Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex (died 82 BC), the son of Publius Mucius Scaevola (consul in 133 BC and also Pontifex Maximus) 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.