Editing Rex Sacrorum (section)

{{Short description|Ancient Roman religious office}}
{{italic title}}
{{Priesthoods of ancient Rome}}
In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], the '''''rex sacrorum''''' ("king of the sacred things", also sometimes '''''rex sacrificulus'''''<ref>{{Cite web |title=LacusCurtius • Roman Religion — Rex Sacrificulus (Smith's Dictionary, 1875) |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Rex_Sacrificulus.html |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>) was a [[Roman senate|senatorial]] [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#sacerdos|priesthood]]<ref>[[Jörg Rüpke]], ''Religion of the Romans'' (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 223 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fcsynr0fQIoC&dq=%22rex+sacrorum%22&pg=PA194 online.]</ref> reserved for [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]]. Although in the historical era, the ''[[pontifex maximus]]'' was the head of [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|Roman state religion]], [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] says<ref>[[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]] on the ''ordo sacerdotum'', 198 in the edition of Lindsay.</ref> that in the [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#ordo sacerdotum|ranking of the highest Roman priests]] (''ordo sacerdotum''), the ''rex sacrorum'' was of highest prestige, followed by the ''[[Flamen#Flamines maiores|flamines maiores]]'' (''[[Flamen Dialis]]'', ''[[Flamen Martialis]]'', ''[[Flamen Quirinalis]]'') and the ''pontifex maximus''. The ''rex sacrorum'' was based in the [[Regia]].<ref>Gary Forsythe, ''A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War'' (University of California Press, 2005), p. 136 [https://books.google.com/books?id=aEfvR1Qcd0gC&dq=%22rex+sacrorum%22&pg=PA136 online.]</ref>