a. and sb. [ad. L. fetiālis (erroneously fec-): of unknown origin.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to the fetiales (see B.); hence, heraldic, ambassadorial. Fetial law: the Roman law relating to declarations of war and treaties of peace.
1553. Grimalde, Cicero’s Offices, I. (1558), 16. The feciall lawe of the people of Rome.
1684. trans. Agrippa’s Van. Arts, lxxxi. 279. Now every Servile and Mechanick-fellow, fecial Messengers, and Caduceators, frequently are admitted to the Employment.
1826. Kent, Comm., 6. The fecial law relating to declarations of war.
1839. W. O. Manning, Law Nations, IV. vi. (1875), 106. The practice of the Grecian States was more cruel than that of the Romans; their occasional slaughter of their prisoners, their executing the ambassadors sent to them by an enemy, and killing the crews of merchant vessels captured in war, were not imitated by the Romans, whose fecial college preserved them from such enormities; although the barbarous gratification of their triumphs partook more of the exultation of a savage over a fallen enemy than of the generous treatment that might have been expected from warriors such as the Romans.
1866. Cornh. Mag., XIV., Nov., 631. The conventional courtesy of European, we might almost say of African and Asiatic palaces, extends a certain share of intimate hospitality to the members of the Fetial profession.
B. sb. One of the fetiales, a Roman college of priests, who fulfilled the function of heralds, and performed the rites connected with the declaration of war and the conclusion of peace.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 41. ‘Deliver to me,’ said the Feciall, ‘the herbe namit verbene.’
1602. Segar, Hon. Mil. & Civ., I. iii. 4. It was not lawful for a King or any Souldier to take Armes, untill the Fœcials had so commanded or allowed.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 173. It does not appear that they were employed, like the Italian Fetials, to make formal declarations of war.
1875. Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, xiii. (1877), 76. Striking the fecial a blow.
