Fasces

• The Fasces was a cylinder of birch rods tied neatly together into a bundle by a red leather ribbon, with one or two bronze axes with the blades jutting out from the cylinder.
• It symbolised the power and authority, the Imperium, of the magistrate.

Description

• The Axe symbolised the Death Penalty under the Roman Republic until it was banned.
• When accompanying a Magistrate, the Fasces was carried at all times by a Lictor, as a symbol of his Imperium.
• It was a tradition inherited from the Etruscans.