# Statuette of a Lictor

- By: Ancient Roman
- Date: First half of the 1st century
- Medium: Bronze
- Classification: Sculpture
- Dimensions: 11.7 × 5 × 3 cm (4 5/8 × 2 × 1 1/8 in.)
- Culture: Roman Empire
- Credit line: James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/61392)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/bf3473ee-6c74-d1ef-8bce-b57955aeb952/full/!1453,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The official attendants and bodyguards of Roman magistrates known as lictors were usually citizens of low birth, such as freedmen (former slaves). Typically, as seen here, a lictor wore a toga and carried in his left hand the bundle of elm or birch rods tied with a red belt that symbolized the magistrates’ executive power. This statuette likely belonged to a larger historical relief depicting a ceremonial scene, perhaps on the breastplate of a bronze statue of a horse, where similar statuettes of lictors are known to have been displayed.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0