institution
quindecimviri sacris faciundis
the Fifteen
also: xv viri, xv virum, the Fifteen, one of the Fifteen
The college of fifteen priests charged with guarding and consulting the Sibylline Books and overseeing foreign cults at Rome. Membership was a coveted lifelong sacerdotal honour; Dolabella was co-opted into it in 51 BC.
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 8.4 §1 P. Dolabella made one of the Fifteen
The quindecimviri sacris faciundis, the priestly college of fifteen that guarded and consulted the Sibylline Books; co-option into it was a prestigious lifelong honour, here won by the young Dolabella.
- On the Nature of the Gods §3.5 interpreters of the Sibyl
The priestly board (originally two, later ten, then fifteen men) charged with consulting the Sibylline Books at the Senate's order in times of prodigy. Cotta groups them with the haruspices as the third branch of Roman religion.