There was no such thing as ‘the Roman priesthood', no single definition of'the Roman priest'; there were instead many different types of priesthood at Rome, involving large numbers of different religious officials, attached to different deities and cults, with different duties, obligations and privileges. This chapter starts from the priests of the official state cult - their varied and (even to the Romans) puzzling origins (8.1), their political role (8.2) and day-to-day duties (8.3); and it examines, in particular, the only major group of female cult officials of Roman state religion, the Vestal Virgins (8.4). It then considers the position of the Roman emperor in relation to the traditional priesthoods - focusing both on the role of the emperor himself as a priest (8.5) and on new priesthoods associated with the worship of emperors (8.6). The second half of the chapter turns to alternative models of priesthood: not only those of the socalled ‘oriental’ cults at Rome - the priests of Magna Mater (8.7) and of Isis (8.8) - but also the changing pattern of aristocratic priestly office-holding in the later imperial period (8.9). The chapter ends with the conflict between paganism and Christianity and Christian attacks on pagan priests (8.10).

For the role of priests in rituals, festivals and sacrifice, see 4.5; 5.4; 5.5d; 5.7b; 6.4; 6.5; 6.6a and b; for priests and officials of'oriental’ cults, 5.6; 6.7; 12.3; 12.4c and e; 12.5; see further (for general discussions of Roman and other ancient priestly office holding, as well as of specific priesthoods) Beard and North (1990)*; Scheid (1993b)*.

The earliest Roman priesthoods

The origins of most of the priesthoods of the traditional Roman state cult are lost in the very earliest history of the city. The Romans themselves generally attributed their priestly organization to their legendary second king - Numa (1.2); but even for them (at least by the late Republic) there was much disagreement, conjecture and obscurity about the origins of particular priests and their titles.