Lictor
A lictor (possibly from
Origin
The lictors were instituted by Rome's first king, Romulus, who appointed twelve lictors to attend him. Livy refers to two competing traditions for the reason that Romulus chose that number of lictors. The first version is that twelve was the number of birds that appeared in the augury, which had portended the kingdom to Romulus. The second version, favoured by Livy, is that the number of lictors was borrowed from the Etruscan kings, who had one lictor appointed from each of their twelve states.[2]
Eligibility
Originally, lictors were chosen from the
Lictors were associated with
Tasks
The lictor's main task was to attend as bodyguards to magistrates who held imperium. They carried rods decorated with fasces and, outside the pomerium, with axes that symbolized the power to carry out capital punishment. Dictatorial lictors had axes even within the pomerium. They followed the magistrate wherever he went, including the Forum, his house, temples, and the baths. Lictors were organized in an ordered line before him, with the primus lictor (lit. 'principal lictor') directly in front of him, waiting for orders. If there was a crowd, the lictors opened the way and kept their master safe, pushing all aside except for Roman matrons, who were accorded special honor. They also had to stand beside the magistrate whenever he addressed the crowd. Magistrates could only dispense with their lictors if they were visiting a free city or addressing a higher status magistrate. Lictors also had legal and penal duties; they could, at their master's command, arrest Roman citizens and punish them. A Vestal Virgin was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony.
The degree of magistrate's imperium was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him:
- Sulla
- Emperor: originally 12 lictors, after Domitian 24 lictors
- Rex and Consul: 12 lictors
- Proconsul: 11 lictors
- Magister equitum: 6 lictors
- Praetor: 6 lictors, 2 within the pomerium
- Propraetor and Legatus: 5 lictors
- Curule aediles: 2 lictors
- Quaestor: 0 lictors in the city of Rome, but quaestors were permitted to have fasces in the provinces.[4]
- Judge: 1 lictor
Lictors assigned to magistrates were organized into a corporation composed of several decuries; during the late Republic, the decuries sometimes lent lictors to private citizens holding ludi publici (lit. 'public games') and traveling senators.[5] However, these lictors probably did not carry fasces.[5]
Lictor curiatus
The lictor curiatus (pl.: lictores curiati) was a special kind of lictor who did not carry rods or fasces and whose main tasks were religious. There were approximately thirty of them, serving at the command of the
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Staveley & Lintott 2012.
- The History of Rome by Titus Livius: Books Nine to Twenty-Six, trans. D. Spillan and Cyrus Edmonds. York Street, Covent Garden, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1868. 1.8
- ISBN 978-1-62365-201-2.
- ^ Smith 1875.
- ^ a b Eastland Stuart Staveley and Andrew Lintott, lictores, Oxford Classical Dictionary (2016).
Sources
- Staveley, Eastland Stuart; Lintott, Andrew (2012). "lictores". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 959667246.
- Smith, William, ed. (1875). "Fasces". A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 520–21.
External links
- Lendering, Jona (2019) [2002]. "Lictor". Livius.org. Retrieved 2022-03-10.