Lictor
（
ῥαβδοῦχος, ῥαβδοφόρος). An attendant who bore the
fasces (q. v.) before such Roman magistrates as had a right to these
insignia. The king had twelve; the officiating consul, twelve (see
Consul); the dictator, twenty-four (Polyb. iii. 87). The
magister equitum had six; the praetor at Rome, two; the provincial
praetor, six; proconsuls outside of Rome, twelve; the quaestor, five. They were generally
freedmen, and formed in Rome a corps consisting of three
decuriae under
ten presidents. From these
decuriae, the first of which was exclusively
reserved for the consuls, the magistrates in office drew their lictors, while the provincial
office-bearers nominated their own for their term of power. There was besides another decuria
of thirty
lictores curiati to attend on the
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Lictors.
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public sacrifices, to summon the Comitia Curiata, and, when these meetings became
little more than formal, to represent in them the thirty
curiae; from
this
decuria probably were also chosen the lictors of the
flamen dialis and of the Vestals. It was the duty of the lictors to accompany the
magistrate continually, whenever he appeared in public. On these occasions they marched before
him in single file, last in order and immediately preceding him being the
lictor proximus, also called
lictor primus, who was superior in
rank. All passers-by, with the exception of matrons and Vestals, were warned by the lictors to
stand aside and make due obeisance. The space required for official purposes was kept clear by
them. Sentences of punishment were also executed by them. Their dress corresponded to that of
the magistrate; inside the city the toga; outside, and in a triumph, the red military cloak
(
sagulum). See Mommsen,
Staatsrecht, i. 374 foll.; and
the articles Accensus;
Viator.
