There were certain staff-bearers at the hearth [sc. in the theater in classical Athens], to keep the audience well-behaved. Or staff-bearers, [sc. meaning] the judges of the contest, [the ones] they call mediators. Aristophanes [writes]: "if any comic poet came forward to the audience and praised himself, the staff-men should beat him."[1]
Polybius [writes]: "a lictor from the general appeared, summoning the king".[2]