Apex (garment)

Flamines on a relief of the Ara Pacis with galerus and apex

Denarius Caesar, on the lapel priestly implements, below on the right Galerus with apex .

The apex (plural apices ) was part of the ritual headgear of the Flamines , the priests of the Roman state cult . It is an attachment that was worn over the galerus , the tight-fitting leather cap.

The apex consisted of a tip carved from olive wood (virgula oleagina) . On the tip, which sometimes had a button, sat a woolen flake (hence the name virga lanata , something like "wool-wrapped branch"). The tip gives the name, because apex means "tip" in Latin . At the mature-like bulge, with whom he on the galerus sat up, a woolen band (was vitta "fillet").

The Flemish Dialis was not allowed to appear in the open air (sub Iove) without an apex . If the other flamines appeared without an apex, they at least wore the vitta as a headband. The wool for vitta and virga must have been spun by Flaminica , the Flemish wife.

On the relief on the west side of the Ara Pacis des Augustus you can see four flamines with apex as participants in the procession. These are said to be the three Flamines maiores (Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis , Flamen Quirinalis ) and the Flamen Divi Iulii , the priest of the deified Gaius Iulius Caesar . According to Ryberg, the flamines maiores are recognizable at the long tip of the apex, the flamines minores only had a button on the galerus instead of a stick.

The term apex was soon carried over to the entire headgear consisting of galerus and actual apex .

literature

Katharine A. Esdaile: The Apex or Tutulus in Roman Art. In: The Journal of Roman Studies . Vol. 1, 1911, pp. 212-226, doi : 10.2307 / 295868 .
Paul Habel: Apex . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2699 f.
Inez Scott Ryberg: Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art (= Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Vol. 22). American Academy in Rome, Rome 1955.

Individual evidence

^ Paulus Diaconus , Epitoma Festi p. 10a.
^ Paulus Diaconus, Epitoma Festi p. 87. Aulus Gellius , Noctes Atticae 10,15,17.
^ Servius , Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 8,664.
↑ Ryberg: Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art. 1955, p. 44 f.

[1] Paulus Diaconus , Epitoma Festi p. 10a.

[2] Paulus Diaconus, Epitoma Festi p. 87. Aulus Gellius , Noctes Atticae 10,15,17.

[3] Servius , Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 8,664.

[4] Ryberg: Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art. 1955, p. 44 f.