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Roman lictor (from ligare, meaning “to bind”) was a lower civil servant who initially preceded Roman kings (rex), and then some senior officials and emperors. In fact, his role was to protect important figures in Rome who held imperium, or military, civil and religious powers. Imperium was owned by the following officials: dictator, consuls and praetors. In the case of the dictator, it was summum imperium, ie unlimited power, the consul had the so-called imperium maius (greater authority), while the praetor had the so-called imperium minus (lesser authority). People who owned the imperium had the right to sit on the curule chair and use the lictors’ escort. The number of lictors and the rods held by them indicated the extent of the official’s power.
History of lictors
The genesis of using lictors’ guards goes back to the times of the kingdom. It was probably from Etruscanthe that Romans borrowed this custom, more precisely from the city of Vetulonia. Moreover, there is a suggestion that the lictors owe their name to the Etruscan cane lauchum, translated as “royal”. Another suggestion of origin is licium (“belt”) or licere (“to summon”).
According to Titus Livius, the lictors were appointed by the first legendary king Romulus, who appointed twelve people. The reasons for the appointment of just twelve lictors can be found in two matters. The first assumes that this number reflected the number of birds that appeared during the augur reading and symbolized the rise of the Romulus state. The second version, supported by Livy, says that this number was taken from the world of Etruscan rulers who had one lictor for each of the twelve states.
Originally, the lictors were selected from the lower social strata, but the basic requirement was that the person appointed to this position should be free. The military themselves, upon retirement, was automatically able to assume this function.
Lictor had to be a strong and well-built manable to exercise. He was discharged from military service and received a salary of 600 sesterces at the beginning of the Roman Empire. Usually, the lictors were selected by the officials they were supposed to protect.
Initially, the likers were linked to curial commissions(comitia curiata). Each curia appointed its own lictors (30 curia – 30 lictors), where 24 were allocated to two consuls and 6 to the praetor.
Number and functions of lictors
The main task of the lictor, as mentioned, was to protect the official holding the imperium. They accompanied him during his speech at rostra and stood next to him when he sat or were at the clerk’s house, in the vestibule. Lictors accompanied the official wherever he went: on the forum, to the house, temple or bathhouse. However, not always lictors guaranteed full protection. Titus Livius tells how the propraetor Quintus Pleminius was beaten by Roman soldiers when he demanded that the consequences be drawn against the disobedient military:
[…] suddenly inflamed with much more ungovernable rage, without respect, not only for the dignity of their commander, but of humanity, they made an attack upon the lieutenant-ge