Collegium
The general term in Latin for an association. The word was applied in a different sense to
express the mutual relation of such magistrates as were
collegae. Besides
the
collegia of the great priesthoods, and of the magistrates' attendants
(see
Apparitores), there were numerous
associations, which, although not united by any specifically religious objects, had a
religious centre in the worship of some deity or other. Such were the numerous
collegia of artisans (
opificum or
artificum), and the societies existing among the poor for providing funerals, which
first appear under the Empire. The political clubs (
collegia sodalicia）
were associated in the worship of the Lares Compitales (q. v.), and were, indeed, properly
speaking,
collegia compitalicia, or “societies of the
cross-ways.” The religious societies were, in some instances, established by the
State for the performance of certain public religious services; in other cases they were
formed by private individuals, who made it their business to keep up the shrines of particular
deities, often foreign, at their own expense. See
Sodalitas; Universitas.
