Editing Lictor (section)

==Tasks==
[[File:Consul et lictores.jpg|thumb|200px|Gold coin from [[Dacia]], minted by [[Coson]], depicting a consul and two lictors]]

A lictor's main role was to bodyguard the imperium-possessing magistrate to which they were assigned. They also carried the magistrate's [[fasces]] which symbolised that magistrate's imperium. The [[fasces]] also served to intimidate a crowd since they contained all the necessary equipment to administer corporal and capital punishment.{{sfn|Brennan|2023|p=14}} Stories going back to the [[overthrow of the Roman monarchy|origin of the republic]] attest to magistrates ordering their lictors to serve as executioners;{{sfn|Brennan|2023|p=15, noting the story of the [[Tarquinian conspiracy]] and Brutus' ordering of his lictors to execute his sons for conspiring against the republic; also p. 19 noting that after the republic's founding such powers were no longer exercised within the ''[[pomerium]]'' and pp. 61, 68–69, noting Seneca's account of lictors executing soldiers under the command of [[Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso (consul 7 BC)|Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso]] during the reign of [[Tiberius]]}} their role in a magistrate's imposition of official punishment seems to have continued through to late antiquity.{{sfn|Brennan|2023|p=68}}

The lictors followed or preceded the magistrate wherever he went, including the [[Roman Forum|Forum]], his house, temples, and the baths. Lictors were organized in an ordered line before him, with the '''''primus lictor''''' ({{literally|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.{{sfn|Smith|1875}} A [[Vestal Virgin]] was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony.

The degree of [[Roman magistrate|magistrate]]'s ''imperium'' was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him:
*[[Roman dictator|Dictator]]: 24 lictors{{sfn|Wilson|2021|p=200, noting that Polybius's account (3.87.7) of [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus]]' dictatorship includes twenty-four lictors within the pomerium, contra [[Theodor Mommsen|Mommsen]] relying on Livy, ''Periochae'', 89.3}}
*[[Roman Emperor|Emperor]]: originally 12 lictors, after Domitian, 24 lictors
*[[Interrex|Rex]] and [[Roman consul|Consul]]: 12 lictors
*[[Magister equitum]]: 6 lictors
*[[Praetor]]: 6 lictors, 2 within the pomerium
*[[Aedile|Curule aediles]]: 2 lictors
*[[Quaestor]]: no lictors in the city of Rome, but quaestors were permitted to have fasces in the provinces.{{sfn|Smith|1875}}

During the late republic and the Principate, [[proconsul]]s and [[propraetor]]s were assigned the same number of lictors as their urban counterparts. Proconsular governors, therefore, also had twelve lictors. However, the ''[[legati Augusti pro praetore]]'' were assigned only five.{{sfn|Drummond|2012}}

Lictors assigned to magistrates were organized into a corporation composed of several [[Decury|decuries]]; during the [[Roman_Republic|late Republic]], the decuries sometimes lent lictors to [[private citizen]]s holding ''[[Ludi|ludi publici]]'' ({{literally|public games}}) and traveling [[Roman Senate|senators]]. However, these lictors probably did not carry fasces.{{sfn|Staveley|Lintott|2012}}

Lictors were also associated with ''[[comitia curiata]]'', as in its later form, the thirty curiae were represented by a single lictor each.
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