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

DICTATOR.

134

DIES.

the comitia for the elections (comitiorum ha-
bcndorum causa). 2. For fixing the clavus
annalis 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 maxinuts, and
after the institution of the dictatorship the
latter was regarded as the highest magistracy
in the state. 3. For appointing holidays
(feriarum cotistituendarum causa) on the ap-
pearance 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 (quacstionibus ezerccndis.) 5. And on
one occasion, for filling up vacancies in the
senate {legaido senatui).—Along with the
dictator there was always a magister equitum,
the nomination of whom was left to the
choice of the dictator, unless the senatus
eonsultum 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 with-
out 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 com-
mander of the cavalry, while the dictator was
at the head of the legions, the infantry ; and
the relation between them was in this re-
spect similar to that which subsisted between
the king and the tribunus celerum. Dicta-
tors were only appointed so long as the Ro-
mans had to carry on wars in Italy. A soli-
tary 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 dicta-
tors 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 him-
self to be appointed dictator in b.c. 82, reipub-
licae constituendae causa, but neither his dicta-
torship nor that of Caesar is to be compared
with the genuine office. Soon after Caesar's
deatli the dictatorship was abolished for ever
by a lex proposed by the consul Antonius.
During the time, however, that the dictator-
ship was in abeyance, a substitute was in-
vented for it, whenever the circumstances of
the republic required the adoption of extra-
ordinary measures, by the senate investing

the consuls with dictatorial power. This
was done by the well-known formula, Videant
or dent operam consules, tie quid respublica
detrhnenti capiat.

DICTYNMA (SiKTuvi'ia), a festival with
sacrifices, celebrated at Cydonia in Crete, in
honour of Artemis, surnamed AiKTvvva or
Ai/cri/waia, from SUrvov, a hunter's net.

DIES (r/fie'pa), a day. The name dies was
applied, like our word day, to the time during
which, according to the notions of the an-
cients, the sun performed his course around
the earth, and this time they called the civil
day {dies civilis, in Greek wx^-qpfpov, because
it included both night and day). The natural
day (dies naturalis), or the time from the
rising to the setting of the sun, was likewise
designated by the name dies. The civil day
began with the Greeks at the setting of the
sun, and with the Romans at midnight. At
the time of the Homeric poems the natural
day was divided into three parts. The first,
called ijws, began with sunrise, and compre-
hended the whole space of time during which
light seemed to be increasing, i. e. till mid-
day. The second part was called pecrov r/pap
or mid-day, during which the sun was
thought to stand still. The third part bore
the name of Sei'Arj or ScieXov r/pap, which de-
rived its name from the increased warmth of
the atmosphere. Among the Athenians the
first and last of the divisions made at the
time of Homer were afterwards subdivided
into two parts. The earlier part of the
morning was termed Trpiot or Trpw -rij? 7)p.e'pa; ;
the latter, nX-qSovayii rrjs d-yopas, or 7repl
TrKrjOovo-av ayopav. The petrov rip-ap of Homer
was afterwards expressed by V-eo-qpfipia, pe<rov
■qpipaq, or p-eo-q rjpepa, and comprehended, as
before, the middle of the day, when the sun
seemed neither to rise nor to decline. The
two parts of the afternoon were called Set'A7j
7rpcuir) or Trpwia, and Sei'Ar; o^ru) or 6i/«'a. This
division continued to be observed down to
the latest period of Grecian history, though
another more accurate division was intro-
duced at an early period; for Anaximander,
or, according to others, his disciple Anaxi-
menes, is said to have made the Greeks
acquainted with the use of the Babylonian
chronometer or sun-dial (called toAo;, or
uipoAoyior), by means of which the natural
day was divided into twelve equal spaces of
time. The division of the day most gene-
rally observed by the Romans, was that into
tcmpus aittemeridianum and pomeridianum,
the meridies itself being only considered as a
point at which the one ended and the other
commenced. Rut as it was of importance
that this moment should be known, an espe-
cial officer [Accensus] was appointed, who