FEZIALI. - In Rome they constituted a priestly association of Latin origin, composed of twenty members, which recognized Jupiter as its patron and was the depository of the sacred norms relating to treaties of alliance and declarations of war (Cicero, De leg., 2, 9, 21). Their task was to treat first of alliance and of war; to conclude treaties of peace and to watch over their observance, invoking the divinity as witness.
The F. had a ritual formulary, known in small part through Polybius (3, 25), Livy (1, 24; 9, 5), Gellius (16, 4) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (2, 72) for demanding satisfaction; for reclaiming from the enemy what had been wrongfully taken; for declaring war, by hurling into enemy territory an iron spear or one of blood-red wood burned at the tip; for sealing the alliance, by means of the sacrifice of a pig immolated with a stone knife taken from the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, invoking that same Jupiter to strike in the same manner the Roman people, according to Livy, or the F., according to Polybius, should it have been the first to violate the pacts concluded.
The mission of the F. was composed of the pater patratus, who spoke and swore the oath on behalf of the Roman people, and of the verbenarius, the associate who carried with him a small branch of the apotropaic verbena, gathered on the Capitoline citadel, with which both touched their foreheads to protect themselves against harmful influences. Having reached enemy territory, the two envoys set forth their demands, granting a suitable time for the reply; if this was negative, the supreme decision was referred back to the Roman people. When the boundaries of the State were enlarged, the said ceremonies took place in the "Hostile Field" annexed to the temple of Bellona.
Varro (De l. lat., 5, 86) affirms that the ceremonial of the F., in his time, had fallen into disuse. But Augustus restored it to force, enrolled himself in the association as F. and in 32 B.C. declared war on Cleopatra, according to the ritual of the F.