(‘moulders of sacrificial cakes’, bakers). They assisted the pontifices (fictores pontificum: CIL VI 1074; 10247) and the Vestals (fictores virginum Vestalium: CIL VI 786; 2134; Varro, Ling. 7,44, Cic. Dom. 139), their office, according to Ennius (Ann. 115), dated back to Numa. The fictores baked the sacrificial cakes (liba) ─ a task which they may have taken over from the Vestal virgins ─ and sometimes they were also present at the sacrifices themselves. Cf. strufertarii (Fest. 85 L.), who offered strues and fertum.
Bibliography
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