_Classical Review_. Here I may just be allowed to reproduce it in
outline. In the year 209 a young C. Valerius Flaccus, the black sheep of
a great family, was inaugurated against his will as Flamen Dialis by the
pontifex maximus P. Licinius.[724] It was within the power of the head
of the Roman religion to use such compulsion, but it must have been
difficult and unusual to do so without the consent of the victim's
relations. In this case, as Livy expressly tells us, it was used because
the lad was of bad character,--_ob adolescentiam negligentem
luxuriosamque_; and it is pretty plain that the step was suggested by
his elder brother and other relations, in order to keep him out of
mischief. For, as we have seen, the taboos on this ancient priesthood
were numerous and strict, and among the restrictions laid on its holder
was one which forbade him to leave his house for a single night. Thus we
learn not only that this priesthood was not much accounted of in those
days, but also that for the _cura_ and _caerimonia_ of religion a pure
mind was no longer needed. But it might be utilised as a kind of penal
settlement for a libertine noble; and it is not impossible that a
century and a quarter later the attempt to put the boy Julius Caesar
into the same priesthood, though otherwise represented by the
historians, may have had the same object.[725] But the strange thing in
the case of Flaccus is that this very _cura_ and _caerimonia_, if Livy's
account is to be trusted, had such a wholesome disciplinary effect, that
the libertine became a model youth, the admiration of his own and other
families. Relying on his excellent character he even asserted the
ancient right of this flamen to take his seat in the Senate, a right
which had long been in abeyance _ob indignitatem flaminum priorum_; and
he eventually gained his point, in spite of obstinate opposition on the
part of a praetor. Some years later, in 200, this same man was elected
curule aedile.[726] This was clearly the first example of an attempt to
combine the priesthood with a magistracy, for a difficulty at once arose
and was solved in a way for which no precedent is quoted. Among the
taboos on this priest there was one forbidding him to take an oath; yet
the law demanded that a magistrate must take the usual oath within five
days of entering on office.[727] Flaccus insisted on asserting his
individuality in spite of the _ius divinum_, and the Senate and people
both backed hi