fetial
Syllables: fe·tial/ˈfiːʃəl/US/ˈfiʃəl/
fetial noun: a member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations.
Noun
fetial (plural fetials)
- A member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations.
- Nicomachus, as explained in the next line, was already known to the Elean priests or fetials, or whatever we are to call them, as a guest-friend.1892, Pindar, “Isthmian II. Ode in Honour of a Victory in the Chariot-race at Isthmus Won by Xenocrates of Acragas”, in J[ohn] B[agnell] Bury, editor, ΠΙΝΔΑΡΟΥ ΕΠΙΝΙΚΟΙ ΙΣΘΜΙΟΝΙΚΑΙΣ [PINDAROU...
- It was customary for the fetial to carry to the bounds of the other nation a cornetwood spear, iron-pointed or hardened in the fire, and in the presence of not less than three grown men to say, "Whereas the tribes of the Ancient Latins and men of the Ancient Latins have been guilty of acts and...1919, Livy, “Ab Urbe Condita: Liber I [From the Founding of the City: Book I]”, in B. O. Foster, transl., Livy in Fourteen Volumes … With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volumes I...
Adjective
fetial (not comparable)
- Of or relating to a fetial (member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations); (by extension) ambassadorial, heraldic.
- [P]erhaps the shadowy fetials were never actually an independent priesthood but were senatorial priests assigned diplomatic functions. If fetials were originally senators, this would explain the parallel fetial and senatorial function in "international relations" and account for the continuity...2005, Richard E. Mitchell, “The Definition of Patres and Plebs: An End to the Struggle of the Orders”, in Kurt A[rnold] Raaflaub, editor, Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the...
- Concerned with declarations of war and treaties of peace.
- The institution of a college of heralds and the fecial law, were proofs of a people considerably advanced in the cultivation of the law of nations as a science; and yet with what little attention they were accustomed to listen to the voice of justice and humanity, […]1832, James Kent, “Lecture I. Of the Foundation and History of the Law of Nations.”, in Commentaries on American Law, 2nd edition, volume I, New York, N.Y.: O. Halsted, →OCLC, part I (Of the Law of...
- With the Fetial Law we are only imperfectly acquainted, but it seems to have been simply a law peculiar to the Romans, and regulating their conduct towards foreigners, and not properly an international law common to other nations, and determining on general principles their respective rights and...1848, Archer Polson, Thomas Hartwell Horne, “Section II. History of the Law of Nations.”, in Principles of the Law of Nations, with Practical Notes and Supplementary Essays on the Law of Blockade and...
Examples of fetial in a sentence
- [P]erhaps the shadowy fetials were never actually an independent priesthood but were senatorial priests assigned diplomatic functions.2005, Richard E. Mitchell, “The Definition of Patres and Plebs: An End to the Struggle of the Orders”, in Kurt A[rnold] Raaflaub, editor...
- According to authors of the late Republic, the fetials supervised Roman adherence to the iura belli, the laws of war.2008, Clifford Ando, “Religion and Imperialism at Rome”, in The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire (The Transformation of...
- Fetiales also investigated allies' claims of abuse by Romans; if substantiated, the fetiales delivered the men accused to the injured parties.2016, Amanda J. Coles, “Ius Fetiale”, in Sara E[lise] Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, Peter Londey, editors, Conflict in Ancient Greece...
- Religion played a central role in the making and application of fetial law.2006, J. Craig Barker, “Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on the Protection of Diplomatic Personnel”, in The Protection of Diplomatic...
Forms of fetial
| plural | fetials |
|---|---|
| alternative form | fecial |
Origin of fetial
From Latin fētiālis (“priest who sanctioned treaties and demanded satisfaction from enemies before formal declarations of war”). The root of the Latin word is thought to be Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, place, put”), also the source of the verb Latin faciō (“to do; to build, construct; to appoint”). The nominalized form of this verb, Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tis (“act of putting, placement”), would have developed into an Italic noun *fētis (unattested, but conjectured to mean something like "statute, treaty" or "prescription, law", developing to mean "body of priests"), which was combined with the adjective-forming suffix -ālis to yield Latin fētiālis. The unadapted Latin forms fetialis (singular) and fetiales (plural) are also used in English, sometimes with italicization, sometimes without.
Questions about fetial
- What does fetial mean?
- Fetial means a member of the Roman college of priests who acted as representatives in disputes with foreign nations.
- How do you use fetial in a sentence?
- [P]erhaps the shadowy fetials were never actually an independent priesthood but were senatorial priests assigned diplomatic functions.
- What part of speech is fetial?
- Fetial can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce fetial?
- Fetial is pronounced /ˈfiːʃəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fetial?
- The plural of fetial is fetials.
Words near fetial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fetial (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “fetial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fetial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.