Small religious matters, the minor private sacrifices, etc., can be attended to without a priest, just as you do not need a jurisconsult to assist in petty purchases. Greater religious matters, private and still more if public, however, require experts to see that the right formulæ are spoken and sacrifices proffered. Any Roman of flawless birth and of good character is eligible for most of the priesthoods, although there are a few reserved for the narrow circle of the old patrician families. Holding these religious offices does not ordinarily imply dropping one’s secular interests or having the least philosophical belief in the ceremonies so carefully performed. Julius Cæsar was Pontifex Maximus while he was Proconsul of the Gauls, and while he was a firm disbeliever in the existence of any gods at all. Of course every small temple has to have its proper custodians whom we may call “priests,” to attend to the private sacrifices; and there are besides plenty of unofficial diviners and soothsayers who can answer your question, “Is this a lucky day for the wedding of my daughter?” or “Do the omens warn against buying this farm?” The great public ministers of religion, however, are really officers of state, appointed by the Emperor,[223] and usually they are grouped in famous “Sacred Colleges” wherein the members hold office for life. Ordinarily the persons thus honored are distinguished senators selected after an honorable civil and military career. =354. The Pontifices.=--On the whole the greatest official glory comes to the fifteen _pontifices_. Not merely do they possess the general oversight of everything concerning cultus, but they have as their chief colleague the Emperor himself, who always holds the post of _Pontifex Maximus_--head of the Roman religion. Before Julius Cæsar reformed the calendar the pontifices had the important task of settling each year what days were to be _dies fasti_, whereon alone legal business could be lawfully conducted, and they have still the power to interfere in almost any doings concerning sacrifice, ritual, temple properties, etc. Their head, the Pontifex Maximus, has particularly to watch over and control the Vestal Virgins; and the college at large still has the custody of the famous _Libri Pontificales_, the “Pontifical Books,” famous and ancient volumes containing instructions for all kinds of unfamiliar religious rites and procedure in strange religious emergencies.[224]