Dissensus Rivalries and Blood Feuds

luka

Well-known member
No, I haven't heard of it.
He [Caligula] caused the rex Nemorensis, who had held his priesthood for many years, to be supplanted by a stronger adversary."[3][4] That same passage indicates that by the time of the early Principate, the custom of succession in the office by combat had become subject to outside control.

The Greek geographer Strabo also mentions the institution: "and in fact a barbaric, and Scythian, element predominates in the sacred usages, for the people set up as priest merely a run-away slave who has slain with his own hand the man previously consecrated to that office; accordingly the priest is always armed with a sword, looking around for the attacks, and ready to defend himself."[5]
 

luka

Well-known member
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain.

This is, in a nutshell, the surviving legend of the rex Nemorensis: the priesthood of Diana at Nemi was held by a person who obtained that honour by slaying the prior incumbent in a trial by combat, and who could remain at the post only so long as he successfully defended his position against all challengers. However, a successful candidate had first to test his mettle by plucking a golden bough from one of the trees in the sacred grove.
 

Leo

Well-known member
padraig vs. luka, if i recall correctly. I clashed with padraig a few times in various 2016 election threads but on ok terms otherwise.
 
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