Note 1870 — BOOK XXVI.

It is not impossible that the reference may be to the custom prescribed by the laws of the xii. tables to persons searching for stolen goods. The person so searching either wore himself (or was accompanied by a servus publicus wearing) a small girdle round the abdomen, called Licium; this was done to prevent any suspicion of himself introducing into the house that which he alleged to have been stolen from him; and that it might not be abused into a privilege of entering the women's apartments for the purposes of intrigue, he was obliged to carry before his face a Lanx perforated with small holes (hence incerniculum), that he might not be recognized by the women, whose apartments the law allowed him to search. This process was called, in law, per lancem et licium furta concipere. It is alluded to by Aristoph., Nub., 485. Cf. Schol. in loc. Fest. in voc. Lanx. Plato, Leg., xii., calls licium χιτωνίσκον.