office
flamen
also: flamines
A flamen was a priest dedicated to the cult of a single deity; there were fifteen, of whom the three major flamines (of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus) had to be patricians. Cicero cites them, with the rex sacrorum, as patrician priesthoods imperilled by Clodius's transitio ad plebem.
Reading notes
- Brutus §56 flamen of Carmenta
A flamen was a priest dedicated to the cult of a single deity; the flamen Carmentalis served Carmenta, an old Italian goddess of childbirth and prophecy. The priestly robe (laena) is the woollen mantle worn at sacrifice.
- Eleventh Philippic §18 the flamen of Mars
The flamen Martialis, the special priest of Mars, bound to remain at Rome for the sacred rites; the episode illustrates the precedence of priestly duty over military ambition.
- Second Philippic §109 an image, a pediment, a flamen
Divine honours decreed for Caesar: a cult statue, a temple-pediment on his house, a sacred couch (pulvinar), and a flamen (special priest) like those of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus; Antony was named Caesar's flamen.