christian bishops,[4] including the Bishop of Rome,[5] and the title of “Pontifex Maximus” was applied within the Roman Catholic Church to the Pope as its chief bishop. It is not included in the Pope’s official titles,[6] but appears on buildings, monuments and coins of popes of Renaissance and modern times.
Origins in the Regal period
The Collegium Pontificum (College of Pontiffs) was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this sacred college and the office of Pontifex Maximus is attributed to the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius.[15] Much of what is known about the Regal period in Roman history is semi-legendary or mythical. The Collegium presumably acted as advisers to the rex (king) in religious matters. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus, and all the pontifices held their office for life. But the pontifical records of early Rome were most likely destroyed when the city was sacked by the Gauls in 387 BC, and the earliest accounts of Archaic Rome come from the literature of the Republic, most of it from the 1st century BC and later.
According to the Augustan-era historian Livy, Numa Pompilius, a Sabine, devised Rome’s system of religious rites, including the manner and timing of sacrifices, the supervision of religious funds, authority over all public and private religious institutions, instruction of the populace in the celestial and funerary rites including appeasing the dead, and expiation of prodigies. Numa is said to have founded Roman religion after dedicating an altar on the Aventine Hill to Jupiter Elicius and consulting the gods by means of augury.[15] Numa wrote down and sealed these religious instructions, and gave them to the first Pontifex Maximus, Numa Marcius.
Pontifex maximus: the Roman high priest.
http://www.livius.org/pn-po/pontifex/maximus.html
The pontifex maximus was not a real magistrate: he did not serve for a fixed period but for life, and he remained, officially, a citizen. As the title suggests, the pontifex maximus was ‘the greatest’ or chairman of the college of the pontifices, ‘priests’. They were responsible for the Roman state cult as a whole and for several cults in particular, viz. the cults that had no priestly college of their own (such as the augures, the decemviri sacris faciundis and the fetiales).
The number of pontifices continued to grow. There were originally five ‘real’ pontifices, after the Lex Ogulnia (300/299 BCE) nine, after Sulla fifteen, and after Julius Caesar sixteen. Another member was the rex sacrorum (‘king of the sacrifices’) who performed the religious acts that the king had usually done. There were three (later 15) flamines, special priests for the main gods, and there were three mysterious pontifices minores. Finally, the high priest was also responsible for the eighteen priestesses of the goddess Vesta. This may have been his most important duty, and it comes as no surprise that the residence of the pontifex maximus, the domus publica, was next to the monastery of these women.
The main task of the pontifices was to maintain the pax deorum, the ‘peace with the gods’. To obtain this goal, they gave advise to the magistrates, interpreted the omens, controlled the calendar and oversaw funerals. The pontifex maximus was responsible for a large collection of omens (annales maximi); every year, he wrote down the celestial and other signs, and added the events that had followed the omens, so that future generation would be able to better understand the divine will.
Until the Lex Ogulnia, all pontifices were patricians; this law introduced the possibility that plebeians were to be pontifex as well. The pontifex maximus was elected by the comitia tributa, an assembly of the people that was divided into voting districts. After 104 BCE, the ordinary pontifices were also elected – until then, they had been coopted.
Julius Caesar was elected pontifex maximus in 63 BCE and kept the office until his death. The house where he spent the night before he was killed, was the domus publica. After his death, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus became pontifex maximus (44-12 BCE); when he died, the emperor Augustus became responsible for the state cult. He also put an end to the election of the pontifices. From then on, a position in the college of pontifices was a sign of special imperial favor, comparable to a decoration in our age.
The word pontifex is sometimes explained as ‘bridge builder’, but is in fact related to the Etruscan word pont, ‘road’, and means something like ‘preparer of the road’. The pope still calls himself pontifex maximus.
Because the pontifex maximus was not a real magistrate, he was not allowed to wear the toga with the purple border. However, he could be recognized by the iron knife (secespita).
In 381, the Roman emperor Gratian was the first to decline to use the title of pontifex maximus. It was accepted by the pope.
PAGAN Origin of PAPAL Office
by Ralph Woodrow
It is certain that the title "Supreme Pontiff" or "Pontifex
Maximus" which the Pope bears is not a Christian designation, for
it was the title used by Roman emperors before the Christian Era.
The word "pontiff" comes from the word "pons," - "bridge", and
"facio," - "make." It means "bridge-maker." The priest-king
emperors of pagan days were regarded as the makers and guardians
of the bridges of Rome. Each of them served as high priest and
claimed to be the bridge or connecting link between this life and
the next.
That branch of the mysteries known as Mithraism grew in Rome
until it became - at one time - almost the only faith of the
empire.
