Back in the day when Rome was a Republic, wine, bread and entertainment flowed free, and free of charge, to all the city’s voting citizens.  In the ancient world, this was the traditional way the upper classes bought the votes they needed for elective office. This tradition in Rome was called “Bread and Circuses” In the waning days of the Republic, Julius Caesar almost went bankrupt in order to win the Pontifex Maximus elections because he made sure to supply extravagant displays of “Bread and Circuses” for the voters, so that they would remember him on voting day.   Ultimately, he won the position of Pontifex Maximus.

So what is a Pontifex Maximus? The name comes from antiquity, from a time before Rome even had a name.  There could only be one Pontifex Maximus at any given time.   Essentially he was the number one priest.  His name was derived thusly:

Italy’s mountainous and hilly country made it very hard to travel by land using only the foot-mobile.  As a matter of fact, traveling by sea was common for the wealthier folks.

However, even back then, for small business owners, shipping costs are significantly less over land as opposed to shipping over the seas.  The Proto(Pre)-Romans occupied a sizable chunk of flat land between northern and southern Italy.  Their land (before it was called Rome) was called Latium which means flat.  Since it is much easier to pull a cart over flat land than hilly land, it is easy to see why merchants would prefer to pass through Latium as opposed to the more expensive sea route and the more difficult mountain passes.  In addition, the Tiber River cut through their flat plains forming a natural barrier to north south travel.

For the enterprising Latin, it would not take much to realize there was money to be made in the ferry business.  It was a pretty lawless place in those days and ferry customers were glad to pay for the ferry service and inland protection as well.  (You can’t make money if your goods are stolen.)  So the Pre-Romans started developing sharp military tactics to defend their customers and business associates.

Eventually, they figured out that if they replaced the ferry with a bridge, they could make even more money.  So they built the Sublician Bridge, across the Tiber, and got rid of the ferries and business boomed!  Needless to say the people responsible for building the bridge were very important.  The lead builder was called Pontifex Maximus (pont=bridge + fex=maker  Maximus =supreem) and because even inanimate things like the bridge had spirits, they were also priests.  Currators were in charge of maintaining the bridge.  So the Pontifex Maximus, was like a bridge supervisor making sure the bridge was solid and the spirit of the bridge was happy and appeased.

After Caesar, all the emperors were granted the title Pontifex Maximus as well.  It was only after Emperor Justinian decided that it was inappropriate for him to be both the Emperor and the Pontifex Maximus, that the Roman Catholic Pope adopted the title.  In English, he is called Supreme Pontiff.  In Latin he is referred to as the Pontifex Maximus.

This month, Kim and I will be in Rome checking out the home of the Pontifex Maximus in Vatican City in person.  I will walk across the Sublician bridge and pour a libation to the spirit of the bridge before taking my own sip of classic roman wine. Cheers!

Tags: bread and circuses, corkey trivia, Julius Caesar, pontifex maximus

Posted April 7, 2010 in Liane: Corkey Trivia
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