sortiarius

Sortiarius is a Latin noun (masculine) formed from sort- "lot, chance" with the agent noun suffix -arius, meaning "one who performs the action of drawing lots." The term is relatively rare in surviving texts, but it is used to designate a person responsible for conducting a lottery or lot-drawing in public or religious contexts.

In Roman and late antique practice, a sortiarius would oversee the drawing, ensure fairness, and record results. The role could be associated with assigning offices, distributing goods, or selecting jurors, among other tasks that required a random or ceremonial determination. The exact duties and the form of the drawing varied across sources and periods, and the word itself is not a standardized official title with a fixed remit.

Scholars note that sortition—the broader practice of selecting individuals by lot—encompasses a range of institutions and methods beyond the specific office of the sortiarius. The term focuses on the operator of the lottery rather than on the lottery or its outcomes.

In contemporary usage, sortiarius appears occasionally in discussions of sortition or in speculative fiction and gaming as a title for a character or role associated with luck, fate, or chance. The term thus functions both as a historical linguistic item and as a cultural cue in modern storytelling and design. See also sortition, lottery, dice.