Titii
{{Not to be confused with|Titia gens}}{{Short description|College of Roman priests}}
{{Priesthoods of ancient Rome}}
The Titii (or Titii sodales, later Titienses, Sacerdotes Titiales Flaviales) was a college (sodalitas) of Roman priests.{{Cite book |last1=Galinsky |first1=Karl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftcx-5j7rjwC |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus |last2=Galinsky |first2=Floyd a Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics and University Distinguished Teaching Professor Karl |date=2005-10-10 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80796-8 |pages=181 |language=en}}
Origins
There are two versions of how the college was established. One credits Titus Tatius with creating the college to superintend and preserve the Titienses, one of the three original tribes (tribus) in the Regal period,Tacitus, Annals I. 54 which may have represented the Italic tribe of Sabines.{{Cite book |last=Shannon-Henderson |first=Kelly E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZSBDwAAQBAJ |title=Religion and Memory in Tacitus' Annals |date=2018-12-12 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-256910-3 |pages=48 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Turcan |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3QTXAQAAQBAJ |title=The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times |date=2013-10-28 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-05858-5 |language=en}} The other says that Romulus created it in honour of king Tatius, who after his death was worshipped as a god.Tacit. Hist. II. 95
History
During the Republic the Titii are no longer mentioned,{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpX_DwAAQBAJ |title=A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |date=2020-09-23 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7525-1057-7 |pages=378 |language=en}} as the cults of all Italic tribes became gradually united into Roman religion.Ambrosch, Studien u. Andeut., p. 192 The Titii were restored under the Empire,{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Greg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RH08EAAAQBAJ |title=The Roman World from Romulus to Muhammad: A New History |date=2021-09-20 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-43266-4 |pages=250 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Curtis |first1=Lauren |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1ctEAAAQBAJ |title=Music and Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds |last2=Weiss |first2=Naomi |date=2021-10-28 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83166-6 |pages=108 |language=en}} but their functions were changed to conduct the worship of an emperor, like those of Sodales Augustales. Augustus may have been a member of the Titii.{{Cite book |last1=Dillon |first1=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sYQfEAAAQBAJ |title=The Ancient Romans: History and Society from the Early Republic to the Death of Augustus |last2=Garland |first2=Lynda |author2-link=Lynda Garland |date=2021-04-21 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-39134-0 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Bury |first=J. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LN4DwAAQBAJ |title=History of the Roman Empire 27 BC to 180 AD |date=2018-01-19 |publisher=Ozymandias Press |isbn=978-1-5312-8174-8 |language=en}}