vidual with the _ius divinum_
takes the form of protest against the restrictions placed on the old
sacrificing priesthoods, these of the Flamines and the Rex sacrorum,
who, unlike the pontifices and augurs, were disqualified from holding a
secular magistracy.[719] These priesthoods must be filled up, and when a
vacancy occurred, the pontifex maximus, who retained the power of the
Rex in this sphere, as a kind of _paterfamilias_ of the whole State,
selected the persons, and could compel them to serve even if they were
unwilling. But the interests of public life are now far more attractive
than the duties of the cults,--the individual wishes to assert himself
where his self-assertion will be noted and appreciated.

These attempts at emancipation from the _ius divinum_ were not at first
successful. In 242 a flamen of Mars was elected consul; he hoped to be
in joint command with his colleague Lutatius of the naval campaign
against Carthage. But the _ius divinum_ forbade him to leave Italy, and
the pontifex maximus inexorably enforced it.[720] Of this quarrel we
have no details; but in 190 a similar case is recorded in full. A flamen
Quirinalis, elected praetor, who had Sardinia assigned him as his
province, was stopped by the _ius divinum_ administered by another
inexorable pontifex maximus; and it was only after a long struggle, in
which Senate, tribunes, and people all took part, that he was forced to
submit. So great was his wrath that he was with difficulty persuaded not
to resign his praetorship.[721] Naturally it became difficult to fill
these priesthoods, for it was invidious to compel young men of any
promise to commit what was practically political suicide. The office of
_rex sacrorum_ was vacant for two years between 210 and 208;[722] and in
180 Cornelius Dolabella, a _duumvir navalis_, on being selected for this
priesthood, absolutely refused to obey the pontifex maximus when ordered
to resign his secular command. He was fined for disobedience, and
appealed to the people; at the moment when it became obvious that the
appeal would fail, he contrived to escape by getting up an unlucky omen.
_Religio inde fuit pontificibus inaugurandi Dolabellae_; and here we
have the strange spectacle of the _ius divinum_ being used to defeat its
own ends. Such a state of things needs no comment.[723]

But the most extraordinary story of this kind is that of a flamen of
Jupiter,--a story which many years ago I told in detail in the