51�Թ�

He might assume Lincoln had been a lictor, a Roman official who served as a sort of bodyguard to elected magistrates.

Almachius, then, who dreaded the consequences of bringing so noble and courageous a victim to public execution, sent a lictor to behead her in her own palace, but he executed his office so ill, that she still lived after the third blow of his axe, after which the Roman law forbade that a victim should be stricken again.

Plutarch says; “Such was the quantity of spices brought in by the women, at Sylla’s funeral, that, exclusive of those carried in two hundred and ten great baskets, a figure of Sylla at full length, and of a lictor besides, was made entirely of cinnamon, and the choicest frankincense.”

Burn him in oil!—The lictor oil prepares: Behold the Saint anointed unawares!

I, lictor, manibusque audacibus injice vinc'la: Injecit lictor vincula, et arma dedit.