The head priest was called the "Pater Patrum," that is, the
Father of the Fathers. Borrowing directly from this title, at
the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is the Papa or Pope - the
Father of Fathers. The "Father" of Mithraism had his seat at Rome
then, and the "Father" of Catholicism has his there now.
The expensive and highly decorated garments that the Popes
wear were not adopted from Christianity, but were patterned
after those of the Roman emperors. The historians have not let
this fact go unnoticed, for indeed their testimony is that "the
vestments of the clergy ... were legacies from pagan Rome." The
tiara crown that the popes wear - though decorated in different
ways at different times - is identical in shape to that worn by
the "gods" or angels that are shown on ancient pagan Assyrian
tablets. It is similar to that seen on Dagon, the fish-god.
(cf. the tiara pictured on page 94).
Dagon was actually but a mystery form of the false
Babylonian "savior." The name Dagon comes from "dag" (a word
commonly translated "fish" in the Bible) and means fishgod.
Though it originated in the paganism of Babylon, Dagon worship
became especially popular among the heathenistic Philistines
(Judges 16:21-30; 1 Sam.5:5,6).
The way that Dagon was depicted on Mesopotamian sculpture is
seen in the drawing above (second figure from left). Layard, in
"Babylon and Nineveh," explains that "the head of the fish formed
a mitre above that of the man, while its scaly, fan-like tail
fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet
exposed."
Later, in the development of things, just the top portion
remained as a mitre, with the jaws of the fish slightly opened.
On several pagan Maltese coins, a god (whose characteristics are
the same as those of Osiris, the Egyptian Nimrod), is shown with
the fish body removed, and only the fish-heading.
A famous painting by Moretto shows St.Ambrose wearing a
mitre shaped like the head of a fish. This same type of mitre is
worn by the pope as seen in the sketch of Pope Paul VI as he
delivered a sermon on "Peace" during his historic visit to the
United States in 1965. The picture on page 89 also shows the
fish-head mitre.
H.A.Ironside says that the Pope is "the direct successor of
the high priest of the Babylonian mysteries and the servant of
the fishgod Dagon, for whom he wears, like his idolatrous
predecessors, the fisherman's ring." Again, in mixing paganism
and Christianity together, similarities made the mixture less
obvious. In this case, since Peter had been a fisherman, the
fish-god ring with the title Pontifex Maximus inscribed on it was
associated with him. But a ring like this was never worn by Peter
the Apostle. No one ever bowed and kissed his ring. He probably
didn't even have one - for silver and gold had he none! (Acts 3).
Another clue to help us solve the mystery of Babylon modern
may be seen in the use of the "pallium" which the Pope wears over
his shoulders. The unabridged dictionaries define it as a garment
that was worn by the pagan clergy of Greece and Rome, before the
Christian Era. In modern times, the pallium is made of white wool
which is taken from two lambs which have been "blessed" in the
basilica of St.Agnes, Rome. As a symbol that the archbishops also
share in the plenitude of the Papal office, the Pope sends the
pallium to them. Before it is sent, however, it is laid all night
on the supposed tomb of St.Peter--such a practice being a copy of
paganism that was practiced among the Greeks!
For centuries the Romish church claimed to posses the very
chair in which Peter had sat and ministered at Rome. The Catholic
Encyclopedia explains that the plates on the front of this chair
show fabulous animals of mythology as well as the fabled "labors
of Hercules." In another volume of The Catholic Encyclopedia,
we find these words: "Gilgamesh, whom mythology transformed into
a Babylonian Hercules ... would then be the person designated by
the Biblical Nemrod (Nimrod)." It is curious that Nimrod is
likened to Hercules and carvings associated with Hercules appear
on the so-called "Chair of Peter." None of these things would
cause us to think of this chair as being of Christian origin.
A scientific commission appointed by Pope Paul in July,
1968, has now reported that no part of the chair is old enough to
date from the days of Peter. In the official report on the carbon
dating and other tests, it has been determined that the chair is
no older than the ninth century. Clearly, the old ideas about
Peter's chair were interesting, but not accurate.
“Pontifex Maximus” for the Papacy, written by Mark Bonocore
Title “Pontifex Maximus” or “Supreme Pontiff”
<< One of the most amazing aspects about the ascendancy of the papacy is that the church of Rome promotes the pope as the “Pontifex Maximus” or, Supreme Pontiff. The title Pontifex Maximus is mentioned numerous times by the early church fathers (particularly by Tertullian), but it was not applied to a Christian bishop. The early church fathers say that the Pontifex Maximus was the “King of Heathendom”, the evil high priest of the pagan mystery religion of Rome. It is certainly not likely that Christ appointed Peter “Pontifex Maximus” of Rome. >>
Faithin YHVH 