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In ancient Roman religion, the rex sacrorum ("king of the sacred things", also sometimes rex sacrificulus) was a Roman senate priesthoodJörg Rüpke, Religion of the Romans (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 223 online. reserved for patricians. Although in the historical era, the pontifex maximus was the head of Roman state religion, Festus saysFestus on the ordo sacerdotum, 198 in the edition of Lindsay. that in the ranking of the highest Roman priests ( ordo sacerdotum), the rex sacrorum was of highest prestige, followed by the flamines maiores ( Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, Flamen Quirinalis) and the pontifex maximus. The rex sacrorum was based in the Regia.Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press, 2005), p. 136 online.
The rex sacrorum wore a toga, the undecorated soft "shoeboot" (calceus), and carried a ceremonial axe; as a priest of archaic Roman religion, he sacrificed capite velato, with head covered.Norma Goldman, "Roman Footwear" and "Reconstructing Roman Clothing", in The World of Roman Costume (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994), pp. 125 and 216 online. The rex held a sacrifice on the Kalends of each month. On the Nones, he announced the dates of Roman festivals for the month. On March 24 and May 24, he held a sacrifice in the Comitium.Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 56. In addition to these duties the rex sacrorum seems to have functioned as the high priest of Janus.
The rex sacrorum was a feature of Italic religion and possibly also Etruscan. The title is found in Latium such as Lanuvium, Tusculum, and Velitrae. At Rome the priesthood was deliberately depoliticized;See for instance Livy 2.2.1. the rex sacrorum was not elected, and his inauguration was merely witnessed by a comitia calata, an assembly called for the purpose. Like the flamen Dialis but in contrast to the pontiffs and , the rex was barred from a political and military career. After the overthrow of the kings of Rome, the office of rex sacrorum fulfilled at least some of the Sacred kingship, with the Roman consul assuming political power and military command, as well as some sacral functions. It is a matter of scholarly debate as to whether the rex sacrorum was a "decayed king" and it's discussed if this figure was created during the formation of the Republic, as Arnaldo Momigliano argued, or had existed in the Regal period.Tim Cornell, The Beginning of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (Routledge, 1995), pp. 234–235 online; Momigliano, "The Origins of the Roman Republic", pp. 311–312 online.
While performing her rituals, the regina wore a headdress called the arculum, formed from a garland of pomegranate twigs tied up with a white woolen thread.Servius, note to Aeneid 4.137; pomegranate = malus Punica, "Phoenician apple." The rex and regina sacrorum were required to marry by the ritual of confarreatio, originally reserved for patricians, but after the Lex Canuleia of 445 BC, it is possible that the regina could have been plebs.Michael Lipka, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), pp. 182–183.
Inscriptions record the names of a few reginae sacrorum, including Sergia Paullina, the wife of Cn. Pinarius Cornelius Severus, shortly before 112 AD, and Manlia Fadilla around the 2nd/3rd century AD.Jörg Rüpke, Fasti sacerdotum: A Prosopography of Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Religious Officials in the City of Rome, 300 BC to AD 499 (Oxford University Press, 2008, originally published in German 2005), pp. 223, 783, 840.
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