In Rome, unlike some other cultures, there was no special priestly class. The priests were officials who had been elected from among Roman citizens. They fully participated in public life and formed boards with a fixed range of duties. Collegiums of flamins, fecals, pontiffs, magnifiers, salieves, Arval brothers, garuspiks, augures and vestals are known.
Flamins were called the servants of individual gods, and their collegium included fifteen people. Among the flamins, three were considered elders: they were priests of Jupiter, Mars and Kvirin, they enjoyed the greatest honor, but they were also imposed strict restrictions. Thus, Jupiter's flamin had no right to ride, to have knots on his clothes, to remain outside the city after sunset, because he had to sacrifice to Jupiter every day, and so on. The distinctive feature of the flamin was a white cone-shaped hat sewn from the skin of the sacrificial lamb. During the Empire, the flamins of the deified emperors joined the board.
Thecials, perhaps, were more officials than other Roman priests. They served as messengers and ambassadors, supervising the observance of the rules of international relations: declaration of war and peace, issue of prisoners of war and so on. They were also in charge of international treaties. The fecal board numbered 20 people. Their very name is interpreted differently: it is erected to the word fides - loyalty or foedus - the treaty.
The pontiffs, whose number changed from century to century and reached fifteen by the time of the emperors, followed the work of other priests' councils. They were in charge of the calendar, sacred holidays and sacrifices, pontiffs knew favorable and unfavourable days, kept the memory of historical events, and gave their opinion on all sacral matters in public and family life. The head of the collegium, the great pontiff, supervised all religious issues and was considered to be the head of the Roman religion. Starting with Julius Caesar, this title belonged to the Roman emperors and eventually passed to the Pope.
The colleges of saliians, magnifiers and Arwalc brothers are related to the ancient agricultural cults rather than to the state religion of Rome. Salii were divided into two panels of twelve people - the priests of Mars and Quirin. They wore short purple tunics and sacred shields, in March and October saliias made public processions, during which danced and sang. Being priests of the god of agriculture and war, lilies had a direct connection with the Roman military organization. The March procession of saliians was a ritual preparation of the Roman army for the campaign, October marked the end of the period of hostilities.
The College of Luperks numbered fifteen people, and the priests served it, apparently, Faunus and his pastoral cult, although their celebrations were organized only once a year, in mid-February on the day of Lupercali, as detailed and written in the relevant section. Arval brothers, plough brothers, twelve in number, served the deities of the earth and fertility. Their external differences were wreaths of ears and white headbands. In May, they celebrated and sacrificed to the goddess of agriculture, Deia Dia. Apparently, she was one of the hypostases of Ops, the wife of Saturn, identified with the Greek Rhea.
A special place among the priests was occupied by fortune-tellers, August and Garuspikas. The Collegium of August consisted of fifteen members, and their duties included interpreting divine signs, mainly the phenomena of nature, and arrange fortune-telling - auspices on all significant occasions. The Augurs also found out the reasons for the misfortunes that befell the Roman community: crop failures, diseases and the like. Roman statesmen were obliged to resort to fortune-telling on the eve of all serious military and civil events. Garuspiki, guessing on the inside of animals, received the status of the board only under the Emperor Claudius, and this board numbered sixty people.
Priestesses of Vesta, Vestalok, has always been only six, and they were selected from the girls of 6-10 years, originating from the most noble families of Rome, for a thirty-year term. The vestals gave a vow of chastity and maintained the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta. It was believed that they also performed some rituals hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated. The vestals had the right to own property and dispose of their own property, and the only priests among them received some kind of salary.
As for the forms of reverence for the gods themselves, they were quite dry and rational in ancient Rome. We have already mentioned prayers and rituals in the beginning, and we should also touch upon the images of gods and temple rooms. The custom to make statues of the gods of the Romans borrowed from the Greeks, but initially the symbols of the gods were those or other characteristic objects: Mars represented a spear, Jupiter - a stone, West - a hearth.