Quaestiones Romanae

Why is one of the hippodromes called Flaminian?

Is it because a certain Flaminius[*](The consul defeated at Trasimene. The circus was built circa 221 b.c.; Cf. Varro, De Lingua Latina, v. 154.) long ago bestowed some land upon the city and they used the revenues for the horse-races: and, as there was money still remaining, they made a road, and this they also called Flaminian?[*](The Via Flaminia ran from the Pons Mulvius up the Tiber Valley to Narnia in Umbria; later it was extended over the Apennines to the Port of Ariminum.)

Why do they call the rod-bearers lictors?[*](Cf.Life of Romulus, chap. xxvi. (34 a); Aulus Gellius, xii. 3.)

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.[*](Cf. Festus, s.v. lictores; Valgius Rugus, frag. 1 (Gram. Rom. Frag. i. p. 484).)

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.