Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex

Who was Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex?

Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex, the son of Publius Mucius Scaevola was a politician of the Roman Republic and an important early authority on Roman law. He is credited with founding the study of law as a systematic discipline. He was nephew and son of two men elected Pontifices Maximi, and would himself be elected chief priest of Rome. He was also the first Roman Pontifex Maximus to be murdered publicly, in Rome in the very Temple of the Vestal Virgins, signifying a breakdown of historical norms and religious taboos in the Republic.