Subsequent emperors were styled pontifex maximus well into Late Antiquity, including Gratian ( r. 367–383), but during Gratian's reign the phrase was replaced in imperial titulature with the Latin phrase: pontifex inclytus, an example followed by Gratian's junior co-emperor Theodosius the Great and which was used by emperors thereafter including the co- augusti Valentinian III ( r. 425–455) and Marcian ( r. 450–457) and the augustus Anastasius Dicorus ( r. 491–518). Ī distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the position of emperor in the Roman imperial period.
Although in fact the most powerful office in the Roman priesthood, the pontifex maximus was officially ranked fifth in the ranking of the highest Roman priests ( ordo sacerdotum), behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores ( Flamen Dialis, Flamen Martialis, Flamen Quirinalis). 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. The pontifex maximus ( Latin for 'greatest priest' ) was the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs ( Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome.
