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A lictor (possibly from Latin language ligare, meaning 'to bind') was a Ancient Rome civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a Roman magistrate who held imperium. Roman records describe lictors as having existed since the Roman Kingdom, and they may have originated with the Etruscans.
The word lictor likely originates from their role in corporal punishment, where a victim is bound () for punishment. Ancient sources also offer two other possibilities: from the belt or apron (licium and limus, respectively) that they wore or, less plausibly, via borrowing from a supposed Greek cognate. Modern scholars have also suggested the possibility of derivation from licere ("to allow").
from the Roman legion were also automatically eligible to become lictors on retirement from the army. 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 Sestertius, 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 is also possible that they were drawn by lots.
The lictors followed or preceded the magistrate wherever he went, including the Roman Forum, his house, temples, and the baths. Lictors were organized in an ordered line before him, with the primus 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. A Vestal Virgin was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony.
The degree of Roman magistrate's imperium was symbolised by the number of lictors escorting him:
During the late republic and the Principate, and 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.
Lictors assigned to magistrates were organized into a corporation composed of several Decury; during the late Republic, the decuries sometimes lent lictors to holding Ludi () and traveling Roman Senate. However, these lictors probably did not carry fasces.
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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