Absence of Lictors.....

[guidoLaMoto]

-- doesn't seem to be a Reply tab on Guy's post and can't find the OP on this topic. ..BUT--

According to Suetonius-- as Caesar sat down  before the assembled Senate, several conspirators approached him as if to pay respects. The lictors were probably behind or off to the side and not positioned to defend Caesar from the attack which began suddenly and unexpectedly. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/suetonius/suetonius-on-the-death-of-caesar/ (ch 82)

Maybe the better question is what did they do in the immediate aftermath of the attack? Maybe they just scrammed realizing that they had just failed their mission?

Edited July 8, 2024 by guidoLaMoto
Spelling correction

[indianasmith]

Didn't Caesar dismiss his lictors a couple of days previously? Or is that just a detail from speculative fiction?

If they were present, they would have been bound by law and tradition to defend him to the death.

[guidoLaMoto]

Suetonius addresses the plot and assassination in paragraphs 80 thru 83....then states in paragraph 86 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0061%3Alife%3Djul.%3Achapter%3D86%3Asection%3D1 that Caesar had dismissed his Spanish bodyguards ("custodias Hispanorum cum gladiis"-- guards with swords of the Spanish) No reference to timing of the dismissal....Are these equivalent to the official lictors?

We have only the summary of Livy's treatment of the subject (Book 116) which is quite brief.

In the days of The Republic, each consul was assigned 12 lictors who only carried the fasces without the axe blade when within the bounds of the Pomerium..... A Dictator was assigned all 24 lictors and they each maintained the bundled rods with axehead at all times.

Edited Friday at 07:49 PM by guidoLaMoto

[indianasmith]

Correct!  Of course, Suetonius was writing over a century later . . . does anyone else mention Caesar having "Spanish bodyguards"?
That seems such an odd term.

Caesar was extraordinarily self-confident, from all I have read.  He may have dismissed his lictors to show the people of Rome that he did not fear assassination.
If so, not a wise move!