Titii sodales
TI´TII SODA´LESa sodalitas or college of priests at Rome, who represented the second tribe of the Romans, or the Tities; that is, the Sabines, who, after their union with the Ramnes or Latins, continued to perform their own ancient Sabine sacra. To superintend and preserve these, T. Tatius is said to have instituted the Titii sodales (Tac. Ann. 1.54). The same writer (Hist. 2.95) gives another tradition, that the priesthood was instituted by Romulus in honour of king Tatius, who after his death was worshipped as a god. It is true that Nipperdey rejects this passage as an interpolation contradicting the account in the Annals: but Marquardt justly points out that the alternative tradition is supported by Dionys. 2.52, where it is said that public sacrifices were yearly offered at the tomb of Tatius; and it is not improbable that the priesthood really had this origin, and may rightly be compared (as in the passage of Tacitus) with the later AUGUSTALESinstituted to preserve the cult of Augustus. Whatever their origin, the use of Sabine rites is attested by Varro (L. L. 5.85), who derives the name Sodales Titii from Titiae aves, which were observed by these priests in certain auguries; it appears that these priests also preserved the ancient Sabine auguries distinct from those of the other tribes. This priesthood had fallen somewhat into neglect at the end of the Republic (cf., however, Lucan, Phars. 1.602), but was restored by Augustus as a distinguished sodalitas, in which the members seem to have been of senatorial rank: among them we find the Emperor Augustus, Nero Caesar, the son of Germanicus, and the Emperor Claudius (Mon. Ancyr. Gr. 4, 6; C. I. L. 3.381, 1741; 6.913, 1343; 8.7050). The favour of Vespasian towards them is testified by C. I. L. 6.934. (Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, 3.446; SACERDOSp. 573.)
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