Vilicus was a slave who had the superintendence of the villa rustica

Villa rustica

Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...

, and of all the business of the farm, except the cattle, which were under the care of the magister pecoris. The duties of the vilicus were to obey his master implicitly, and to govern the other slaves with moderation, never to leave the villa except to go on market, to have no intercourse with soothsayer

Fortune-telling

Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...

s, to take care of the cattle and the implements of husbandry, and to manage all the operations of the farm villa. His duties and those of his wife (the vilica) are described by Columella

Columella

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...

 (I.8, XI.1, and XII.1), and by Cato (cxlii-cxliii, focusing on the vilica).

The word was also used to describe a person to whom the management of any business was entrusted (see the passage quoted in Forcellini's Lexicon)