The lictor, derived from the Latin ligare (to bind), was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium. The origin of the tradition of lictors goes back to the time when Rome was a kingdom, perhaps acquired by their Etruscan neighbours. Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,546,807 almost 4,000,000 1... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ... Imperium can, in a broad sense, be translated as power. ... Etruria was an ancient country in Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium and Umbria. ...

Who became lictors?

Originally, lictors were chosen from the plebs but through most part of the Roman history they seemed to be freedmen. They were, however, definitely Roman citizens, since they wore togas inside Rome. 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 sesterces, 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 also possible that they were drawn by lots. Roman clad in toga The toga was the distinctive garb of Ancient Rome. ... The sestertius was an ancient Roman coin. ...

Lictors were associated with Comitia Curiata and probably originally one was selected from each curia,since originally there were 30 curias and 30 lictors (24 for two consuls and 6 for the sole praetor) The Roman Republic (Latin: Res Publica Romanorum) vested formal governmental powers in four separate peoples assemblies — the Comitia Curiata, the Comitia Centuriata, the Comitia Tributa, and the Concilium Plebis. ... For modern diplomatic consuls, see Consulate general. ... // Definition According to Cicero, Praetor was a title which designated the consuls as the leaders of the armies of the state. ...

Lictor's tasks

The lictor's main task was to attend as bodyguards to magistrates who held imperium: consuls (12 lictors), praetors (6 lictors, 2 within Rome), dictators (24 lictors, 12 before Sulla) and curule aediles (2 lictors); the dictator's deputy, the magister equitum ("Master of the Horse") was also escorted by six lictors. Men with proconsular or prepraetorian imperium were also entitled to lictors (the number of lictors being equal to their degree of imperium). They carried rods decorated with fasces and, outside the pomerium, with axes that symbolized the power to execute. 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 (the principal lictor) right on his front, waiting for orders. If there was a crowd, the lictors opened the way and kept their master safe. They also had to stand beside the magistrate whenever he addressed the crowd. Magistrates could only dispense 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. Imperium can, in a broad sense, be translated as power. ... For modern diplomatic consuls, see Consulate general. ... // Definition According to Cicero, Praetor was a title which designated the consuls as the leaders of the armies of the state. ... Dictator was a political office of the Roman Republic. ... Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (Latin: L·CORNELIVS·L·F·P·N·SVLLA·FELIX) ¹ (ca. ... Aedile (Latin Aedilis) was an office of the Roman Republic. ... The Master of the Horse was (and in some cases, is) a historical position of varying importance in several European nations. ... A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. ... A statue of Cincinnatus resigning from dictatorship by returning the Roman fasces Fasces (the plural, almost a plurale tantum, of the Latin word fascis, bundle) symbolise summary power and jurisdiction. ... The pomerium (or pomoerium) was the sacred boundary of the city of Rome. ... The Roman Forum (Forum Romanum, although the Romans referred to it more often as the Forum Magnum or just the Forum) was the central area around which ancient Rome developed, in which commerce, business, prostitution, cult and the administration of justice took place. ... A vestal Virgin, engraving by Sir Frederick Leighton, ca 1890: Leightons artistic sense has won over his passion for historical accuracy in showing the veil over the Vestals head at sacrifices, the suffibulum, as translucent, instead of fine white wool. ...

Sometimes, lictors were ascribed to private citizens in special occasions, like funerals or political reunions, as a show of respect by the city.

Lictor curiatus

The lictor curiatus (plural lictores curiati) was a special kind of lictor, who did not carry rods or fasces and whose main tasks were religious. Some thirty in number, they were 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 Virgins, as well as flamines (priests), were entitled to be escorted and protected by one lictor curiatus. In the Empire, women of the royal family were usually followed by two of this kind of lictor. The lictores curiati were also responsible for summoning the Comitia Curiata (the Public Assembly) and to maintain order during its procedures. Alternate meanings: see Pontifex (disambiguation) In Ancient Rome, the Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the collegium of the Pontifices, the most august position in Roman religion, open only to a patrician, until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post. ... A vestal Virgin, engraving by Sir Frederick Leighton, ca 1890: Leightons artistic sense has won over his passion for historical accuracy in showing the veil over the Vestals head at sacrifices, the suffibulum, as translucent, instead of fine white wool. ... A flamen was a priest of the Roman religion. ...

See also

• cursus honorum
• fasces
• imperium