Alictor (possibly fromLatinligare, meaning 'to bind'[1]) was aRoman civil servant who was an attendant andbodyguard to amagistrate who heldimperium. Roman records describe lictors as having existed since theRoman Kingdom, and they may have originated with theEtruscans.[2]
The lictors are said in the ancient antiquarian sources to go back to theregal period. There are two main traditions. The first is fromDionysius of Halicarnassus. He claimed that Etruscan envoys numbering twelve (one for each Etruscan city) gifted the kingLucius Tarquinius Priscusfasces – symbolising military leadership of the twelve Etruscan communities – on his accession. With the approval of theSenate, Tarquin then appointed twelve lictors to attend to him when exercising military and civil authority.[3] The second is in Livy, which attributes the first lictors to the kingRomulus. 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 inaugury at thefoundation of the city.[4]
The wordlictor likely originates from their role incorporal punishment, where a victim is bound (Latin:ligare) for punishment. Ancient sources also offer two other possibilities: from the belt or apron (licium andlimus, respectively) that they wore or, less plausibly, via borrowing from a supposed Greek cognate. Modern scholars have also suggested the possibility of derivation fromlicere ("to be allowed").[5]
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Lictors were drawn from the plebeians and, in elite literature, were generally depicted as being drawn from low status.[7] They were, however, all citizens.[8]
Centurions from thelegions 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 600sestertii, 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.[citation needed]
A lictor's main role was to bodyguard the imperium-possessing magistrate to which they were assigned. They also carried the magistrate'sfasces which symbolised that magistrate's imperium. Thefasces also served to intimidate a crowd since they contained all the necessary equipment to administer corporal and capital punishment.[9] Stories going back to theorigin of the republic attest to magistrates ordering their lictors to serve as executioners;[10] their role in a magistrate's imposition of official punishment seems to have continued through to late antiquity.[11]
The lictors followed or preceded the magistrate wherever he went, including theForum, his house, temples, and the baths. Lictors were organized in an ordered line before him, with theprimus 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.[12] AVestal Virgin was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony.
The degree ofmagistrate'simperium was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him:
During the late republic and the Principate,proconsuls andpropraetors were assigned the same number of lictors as their urban counterparts. Proconsular governors, therefore, also had twelve lictors. However, thelegati Augusti pro praetore were assigned only five.[14]
Lictors assigned to magistrates were organized into a corporation composed of severaldecuries; during thelate Republic, the decuries sometimes lent lictors toprivate citizens holdingludi publici (lit. 'public games') and travelingsenators. However, these lictors probably did not carry fasces.[2]
Lictors were also associated withcomitia curiata, as in its later form, the thirty curiae were represented by a single lictor each.
Thelictor curiatus (pl.:lictores curiati) was a special kind of lictor who did not carry rods orfasces and whose main tasks were religious. There were approximately thirty of them, serving at the command of thepontifex maximus, the high priest of Rome. They were present at sacrifices where they carried or guided sacrificial animals to the altars.Vestal Virgins,flamines (lit. 'priests'), and other high-ranking priests were entitled to be escorted and protected bylictores curiati. In the Empire, women of the imperial family were usually followed by two of this kind of lictor. Thelictores curiati were also responsible to summon theComitia Curiata (lit. 'Public Assembly') and to maintain order during its procedures.
