Lictor

A lictor was a Roman civil servant who served as a bodyguard and attendant to a magistratus who held imperium. Imperium was the power to command a Roman army and to administer Roman law. Lictors carried fasces – bundles of rods tied together with an axe – symbolizing the magistrate’s power to punish and execute.

The number of lictors assigned to a magistrate depended on their rank and the authority granted to them. Dictators were typically attended by twenty-four lictors; consuls by twelve; praetors usually by six. Lesser magistrates such as aediles or quaestors did not have lictors.

Lictors marched in a single file before their magistrate, clearing the way and ensuring respect. They would also carry out punishments ordered by the magistrate. Within the pomerium (the sacred boundary of Rome), the axes were removed from the fasces, symbolizing that the magistrate’s power over life and death was limited within the city itself. This limitation did not apply to dictators, who retained the axe even within the pomerium.

Lictors were usually freedmen of plebeian origin. Being a lictor was a well-respected position and could provide a pathway to further opportunities.