Definition: Being a delator could be a lucrative, but much despised profession under the Roman emperors.The delator was an informer or informant. Delatores (the Latin plural of delator) were despised for bringing forth trumped up charges. Often a delator was paid by the emperor to make accusations. Delatores were sometimes paid a fee and sometimes a set portion (one half or one quarter) of the victim's fine.
- "But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate. * Those whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers, he now suspected as secret enemies. The Delators, a race of men discouraged, and almost extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable, as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate."
Gibbon
