1. Numa Pompilius was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him, such as the Roman calendar, Vestal Virgins, the cult of Mars, the cult of Jupiter, the cult of Romulus, and the office of pontifex maximus.
Numa Pompilius lived a severe life of discipline and banished all luxury from his home.
Titus Livius and Plutarch refer to the story that Numa Pompilius was instructed in philosophy by Pythagoras, but discredit it as chronologically and geographically implausible.
Pompilia is said to have married the son of the first pontifex maximus, Numa Pompilius Marcius, named Numa Pompilius Marcius, and by him gave birth to the future king Ancus Marcius.
In 715 BC, after much bickering between the factions of Romulus and Tatius, a compromise was reached, and the Senate elected the Sabine Numa Pompilius, who was approximately forty years of age, as the next king.
Numa Pompilius argued that Rome, under the influence of Romulus's rule, was still a country of war.
In Plutarch and Livy's account, Numa Pompilius, after being summoned by the Senate from Cures, was offered the tokens of power amid an enthusiastic reception by the people of Rome.
Numa Pompilius requested that an augur should divine the opinion of the gods on the prospect of his kingship before he accepted.
Numa Pompilius was traditionally celebrated by the Romans for his wisdom and piety.
Numa Pompilius then appointed the priests for each of the deities.
Numa Pompilius was said to have authored several "sacred books" in which he had written down divine teachings, mostly from Egeria and the Muses.
Numa Pompilius is reputed to have constrained the two minor gods Picus and Faunus into delivering some prophecies of things to come.
Numa Pompilius, supported and prepared by Egeria, reportedly held a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, through an apparition whereby Numa Pompilius sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strikes and thunder.
Numa Pompilius declared that Egeria had told him it was a gift from Jupiter, to be used for Rome's protection.
Numa Pompilius ordered ceremonies to give thanks for the gift, and quickly brought about an end to the plague.
The cult of Terminus, preached Numa Pompilius, involved absence of violence and murder.
Numa Pompilius established the office and duties of Pontifex Maximus and instituted the flamen of Quirinus, in honour of Romulus, in addition to those of Jupiter and Mars that already existed.
Numa Pompilius brought the Vestal Virgins to Rome from Alba Longa.
Livy and Dionysius give a largely concordant picture of the vast founding work carried out by Numa Pompilius concerning Roman religion and religious institutions.
Numa Pompilius created the flamines of Mars and Quirinus, as well as the Vestal virgins and the twelfth Salii of Mars Gradivus.
Numa Pompilius placed all other religious institutions, public and private, under the control of the decrees of the pontiff, to the end that there might be some authority to whom the people should come to ask advice, to prevent any confusion in the divine worship being caused by their neglecting the ceremonies of their own country, and adopting foreign ones.
Numa Pompilius further ordained that the same pontiff should instruct the people not only in the ceremonies connected with the heavenly deities, but in the due performance of funeral solemnities, and how to appease the shades of the dead; and what prodigies sent by lightning or any other phenomenon were to be attended to and expiated.
Numa Pompilius says only a few words about the curiones, who were in charge of tending the sacrifices of the curiae; the flamines; the tribuni celerum, who were the bodyguard of the king but who took part in some religious ceremonies; and the augurs, who were in charge of official divination.
Numa Pompilius made the distinction of the days being either profane or sacred.
Numa Pompilius was credited with dividing the immediate territory of Rome into pagi.
Numa Pompilius considered agriculture as an occupation that "fostering character rather than wealth".
Plutarch suggests, the forbidding by Numa Pompilius of making a sacrifice without a meal and from unpruned vines was intended to make people work in agriculture.
Numa Pompilius forbade fathers to sell their sons into slavery if the son had married according to the will of the father.
Numa Pompilius succeeded so much that the situation was even better than described in the song:.
When Numa Pompilius died, from natural causes, people friendly to Rome come from many places to honour him.
The Christian philosopher Clement of Alexandria in his book Stromata claimed that King Numa Pompilius was influenced by Mosaic law, and due to this refrained from making human images in sculpture.
Numa Pompilius continued to be remembered well into the later centuries of the Eastern Roman Empire.