sector, ōris, m. [seco], one who cuts or cuts off, a cutter (rare but class.).
I Lit.: zonarius, a cutpurse , Plaut. Trin. 4, 2, 20: collorum, a cutthroat , Cic. Rosc. Am. 29, 80 (v. II.); so id. ib. 31 fin. : feni, a haycutter , mower , Col. 11, 1, 12.—
II Publicists’ t. t., a bidder , purchaser at a public sale of goods captured or confiscated by the State (cf. quadruplator): sectores vocantur qui publica bona mercantur, Dig. 4, 146: cum de bonis et de caede agatur, testimonium dicturus est is, qui et sector est et sicarius: hoc est, qui et illorum ipsorum bonorum, de quibus agitur, emptor atque possessor est et eum hominem occidendum curavit, de cujus morte quaeritur, Cic. Rosc. Am. 36, 103: sector sis, id. Phil. 2, 26, 65: Pompeii (sc. bonorum), id. ib. 13, 14, 30; Crassus ap. Cic. Fam. 15, 19, 3: ubique hasta et sector, Tac. H. 1, 20: hastae subjecit tabernas, nec sector inventus est, Flor. 2, 6, 48; Pacat. Pan. Theod. 25, 28; Claud. IV. Cons. Hon. 496; cf. Ps.-Ascon. ap. Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 20, § 52, p. 172, and 2, 1, 23, § 61, p. 177 Orell.—In a double sense, with the signif. I.: nescimus per ista tempora eosdem fere sectores fuisse collorum et bonorum? cutthroats and cutpurses, Cic. Rosc. Am. 29, 80. —*
B Trop.: hinc rapti pretio fasces sectorque favoris Ipse sui populus, seller of his favor , Luc. 1, 178.—
III Geometrical t. t., the sector of a circle , that part of a circle included between any two radii and an arc , Boëth. Art. Geom. p. 379, 13.