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A member of the Roman college, the fetiales, which was responsible for the ceremonial associated with diplomatic moves of high significance, such as forming an alliance, issuing an ultimatum, surrendering a prisoner, or concluding a peace. In his De Legationibus Libri Tres (1585), Alberico Gentili, drawing chiefly on Livy, devotes two chapters in his first book to the fecial [sic] priests, noting, inter alia, that ‘redress was sought through fecial priests on those occasions when other kinds of embassies had failed to get any satisfaction’. See also heralds. |
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