[German version] In literature also rex sacrificulus (e.g. Liv. 2,2,1), 'king of the sacrifice', or simply rex (e.g. Varro Ling. 6,12 f.). The great age of this Roman priesthood is evident from the requirement that the rex sacrorum belong to a patrician gens (Cic. Dom. 38; Liv. 6,41,9; exception: MRR 1,284 n. 8), be born of a marriage concluded by confarreatio , and he himself be married by that ritual (Gai. Inst. 1,112). The rex sacrorum was nominated by the pontifical college, and, after being elected, inaugurated into the comitia calata (Antistius Labeo fr. 22 Huschke in Gell. NA …

[German version] The patrii di (Greek θεοὶ πάτριοι/ theoì pátrioi or θεοὶ πατρῷοι/ theoì patrôioi, theoí pátrioi ) were not a fixed category of Roman religious law, but represented an indigenous attempt to classify religious plurality in terms of the traditionalistic scheme typical of ancient religion: that of in-group/out-group. The 'gods of the fathers' gained some of their legitimacy from the fact that the ancestors were already worshipping them in accordance with the traditional value system (Latin patrii mores ritusque; Greek pátrioi nómoi). Therefore, patrii di can refer t…

[German version] [1] Legendary founder of Rome The legendary founder of Rome. Perhaps literally 'the Roman'. A possible correspondence between the Etruscan nomen gentile Rumelna (Volsinii, 6th cent. BC: ET Vs 1,35) and the alleged Roman nomen gentile Romilius - the name is securely attested only in an old tribus Romilia/-ulia (Paul Fest. 331 L.) - and between R. and an Etruscan praenomen * Rumele [1. 31 f.] proves nothing about the historicity of the figure of R. Also problematic is the attempt [2. 491-520; 3. 95-150] to connect the finds from the Roman Mon…

[German version] I. Term Ritual refers to an elaborate sequence of individual rites which, following an established ritual syntax, are logically connected within a certain functional context. Rituals are not limited to religious contexts but exist in other cultural contexts, political as well as social. The significance of rituals for those who participate in them can be reduced neither to an integrative function (legitimation ritual) nor to a temporary disabling of the regular structure - the two e…

Old Roman nomen gentile, derived from the prename Marcus. Tradition knows of a patrician branch with the (mythical) king Ancus M. [I 3] and Cn. M. Coriolanus as its most important members. The younger members of the family (from the 3rd cent.) were plebeian without a link to the patrician Marcii being evident. Important families included the Rutili, later also the Censorini, Tremuli, Reges and Rallae. In the Late Republic the family claimed descent from the kings Ancus M. and Numa Pompilius (therefore the cognomen Rex, see M. [I 5]; RRC 346; 425; Suet. Iul. 6,1; [4. 154]) as wel…