Fasces

Fasces were bundles of rods usually made of birch, but sometimes of elm, with an axe (securis) projecting from the middle of them, which were carried before the chief magistrates of ancient Rome as symbols of their power over life and limb. They were borne by the lictors, at first before the kings, in the time of the republic before consuls and prætors, and afterwards before the emperors. Their number varied, a consul and a proconsul in his province having twelve, a prætor six, but within the city only two. Valerius Publicola introduced a law that within the city the axe should be withdrawn, except in the case of a dictator, who was preceded by twenty-four lictors, bearing as many fasces. Publicola also made the fasces be lowered at the assemblies of the people, as an acknowledgment of their supreme power.