Note 163 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME

Lictor is probably derived from licere. For other attempts at derivation see Gell. xii. 8. They summon, not only to the assembly, but also to the courts, and are thus the chief mark of jurisdiction and coercive power (coercitio). The individual curiae were probably summoned by the thirty lictores curiatii, who survive into the later Republic. See Momms. Staatsr. i. p. 392. For the number of lictors that accompanied the king see Cic. de Rep. ii. 17, 31; Liv. i. 8; Dionys. ii. 29; iii. 61, 62.