Dictātor
The Latin term for a magistrate appointed for special emergencies, after auspices duly
taken by the consuls on the commission of the Senate. The dictator was never appointed for
more than six months. The first instance of the appointment occurred in B.C. 501. The dictator
was usually, though not always, chosen from the number of
consulares, or
men who had held the office of consul. No plebeian was elected before B.C. 356. He was always
nominated for a particular or specified purpose, on the fulfilment of which he laid down his
office. He combined the supreme judicial with the supreme military power, and there was,
originally, no appeal against his proceedings, even the veto of the tribunes being powerless
against him. He was free from responsibility for his acts, and could therefore not be called
to account on the expiration of his term of office, the case of Camillus, who was so
impeached, being very peculiar. (See Becker,
Röm. Alterth. ii. pt. 2,
p. 172.) That the dictator was free from subsequent attack is expressly
stated by Dion. Hal. (v. 70, vii. 56), Appian (
B. C. ii. 23), and others. His
insignia were the
sella curulis and the
toga
praetexta, and he was attended by twenty-four lictors, who represented the lictors of
two consuls, and who even in the city bore axes in their bundles of rods, as a sign of
unlimited power of life and death. His assistant was the
magister equitum
(master of the horse), who was bound absolutely to obey his commands, and whom he had to
nominate immediately after his own election. The original function of the dictator was
military; but after B.C. 363 a dictator was occasionally chosen, in the absence of the
consuls, for other purposes than dealing with external danger or internal
troubles—especially to hold the games or religious festivities. The office gradually
passed out of use, though not legally abolished. The last military dictator was appointed in
B.C. 206, the last absolutely in B.C. 202. The dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar who was named
perpetual dictator not long before his death, were antirepublican and unconstitutional. After
Caesar had been murdered, in B.C. 44, the office was abolished forever by a law of Marcus
Antonius. See Mommsen,
Römische Staatsrecht, ii. 133-172; Becker,
Röm. Alterth. ii. pt. 2, p. 150 foll.
