Les faisceaux des licteurs dans l’Ab Vrbe condita de Tite-Live : rôle politique et puissance symbolique des emblèmes du pouvoir

This article shows that it is possible to study some aspects of Livy’s political message through the images used by the historian in his Ab Vrbe condita. Among these, the image of the fasces, carried by the lictors who surrounded the magistrates with imperium, reveals an important reflection on the usurpation of power and on the sovereignty of the Roman people. Through this image, Livy’s work, inspired by the atmosphere of violence of the end of the Republic, teaches to the future leaders of Rome a lesson about what constitutes a legitimate form of power.