Lictor
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A lictor (possibly from
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''ligare'', meaning 'to bind') was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and
bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...
to a
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
who held ''
imperium In ancient Rome, ''imperium'' was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from '' auctoritas'' and '' potestas'', different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic a ...
''. Roman records describe lictors as having existed since the
Roman Kingdom The Roman Kingdom, also known as the Roman monarchy and the regal period of ancient Rome, was the earliest period of Ancient Rome, Roman history when the city and its territory were King of Rome, ruled by kings. According to tradition, the Roma ...
, and may have originated with the
Etruscans The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. Af ...
.


Origin

The lictors are said in the ancient antiquarian sources to go back to the regal period. There are two main traditions. The first is from
Dionysius of Halicarnassus Dionysius of Halicarnassus (, ; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime. ...
. He claimed that Etruscan envoys numbering twelve (one for each Etruscan city) gifted the king
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (), or Tarquin the Elder, was the legendary fifth king of Rome and first of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned for thirty-eight years.Livy, '' ab urbe condita libri'', I Tarquinius expanded Roman power through military ...
fasces A fasces ( ; ; a , from the Latin word , meaning 'bundle'; ) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etrus ...
– symbolising military leadership of the twelve Etruscan communities – on his accession. With the approval of the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, Tarquin then appointed twelve lictors to attend to him when exercising military and civil authority. The second is in Livy, which attributes the first lictors to the king
Romulus Romulus (, ) was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of th ...
. Livy also sides with an Etruscan origin, dismissing the variant story that Romulus appointed one lictor for each of the twelve birds that appeared to him in
augury Augury was a Greco- Roman religious practice of observing the behavior of birds, to receive omens. When the individual, known as the augur, read these signs, it was referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" () means "looking at birds". ...
at the foundation of the city. The word likely originates from their role in
corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...
, where a victim is bound () for punishment. Ancient sources also offer two other possibilities: from the belt or apron ( and , respectively) that they wore or, less plausibly, via borrowing from a supposed Greek cognate. Modern scholars have also suggested the possibility of derivation from ("to allow").


Eligibility

Lictors were drawn from the plebeians and, in elite literature, were generally depicted as being drawn from low status. They were, however, all citizens.
Centurion In the Roman army during classical antiquity, a centurion (; , . ; , or ), was a commander, nominally of a century (), a military unit originally consisting of 100 legionaries. The size of the century changed over time; from the 1st century BC ...
s from the legions were also automatically eligible to become lictors on retirement from the army. A lictor had to be a strongly built man, capable of physical work. Lictors were exempted from military service, received a fixed salary (of 600 '' sestertii'', in the beginning of the Empire), and were organized in a corporation. Usually, they were personally chosen by the magistrate they were supposed to serve, but it is also possible that they were drawn by lots.


Tasks

A lictor's main role was to bodyguard the imperium-possessing magistrate to which they were assigned. They also carried the magistrate's
fasces A fasces ( ; ; a , from the Latin word , meaning 'bundle'; ) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etrus ...
which symbolised that magistrate's imperium. The
fasces A fasces ( ; ; a , from the Latin word , meaning 'bundle'; ) is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often but not always including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etrus ...
also served to intimidate a crowd since they contained all the necessary equipment to administer corporal and capital punishment. Stories going back to the origin of the republic attest to magistrates ordering their lictors to serve as executioners; their role in a magistrate's imposition of official punishment seems to have continued through to late antiquity. The lictors followed or preceded 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'' () 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 In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals (, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty from several s ...
was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony. The degree of
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
's ''imperium'' was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him: *
Dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...
: 24 lictors *
Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
: originally 12 lictors, after Domitian, 24 lictors * Rex and
Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
: 12 lictors *
Magister equitum The , in English Master of the Horse or Master of the Cavalry, was a Roman magistrate appointed as lieutenant to a dictator. His nominal function was to serve as commander of the Roman cavalry in time of war, but just as a dictator could be n ...
: 6 lictors *
Praetor ''Praetor'' ( , ), also ''pretor'', was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to disch ...
: 6 lictors, 2 within the pomerium * Curule aediles: 2 lictors *
Quaestor A quaestor ( , ; ; "investigator") was a public official in ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officia ...
: no lictors in the city of Rome, but quaestors were permitted to have fasces in the provinces. During the late republic and the Principate,
proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...
s and
propraetor In ancient Rome, a promagistrate () was a person who was granted the power via '' prorogation'' to act in place of an ordinary magistrate in the field. This was normally ''pro consule'' or ''pro praetore'', that is, in place of a consul or praet ...
s were assigned the same number of lictors as their urban counterparts. Proconsular governors, therefore, also had twelve lictors. However, the '' legati Augusti pro praetore'' were assigned only five. 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'' () and traveling senators. However, these lictors probably did not carry fasces. Lictors were also associated with '' comitia curiata'', as in its later form, the thirty curiae were represented by a single lictor each.


''Lictor curiatus''

The ''lictor curiatus'' (: ''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 '' pontifex maximus'', the high priest of Rome. They were present at sacrifices where they carried or guided sacrificial animals to the altars.
Vestal Virgin In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals (, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty from several s ...
s, '' flamines'' (), and other high-ranking priests were entitled to be escorted and protected by ''lictores curiati''. In the Empire, women of the imperial family were usually followed by two of this kind of lictor. The ''lictores curiati'' were also responsible to summon the '' Comitia Curiata'' () and to maintain order during its procedures.


See also

*
Cursus honorum The , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices'; ) was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The comprised a mixture of ...
*
Praetorian Guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin language, Latin: ''cohortes praetoriae'') was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and ga ...


References


Bibliography

* * ** ** * *


External links

* {{Ancient Rome topics Ancient Roman titles Bodyguards