The lictor (possibly from Latin: ligare, "to bind") was a member of a special class of Roman civil servant, with special tasks of attending and guarding magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium, the right and power to command; essentially, a bodyguard. The origin of the tradition of lictors goes back to the time when Rome was a kingdom, perhaps acquired from their Etruscan neighbours.

According to Livy, lictors were first introduced by Rome's first king, Romulus, who appointed twelve lictors to attend his majesty. Livy refers to two competing traditions for the reason Romulus chose that number of lictors. The first version is that twelve was the number of birds that appeared in the augury which had portended the kingdom to Romulus. The second version, favoured by Livy, is that the number of lictors was borrowed from the Etruscan kings, who had one lictor appointed from each of their twelve states.

Originally, lictors were chosen from the plebs but through most part of the Roman history they seemed to be freedmen. They were, however, definitely Roman citizens, since they wore togae inside Rome. A lictor had to be a strongly built man, capable of physical work. Lictors were exempted from military service, received a fixed salary (of 600 sesterces, in the beginning of the Empire), and were organized in a corporation. Usually, they were personally chosen by the magistrate they were supposed to serve, but it is also possible that they were drawn by lots.