in Roman antiquity, axes bound together with rods or staves, and borne before the Roman magistrates as a badge of their office and authority. According to Florus, the use of the fasces was introduced by the elder Tarquin, the fifth king of Rome; and they were then the mark of the sovereign dignity. In after times they were borne before the consuls by turns, who had each twelve, borne by as many lictors. These fasces consisted of branches of elm, with a securis or axe in the middle, the head of which projected beyond the rest. But Publicola took the axe out of the fasces, as Plutarch assures us, in order to remove all occasion of terror. After the consuls, the praetors assumed the fasces. In the government of the decemvirs, it was the practice at first for only one of their number to have the fasces borne before them; but afterwards each had twelve, after the manner of the kings. When the magistrates, who by right had the axes carried before them, intended to show deference to the people, or some person of singular merit, they either sent away the lictors, or commanded them to lower the fasces, which was denominated submittere fasces. Many instances of this occur in Roman history.