Note 777 — Chapter I · (654-684.)

Suetonius (Cæsar, 1) says that Cæsar was designated (destinatus) flamen. Velleius Paterculus (II. 43), that he was created flamen. In our opinion he was created, but not inaugurated, flamen. Now, as long as this formality was not accomplished, he was only the flamen designate. What proves that he had never been inaugurated is, that Sylla could revoke it; and, on another hand, Tacitus says (Annales, III. 53) that, after the death of Cornelius Merula, the flamenship of Jupiter remained vacant for seventy-two years, without any interruption to the special worship of this god. So that, evidently, they did not count the flamenship of Cæsar as real, since he had never entered on his office.