Graham, Alexander: Roman Africa: an outline of the history of the Roman occupation of North Africa ; based chiefly upon inscriptions and monumental remains in that country (London [u.a.], 1902)

224 Roman Africa

people. And with a view to securing a continuance of the
Gordian dynasty, a grandson of the elder Gordian, at that
time a youth about twelve years old, was to be associated with
both of them as the Csesar Imperator of the future. An interest-
ing inscription on a milliary stone found nearly a mile from
Bouhira, in the province of Mauritania Sitifensis, on the slope of
a hill covered with ruins, records the names of all three Caesars.1

IMP CAES M CLODIO PVPIENI
O MAXIMO PIO FELICI AVG
PONT MAX TRIB POT COS
II PROCOS P P ET
IMP CAES D CAELIO CALVINO
BALBINO PIO FELICI AVG
PONT MAX TRIB POT COS

II PROCOS P P ET
M ANTONIO GORDIANO NO
BILISSIMO CAES PI AVG
NEPOTI DIVORVM GOR
DIANORVM RES P COL
NERV AVG SITIF
MVIIII

It will be observed that the citizens of Sitifis, in their dedicatioi
to the two Emperors and the youthful Gordian, designate eacl
of the former as pontifex maximus. This was a departure fror
an ancient rule of the constitution, which made the high office
of chief pontiff indivisible, and thus established a precedent
which ultimately tended to bring the title into disfavour.2 In

1 C.I.L. No. 10365. Vide Poulle, Pec. de Const. 1873-4, p. 366.

2 The origin of so distinguished a title as Pontifex maximus is veiled in con-
siderable obscurity, and has been the subject of a variety of statements, which may
be classed as conjectural. Among ancient authors who have assisted in throwing
light on the matter, Zosimus the historian, during the reign of Theodosius, may
claim a hearing. He tells us that ' the origin of Pontifices may be traced to a remote
period when mankind was unacquainted with the mode of worshipping gods in the
form of statues. Images of the deities were first made in Thessaly. As there were
no temples in those days (for the use of such edifices was unknown), they set up
figures of their gods on a bridge over the river Peneus, and called those who sacri-
ficed to these images Gephyreei, Priests of the Bridge (Gr. yecpvpa, a bridge).
Hence the Romans, deriving it from the Greeks, called their own priests Pontifices,
and enacted a law that kings, for the sake of dignity, should be considered of the
number. The first king to enjoy this distinction was Numa Pompilius. After him
it was conferred not only on kings, but on Augustus and his successors in the
Roman Empire. Upon the elevation of any one to the imperial dignity, the
Pontifices brought him the priestly habit, and he was immediately styled Pontifex