Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vigiles

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. 

VIG'ILES. Sentinels, who perform the night watch of an army (Virg. Aen. ix. 159.); as shown by the illustration (Vigiles/1.1), from the Vatican Virgil, which represents a bivouac of soldiers outside the walls of a fortress; the time of night being indicated by the blazing fire in the foreground, and the moon and stars above.

2. Watchmen; of whom there were seven cohorts in the city of Rome, under the command of a praefect (nyctostrategus), and whose duty it was to preserve the peace at night, and protect the citizens and their property from murder, plunder, or fire. Plaut. Amph. i. 1. 198. Cic. Verr. ii. 4. 43.

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  Vigiles/1.1