[67] Why do they call the rod-bearers “lictors”?[155]
Is it because these officers used both to bind unruly persons and also to follow in the train of Romulus with straps in their bosoms? Most Romans use alligare for the verb “to bind,” but purists, when they converse, say ligare.[156]
Or is the c but a recent insertion, and were they formerly called litores, that is, a class of public servants? The fact that even to this day the word “public” is expressed by leitos in many of the Greek laws has escaped the attention of hardly anyone.