Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

DICTATOR.

133

DICTATOR.

hands of a single person, who should possess
for a season absolute power, and from whose
decision there should be no appeal to any
other body. Thus it came to pass that in
b.c. 501, nine years after the expulsion of
the Tarquins, the dictatorship [dietatwa)
was instituted. By the original law respect-
ing the appointment of a dictator (lexde dic-
tatore creando) no one was eligible for this
office unless he had previously been consul.
We find, however, a few instances in which
this law was not observed.—When a dictator
was considered necessary, the senate passed a
scnatus 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 dicta-
tor. The nomination or proclamation of the
dictator was always made by the consul, pro-
bably without any witnesses, between mid-
night and morning, and with the observance
of the auspices (surgens or oriens node silen-
tio dictatorem 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 Ilutilus,
nominated in b.c. 356 by the plebeian con-
sul 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 business of the state were said to be no-
minated rei gerundae causa, or sometimes
seditionis 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 dic-
tatorships of Sulla and Caesar are of course
not to be taken into account. On the con-
trary, though a dictator was appointed for
six months, he often resigned his office long
previously, immediately after he had dis-
patched the business for which he had been
appointed. As soon as the dictator was no-
minated, a kind of suspension took place with
respect to the consuls and all the other
magistrates, with the exception of the tribuni
plebis. 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 irre-
sponsibility. 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 expressly 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 irre-
sponsible power possessed 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 Calatinus in the
first Punic war forms an exception to this
rule. 4. He was not allowed to ride on
horseback at Rome, without previously ob-
taining the permission of the people ; a
regulation apparently capricious, but perhaps
adopted that he might not bear too great a
resemblance to the kings, who were accus-
tomed to ride.—The insignia of the dictator
were nearly the same as those of the kings in
earlier times; and of the consuls subse-
quently. Instead however of having only
twelve lictors, as was the case with the con-
suls, be 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 dic-
tators had little more than the name ; and as
they were only appointed to discharge a par-
ticular duty, they had to resign immediately
that duty was performed. The occasions on
which such dictators were appointed, were
principally :■—I. Fc the purpose of holding