Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Praeco

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PRAE'CO. A public crier; employed by the Romans for many purposes  — in a court of justice to summon the plaintiff and defendant, announce the names of the parties, proclaim the sentence, &c.; at the comitia to call up the centuries to vote, proclaim the vote of each century, and the names of the persons elected; at auctions to call the articles put up for sale, announce the biddings, &c., at the public games, where they summoned the people to attend and proclaimed the names of the successful competitors; at the public assemblies, where they were employed to keep silence and preserve order; and at solemn funerals (funera indictiva), when they went round the city inviting the people to attend, of which the annexed figure (Praeco/1.1) affords an example, from a Roman bas-relief, in which he is represented with his long trumpet at the head of a funeral procession; and, finally, as a town crier, who cried lost property through the district. Plaut. Cic. Liv. Hor. &c.

• 
  Praeco/1.1