Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Legatus

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. 

LEGA'TUS (ἀντιστράτηγος, ὕπαρχος). A general officer attached to a corps d'armée, and to the governors of provinces, who acted both in a military and civil capacity; his duty being to advise and assist his superiors in their plans and operations, as well as to act in their stead, both as a commander or diplomatic agent, whenever occasion required. (Varro, L. L. v. 87. Caes. B. C. ii. 17. iii. 51.) On the triumphal arches and columns they are represented in the same costume as the other commanders, as shown by the annexed illustration (Legatus/1.1), from the Column of Trajan, in which the first figure on the right is the emperor himself (imperator), the second a legate (legatus), and the third a tribune (tribunus).

2. (πρεσβευτής). A general title given to ambassadors, whether Roman envoys to foreign states, or from foreign princes to Rome. Cic. Liv. &c.

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  Legatus/1.1