PONTIFEX MAXIMUS. - In the religious constitution of ancient Rome, the college of pontiffs was entrusted with overseeing the entire body of national religious heritage, both public and private (marriage, adoption, funeral law, etc.; cf. Cicero, De leg., II, 119); with adapting religious doctrine handed down through tradition to new circumstances by means of new regulations (decreta pontificum; cf. Gellius, II, 28); with advising the city’s magistrates (Livy, I, 20; Dionysius, II, 73); and with punishing violators of religious norms when necessary (Festus, *Maximus pontifex*), among other duties.
Despite this broad range of religious powers, however, at least in historical times the pontiffs never held the prerogatives of magistrates (they could not therefore issue edicts, nor did they possess religious jurisdiction except over the priests subject to them). Their influence remained tied, in fact, to the intimate connection between civil and religious institutions. The pontifex (accepting the etymology from *pontem* and *facere*; cf. Varro, *De lingua lat.*, V, 83) would trace back to the Latin prehistory and specifically to those wooden village structures whose care he would have overseen—just as, in historical Rome, he was known to have done for the Pons Sublicius, a wooden bridge built with interlocking joints and no nails. Tradition held that the pontifical college was instituted by King Numa with an initial membership of five (or four; cf. Livy, X, 6), which had grown to sixteen by the time of Caesar. Members were co-opted by the college itself (cooptatio) and then inaugurated (Dionysius, II, 2273); under the Empire, however, the right of appointment virtually belonged to the emperor, who was also *pontifex maximus*.
The *pontifex maximus* retained the insignia of his office (the *toga praetexta*, the *sella curulis*, and the *lituus*) and the right to sit in the Senate, privileges which the ordinary pontiffs did not possess. He also retained the *flamen Dialis*’s privilege of having a *lictores* precede him, a prerogative he kept until the time of Gratian (who first refused it in 382 AD). But since this office was tied to the Principate, the emperor needed a permanent representative, especially to handle routine affairs; thus an annual *promagister* was created within the college of pontiffs (first mentioned in 155 AD).