VĪCUS, the name of the subdivisions into which the four regions
occupied by the four city tribes of Servius Tullius were divided,
while the country regions, according to an institution ascribed to
Numa, were subdivided into pagi. This division, together with that of
the four regions of the four city tribes, remained down to the time
of Augustus, who made the vici subdivisions of the fourteen regions
into which he divided the city. In this division each vicus consisted
of one main street, including several smaller by-streets; their
number was 424, and each was superintended by four officers, called
_vico-magistri_, who had a sort of local police, and who, according
to the regulation of Augustus, were every year chosen by lot from
among the people who lived in the vicus. On certain days, probably at
the celebration of the compitalia, they wore the praetexta, and each
of them was accompanied by two lictors. These officers, however, were
not a new institution of Augustus, for they had existed during the
time of the republic, and had had the same functions as a police for
the vici of the Servian division of the city.