Executing John the Baptist

[Tarbicus]

a speculator, being a scout, was supposed to act on his own. Usually, there would have been little time to ask for confirmation of orders; he might as well have some sort of "license to kill" when he thought he had to.

I thought a speculator was also a spy, torturer and executioner? Intelligence officer? Also, under the early Emperors weren't they also bodyguards to them, which could mean Herod could have been assigned one as a symbol of Rome's protection, justice, and a convenient eye & ear in his court?

The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 B.C.-A.D. 135)
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numisw ... eculatores
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law