Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

REX.

REX SACRIFICULUS.

first interrex could not hold the comitia for
the election ; but it frequently happened that
the second interrex appointed a third, the
third a fourth, and so on, till the election took
place. The Interrex presided over the comitia
etiriata, which were assembled for the election
of the king. The person whom the senate had
selected was proposed by the interrex to the
people in a regular rogatio, which the people
could only accept or reject, for they had not
'.he initiative and could not themselves pro-
pose any name. If the people voted in favour
of the rogation, they were said creare regent,
and their acceptance of him was called jussits
populi. But the king did not immediately
enter upon his office. Two other acts had
still to take place before he was invested with
the full regal authority and power. First,
his inauguratio had to be performed, as it
was 'necessary to obtain the divine will re-
specting his appointment by means of the
auspices, since he was the high priest of the
people. This ceremony was performed by an
augur, who conducted the newly-elected king
to the ar.r, or citadel, and there placed him
on a stone seat with his face turned to the
south, while the people waited below in
anxious suspense until the augur announced
that the gods had sent the favourable tokens
confirming the king in his priestly character.
The inauguratio did not confer upon him the
auspicia ; for these he obtained by his elec-
tion to the royalty, as the comitia were held
auspicate. The second act which had to be
performed was the conferring of the imperium
upon the king. The curiae had only deter-
mined by their previous vote who was to be
king, and had not by that act bestowed the
necessary power upon him ; they had, there-
fore, to grant him the imperium by a distinct
vote. Accordingly the king himself proposed
to the curiae a lex curiata de imperio, and
the curiae by voting in favour of it gave him
the imperium. Livy in his first book makes
no mention of the lex etiriata de imperio, but
he uses the expressions patres anctorcs fierent,
patres auctores facti; but these expressions
are equivalent to the lex curiata de imperio
in the kingly period.—The king possessed
the supreme power in the earliest times, and
the senate and the comitia of the curiae were
very slight checks upon its exercise. In the
first place, the king alone possessed the right
of taking the auspices on behalf of the state ;
and as no public business of any kind could
be performed without the approbation of the
gods expressed by the auspices, the king
stood as mediator between the gods and the
people, and in an early stage of society must
necessarily have been regarded with religious
awe. [Augur.] Secondly, the people sur-

rendered to the king the supreme military
and judicial authority by conferring the im-
perium upon him. The king was not only
the commander in war, but the supreme
judge in peace. Seated on his throne in the
comitium, he administered justice to all
comers, and decided in all cases which were
brought before him, civil as well as criminal.
Again, all the magistrates in the kingly
period appear to have been appointed by the
king and not elected by the curiae. Further,
the king was not dependent upon the people
for his support ; but a large portion of the
agcr publicus belonged to him, which was
cultivated at the expense of the state on his
behalf. He had also the absolute disposal of
the booty taken in war and of the conquered
lands. It must not, however, be supposed
that the authority of the king was absolute.
The senate and the assembly of the people
must have formed some check upon his power.
But these were not independent bodies pos-
sessing the right of meeting at certain times
and discussing questions of state. They could
only be called together when the king chose,
and further could only determine upon mat-
ters which the king submitted to them. The
only public matter in which the king could
not dispense with the co-operation of the
senate and the curiae was in declarations of
war. There is no trace of the people having
had anything to do with the conclusion of
treaties of peace.—The insignia of the king
were the fasces with the axes (secures), which
twelve lictors carried before him as often as he-
appeared in public, the trabea, the sella curulis,
and the toga praetexta and pieta. The trabea
appears to have been the most ancient offi-
cial dress, and is assigned especially to Ro-
mulus : it was of Latin origin, and is there-
fore represented by Virgil as worn by the
Latin kings. The toga praetexta and pieta
were borrowed, together with the sella curu-
lis, from the Etruscans, and their introduction
is variously ascribed to Tullus Hostiliirs or
Tarquinius Priscus.

REX SACRIFICULUS, REX SACRIFI-
CUS, or REX BACRORUM. When the civil
and military powers of the king were trans-
ferred to two praetors or consuls, upon the
establishment of the republican government
at Rome, these magistrates were not invested
with that part of the royal dignity by virtue
of which the king had been the high priest
of his nation and had conducted several
of the sacra publica, but this priestly part
of his office was transferred to a priest
called Rex Sacrificulus or Rex Saerorum.
The first rex saerorum was designated, at the
command of the consuls, by the college of
pontiffs, and inaugurated by the augurs. He

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