The Vestal and the Fasces: Property and the Feminine In Law and Psychoanalysis

The fasces symbolized the majesty of Roman law. It was an axe attached to a bundle of sticks. Consuls, emperors, and other high-ranking officials were escorted in public by lictors bearing the fasces as the visible representation of the enforcement powers of the state. Offenders could be mercifully flogged with one of the sticks or justly executed with the blade.