CALA´TOR
CALA´TOR (KALATOR, Orell.
Inscr. 2431, 2432;
καλήτωρ,
Dionys.), originally a slave employed as a caller or crier (Plaut.
Merc. 5.2, 11;
Pseud. 4.2, 52;
Bud. 2.3, 5): the
nomenclator or
prompter of names to a candidate was a specimen of this class (
Hor. Ep. 1.6,
50;
aliena memoria salutamus,
Plin. Nat. 29.19;
AMBITUS). The derivation from
καλεῖν (Lat.
calare; cf.
kalendae) is given by Paulus
Diaconus (p. 18, Müller); but he ridiculously adds that it was
because they had to come when they were called. In this sense the word
became obsolete; but it survived as the name of certain attendants on the
members of the higher priesthoods, each of whom nominated a calator from
among his own freedmen.
Besides the ARVALES (
q.
v.), we find in the four inscriptions preserved by Orellius,
Kalatores Pontificum et Flaminum, 2431;
Kalatores
Titialium Flavialium, 2432 (here a boy dying at 15 has held the
office);
Calator Epulonum Libertus, 2433;
Dispensator Calatorum Augurum, 2434, cf. Suet.
de
Ill. Gramm. 100.12: and Orellius remarks that all sacerdotia had
their calatores. (Marini,
Atti de' Fratelli Arvali, p. 210;
Henzen,
Acta Fr. Arvalium, pp. 7.8.160; Marquardt, 6.219;
Mommsen,
Staatsr. i.2 344.)
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W.W]
