Numa Pompilius
historical figure · 5 works · 8 mentions · 10 anchored passages
Numa · Pompilius · Numam Pompilium · our Numa
in the texts
On the Commonwealth
Second king of Rome, a Sabine chosen for his virtue, credited with founding Rome's religious institutions and cultivating peace
King Pompilius being dead, the people, an interrex proposing it, created Tullus Hostilius king in the curiate assembly;
"After him, Ancus Marcius, grandson of Numa Pompilius by a daughter, was made king by the people, and likewise carried a curiate law concerning his own command.
From which it may be understood, the regnal years being reckoned, that it was about a hundred and forty years after the death of Numa that Pythagoras first touched Italy;
Institutes of Roman Law
Legendary early Roman figure suggested as the kind of authority who first induced disputing parties to submit to arbitration instead of combat.
We may suppose that on a memorable day in the progress of civilization, before the combat had terminated fatally to one of the combatants, some one like Numa Pompilius, of sufficient authority to make so great an innovation, interposed and induced the parties to refer the dispute to arbitration.
Numam Pompilium regem, patribus auctoribus, sibi ipse populus adscivit, qui ut huc venit, quanquam populus curiatis eum comitiis regem esse jusserat, tamen ipse de suo imperio curiatam legem tulit, De Republ.
Stoic Paradoxes
Second legendary king of Rome, noted for simple earthenware vessels used in his piety toward the gods.
And what of Numa Pompilius — do we suppose that his earthenware bowls and little clay urns were less pleasing to the immortal gods than the embossed dishes of the Salii?
De Praescriptionibus Hereticorum
Legendary early Roman king credited with instituting Roman religious rites and priesthoods.
For the rest, if we unroll the superstitions of Numa Pompilius, if we consider the priestly offices and badges and privileges, if the sacrificial ministries and instruments and the very vessels of the sacrifices and expiations, and the curious niceties of the vows — has not the devil manifestly imitated that fussiness of the Jewish law?
De Spectaculis
Legendary second king of Rome, credited with instituting games to Mars and Robigo.
After him Numa Pompilius made games to Mars and to Robigo (for they fashioned a goddess of mildew too);