Note 638 — Chapter III · EVENTS IN ROME DURING THE YEAR 698.
Reading edition
Appian, Civil Wars, II. 17.—The consuls and proconsuls had twelve lictors, the prætors six, the dictators twenty-four, and the master of the cavalry a number which varied. The curule ædiles, the quæstors, and the tribunes of the people, not having the imperium, had no lictors. As, at the time of the conference of Lucca, there was no dictator or master of cavalry, the number of 120 fasces can only apply to the collective escort of proconsuls and prætors. It is not probable that the two consuls then in office at Rome should have gone to Lucca. On the other hand, the proconsuls were prohibited from quitting their provinces as long as they were in the exercise of their commands. (see Titus Livius, XLI. 7; XLIII. 1.) But as the conferences of Lucca took place just at the epoch when the proconsuls and proprætors were starting for their provinces (we know from Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, III. 9, that this departure took place in the months of April and May), it is probable that the newly-named proconsuls and proprætors repaired to Lucca before they went to take possession of their commands. Thus the number of 120 fasces would represent the collective number of the lictors of proprætors or proconsuls who could pass through Lucca before embarking either at Pisa, or Adria, or at Ravenna.
On this hypothesis, we should have the following numbers:—
Proprætorof Sicily6fasces.
“ofSardinia6“
Proconsul ofCiterior Spain12“
“ofUlterior Spain12“
“ofAfrica12“
“ofAsia12“
“ofMacedonia12“
“ofBithynia12“
“ofCrete12“
“ofSyria12“
“ofCilicia12“
120
Plutarch (Pompey, 53) says in so many words that there were seen every day at his door 120 fasces of proconsuls and prætors.