Page "Pontifex Maximus" Paragraph 10

The major Republican source on the pontiffs would have been the theological writings of Varro, which survive only in fragments preserved by later authors such as Aulus Gellius and Nonius Marcellus.

Other sources are Cicero, Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Valerius Maximus, Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius, Festus ' summaries of Verrius Flaccus, and in later writers, including several of the Church Fathers.

Some of these sources present an extensive list of everyday prohibitions for the Pontifex Maximus ; it seems difficult to reconcile these lists with evidence that many Pontifices Maximi were prominent members of society who lived normal, non-restricted lives.