Roman dictator: Encyclopedia II - Roman dictator - Establishment and history

Roman dictator - Establishment and history

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 possess absolute power for a short time, and from whose decisions there should be no appeal to any other body. Thus it came to pass that in 501 BC, nine years after the expulsion of the kings, 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, 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 senatus consultum that one of the consuls should nominate a dictator; and without a previous decree of the senate the consuls had not the power of naming a dictator. The nomination of the dictator by the consul was necessary in all cases. It was always made by the consul, probably without any witnesses, between midnight and morning.

The senate seems to have usually mentioned in their decree the name of the person whom the consul was to nominate but that the consul was not absolutely bound to nominate the person whom the senate had named, is evident from the cases in which the consuls appointed persons in opposition to the wishes of the senate. In later times the senate usually entrusted the office of dictator to the consul who was nearest at hand. The nomination took place at Rome, as a general rule; and if the consuls were absent, one of them was recalled to the city, whenever it was practicable; but if this could not be done, a senatus consultum authorizing the appointment was sent to the consul, who thereupon made the nomination in the camp. Nevertheless, the rule was maintained that the nomination could not take place outside of Italy. Originally the dictator was reserved for a patrician. The first plebeian dictator was Gaius Marcius Rutilius, nominated in 356 BC by the plebeian consul Marcus Popillius Laenas.

The reasons which led to the appointment of a dictator required that there should be only one at a time. The only exception to this rule occurred in 216 BC after the battle of Cannae, when Marcus Fabius Buteo was nominated dictator for the purpose of filling up the vacancies in the senate, although Marcus Junius Pera was discharging the regular duties of the dictator; but Fabius resigned on the day of his nomination on the ground that there could not be two dictators at the same time. The dictators that were appointed for carrying on the business of the state were said to be nominated rei gerendae causa, or sometimes seditionis sedandae causa; and upon them, as well as upon the other curule magistrates, imperium was conferred.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Establishment and history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki