1.20
Next he turned his
attention to the appointment of priests. He himself,
however, conducted a great many religious services,
especially those which belong to the Flamen of
Jupiter. But he thought that in a warlike state
there would be more kings of the type of Romulus
than of Numa who would take the field in person. To
guard, therefore, against the sacrificial rites
which the king performed being interrupted, he
appointed a Flamen as perpetual priest to Jupiter,
and ordered that he should wear a distinctive dress
and sit in the royal curule chair. He appointed two
additional Flamens, one for Mars, the other for
Quirinus, and also chose virgins as priestesses to
Vesta. This order of priestesses came into existence
originally in Alba and was connected with the race
of the founder. He assigned them a public stipend
that they might give their whole time to the temple,
and made their persons sacred and inviolable by a
vow of chastity and other religious sanctions.
Similarly he chose twelve "Salii" for Mars Gradivus,
and assigned to them the distinctive dress of an
embroidered tunic and over it a brazen cuirass. They
were instructed to march in solemn procession
through the City, carrying the twelve shields called
the "Ancilia," and singing hymns accompanied by a
solemn dance in triple time. The next office to be
filled was that of the Pontifex Maximus. Numa
appointed the son of Marcus, one of the senators -Numa Marcius -and all the regulations bearing on
religion, written out and sealed, were placed in his
charge. Here was laid down with what victims, on
what days, and at what temples the various
sacrifices were to be offered, and from what sources
the expenses connected with them were to be
defrayed. He placed all other sacred functions, both
public and private, under the supervision of the
Pontifex, in order that there might be an authority
for the people to consult, and so all trouble and
confusion arising through foreign rites being
adopted and their ancestral ones neglected might be
avoided. Nor were his functions confined to
directing the worship of the celestial gods; he was
to instruct the people how to conduct funerals and
appease the spirits of the departed, and what
prodigies sent by lightning or in any other way were
to be attended to and expiated. To elicit these
signs of the divine will, he dedicated an altar to
Jupiter Elicius on the Aventine, and consulted the
god through auguries, as to which prodigies were to
receive attention.