meaning 'chief priest', adopted by Augustus upon the death of Lepidus in 13 B.C. and assumed by all later Emperors upon their accession. This practice was not abandoned until 383 A.D. by Gratian.

the chief priest of the Roman state, a title regularly taken by emperors after Augustus first took it in 12 B.C.

The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was the most important position in the Ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians, until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. A distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office.