Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Vindicta

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. 

VINDIC'TA. A rod with which the praetor, or the praetor's lictor, tapped the head of a slave as a sign that he was thus made free (Liv. ii. 5. Cic. Top. 2. Pers. v. 88.); in the same manner as a penitent at the Roman Catholic confessional kneels down, and receives the tap of a wand on his head as a token of absolution, — a custom which probably owes its origin to the above practice of the ancient Romans.