The High Offices of State Religion

If the pontifex maximus was the head of Roman state religion, then much of its organization rested with four religious colleges, whose members were appointed for life and , with a few exceptions, were selected among distinguished politicians.The highest of these bodies was the Pontifical College, which consisted of the rex sacrorum, pontifices, flamines and the vestal virgins.Rex sacrorum, the king of rites, was an office created under the early republic as a substitute for royal authority over religious matters.
Later he might still have been the highest dignitary at any ritual, even higher than the pontifex maximus, but it became a purely honorary post.Sixteen pontifices (priests) oversaw the organization of religious events. They kept records of proper religious procedures and the dates of festivals and days of special religious significance.
The flamines acted as priests to individual gods: three for the major gods Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, and twelve for the lesser ones. These individual experts specialized in the knowledge of prayers and rituals specific to their particular deity.The flamen dialis, the priest of Jupiter, was the most senior of the flamines. On certain occasions his status was equal to those of the pontifex maximus and the rex sacrorum.Though the life of the flamen dialis was regulated by a whole host of strange rules.

Some of the rules surrounding the flamen dialis included.

He was not allowed to go out without his cap of office.He was not allowed to ride a horse.If a person was into the house of the flamen dialis in any form of fetters he was to be untied at once and the shackles pulled up through the skylight of the house's atrium on to the roof and then carried away
.Only a free man was allowed to cut the hair of the flamen dialis.The flamen dialis would neither ever touch, nor mention a goat, uncooked meat, ivy, or beans.For the flamen dialis divorce was not possible. His marriage could only be ended by death. Should his wife have died, he was obliged to resign