Plutarch mentions that the captains under Romulus carried manipuli, which he seems to think the reader will have heard of. It's a bundle of grass and parts of a tree attached to a stick (reminiscent of later fasces?). Apparently the fasces were adopted from Etruria, but...the bundle of rods seems more like an impromptu weapon while the sticks with grasses and shrubs seems...odd. Anyone know if it had a purpose? Was it symbolic?
I know that certain unusual items (like brooms) often had military metaphoric significance (we'll sweep the enemy away)...is this similar? Anyone know?
The fasces is a very old symbol, and predates the manipuli Plutarch mentions, since Plutarch was only born in the first century CE. The 'bound rods' are a recurrent symbol in Roman culture; bound rods with an axe (the fasces) represented magisterial power. The rods symbolised the right to dispense corporal punishment; the axe, for death. Lesser town governors may have the right to hold the bundle of rods seemingly called the 'baccili', as a symbol for their right to sentence the guilty, but not to announce an execution ( http://ostia-antica.org/intro.htm#42 )
Officers in Roman forces seem to have employed thrashing as a punishment also, and these manipuli were probably symbolic of their right to dispense this as a sentence. Tacitus accounts for a Centurion nicknamed 'bring me another' by merit of this enthusiasm for thrashing his men in Annals 1.23 ( http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tac/a01020.htm )