DICTĀTOR

an extraordinary magistrate at Rome. The name is of Latin origin, and the office probably existed in many Latin towns before it was introduced into Rome. We find it in Lanuvium even in very late times. At Rome this magistrate was originally called magister populi and not dictator , and in the sacred books he was always designated by the former name down to the latest times. On the establishment of the Roman republic the government of the state was entrusted to two consuls, that the citizens might be the better protected against the tyrannical exercise of the supreme power. But it was soon felt that circumstances might arise in which it was of importance for the safety of the state that the government should be vested in the hands of a single person, who should po e for a season absolute power, and from whose decision there should be no appeal to any other body. Thus it came to pa that in B.C. 501, nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, the dictatorship ( dictatura ) was instituted. By the original law respecting the appointment of a dictator ( lex de dictatore creando ) no one was eligible for this office unle he had previously been consul. We find, however, a few instances in which this law was not observed.—When a dictator was considered nece ary, the senate pa ed a senatus consultum, that one of the consuls should nominate ( dicere ) a dictator; and without a previous decree of the senate the consuls had not the power of naming a dictator. The nomination or proclamation of the dictator was always made by the consul, probably without any witne es, between midnight and morning, and with the observance of the auspices ( surgens or oriens nocte silentio dicta to rem dicebat ). The technical word for this nomination or proclamation was dicere (seldom creare or facere ). Originally the dictator was of course a patrician. The first plebeian dictator was C. Marcius Rutilus, nominated in B.C. 356 by the plebeian consul M. Popillius Laenas. The reasons which led to the appointment of a dictator, required that there should be only one at a time. The dictators that were appointed for carrying on the busine of the state were said to be nominated rei gerundae causa , or sometimes sedition is sedandae causa ; and upon them, as well as upon the other magistrates, the imperium was conferred by a Lex Curiata . The dictatorship was limited to six months, and no instances occur in which a person held this office for a longer time, for the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar are of course not to be taken into account. On the contrary, though a dictator was appointed for six months, he often resigned his office long previously, immediately after he had dispatched the busine for which he had been appointed. As soon as the dictator was nominated, a kind of suspension took place with respect to the consuls and all the other magistrates, with the exception of the tribuni pleb is. The regular magistrates continued, indeed, to discharge the duties of their various offices under the dictator, but they were no longer independent officers, but were subject to the higher imperium of the dictator, and obliged to obey his orders in every thing. The superiority of the dictator’s power to that of the consuls consisted chiefly in the three following points—greater independence of the senate, more extensive power of punishment without any appeal ( provocatio ) from their sentence to the people, and irresponsibility. To these three points, must of course be added that he was not fettered by a colleague. We may naturally suppose that the dictator would usually act in unison with the senate; but it is expre ly stated that in many cases where the consuls required the co-operation of the senate, the dictator could act on his own responsibility. That there was originally no appeal from the sentence of the dictator is certain, and accordingly the lictors bore the axes in the fasces before them even in the city, as a symbol of their absolute power over the lives of the citizens, although by the Valerian law the axes had disappeared from the fasces of the consuls. Whether, however, the right of provocatio was afterwards given cannot be determined. It was in consequence of the great and irresponsible power po e ed by the dictatorship, that we find it frequently compared with the regal dignity, from which it only differed in being held for a limited time.—There were however a few limits to the power of the dictator. 1. The most important was that which we have mentioned above, that the period of his office was only six months. 2. He had not power over the treasury, but could only make use of the money which was granted him by the senate. 3. He was not allowed to leave Italy, since he might thus easily become dangerous to the republic; though the case of Atilius Cal at in us in the first Punic war forms an exception to this rule. 4. He was not allowed to ride on horseback at Rome, without previously obtaining the permi ion of the people; a regulation apparently capricious, but perhaps adopted that he might not bear too great a resemblance to the kings, who were accustomed to ride.—The insignia of the dictator were nearly the same as those of the kings in earlier times; and of the consuls subsequently. Instead however of having only twelve lictors, as was the case with the consuls, he was preceded by twenty-four bearing the secures as well as the fasces. The sella curulis and toga praetexta also belonged to the dictator.—The preceding account of the dictatorship applies more particularly to the dictator rei gerundae causa; but dictators were also frequently appointed, especially when the consuls were absent from the city, to perform certain acts, which could not be done by any inferior magistrate. These dictators had little more than the name; and as they were only appointed to discharge a particular duty, they had to resign immediately that duty was performed. The occasions on which such dictators were appointed, were principally:—1. For the purpose of holding the comitia for the elections ( comitiorum habendorum causa ). 2. For fixing the clavus annal is in the temple of Jupiter ( clavi figendi causa ) in times of pestilence or civil discord, because the law said that this ceremony was to be performed by the praetor maximus , and after the institution of the dictatorship the latter was regarded as the highest magistracy in the state. 3. For appointing holidays ( feriarum constituendarum causa ) on the appearance of prodigies, and for officiating at the public games ( ludorum faciendorum causa ), the presidency of which belonged to the consuls or praetors. 4. For holding trials ( qua est i on i bus exercendis .) 5. And on one occasion, for filling up vacancies in the senate ( legendo senatui ).—Along with the dictator there was always a magister equitum , the nomination of whom was left to the choice of the dictator, unle the senatus consultum specified, as was sometimes the case, the name of the person who was to be appointed. The magister equitum had, like the dictator, to receive the imperium by a lex curiata. The dictator could not be without a magister equitum, and, consequently, if the latter died during the six months of the dictatorship, another had to be nominated in his stead. The magister equitum was subject to the imperium of the dictator, but in the absence of his superior he became his representative, and exercised the same powers as the dictator. The magister equitum was originally, as his name imports, the commander of the cavalry, while the dictator was at the head of the legions, the infantry; and the relation between them was in this respect similar to that which subsisted between the king and the tribunus celerum. Dictators were only appointed so long as the Romans had to carry on wars in Italy. A solitary instance of the nomination of a dictator for the purpose of carrying on war out of Italy has been already mentioned. The last dictator rei gerundae causa was M. Junius Pera, in B.C. 216. From that time dictators were frequently appointed for holding the elections down to B.C. 202, but after that year the dictatorship disappears altogether.—After a lapse of 120 years, Sulla caused himself to be appointed dictator in B.C. 82, reipublicae constituendae causa , but neither his dictatorship nor that of Caesar is to be compared with the genuine office. Soon after Caesar’s death the dictatorship was abolished for ever by a lex proposed by the consul Antonius. During the time, however, that the dictatorship was in abeyance, a substitute was invented for it, whenever the circumstances of the republic required the adoption of extraordinary measures, by the senate investing the consuls with dictatorial power. This was done by the well-known formula, Videant or dent operam consules, ne quid res public a detriment i capi at .