ÆRUSCATORES, in Antiquity, a kind of strolling beggars, not unlike gypsies, who drew money from the credulous by fortune-telling, &c. It was also a denomination given to gripping exactors, or collectors of the revenue. The Galli, or priests of Cybele, were called æruscatores magnæ matris; and μειζονόψαι, on account of their begging or collecting alms in the streets; to which end they had little bells to draw people's attention, similar to some orders of mendicants abroad.