Dictator

A dictator is an absolute or tyrannical ruler, i.e., a ruler whose exercise of power is not limited by the constraints of a constitution or legal system. The word dictator is also applied, by analogy, to a person whose pronouncements in a particular field (e.g., fashion or cuisine) are regarded as authoritative.

The word dictator is one of a group of words whose Latin originals were the titles of magistrates, i.e., holders of official positions, in ancient Rome. (Other members of this group are consul and tribune.)

In ancient Rome the dictatorship as an office within the constitution was created, soon after the expulsion of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus, in 509 BCE, to ensure that in times of crisis there could be a single person in charge. (In ‘normal’ times supreme authority was shared between the two consuls.). A dictator was nominated by one of the consuls on the recommendation of the Senate, and was appointed for a specific purpose. He possessed supreme authority and his decisions and actions could not be challenged (e.g., vetoed by a tribune or appealed against in a court) – but only so long as they related to the task which was the reason for his appointment. And, most significantly, the dictatorship was time-limited: a dictator was appointed for six months only and was expected to resign as soon as he had successfully completed his mission.

Two dictators are particularly celebrated in Roman history for having saved the state from imminent military defeat:

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (c519-c430 BCE), who, according to the historian Livy, was recalled from retirement on his small farm and, having been appointed dictator, led an army to the relief of the Roman forces besieged by the Aequi, whom he defeated at the battle of Mount Algidus (458); and

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (c280-203 BCE, dictator in 221), who, when Carthaginian forces under their formidable general Hannibal invaded Italy, denied them a decisive victory over the Roman army by his adoption of delaying tactics and the careful choice of the terrain on which to do battle. The adoption of these tactics earned Fabius Maximus the agnomen Cunctator (Delayer); and the Roman poet Ennius in his epic poem Annales refers to his achievement in the often-quoted line Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem (‘One man by delaying restored the state to us’).

However, the crises which led to the appointment of a dictator were rarely as grave as those which faced Cincinnatus and Fabius Maximus. During the three centuries from 500 to 200 BCE dictators were appointed on more than 80 occasions, typically for such ‘everyday’ purposes as the holding of elections or the celebration of a religious festival.

During the course of the third century the significance of the dictatorship declined and in the second century no dictators at all were appointed. The office was revived in the first century, in the final years of the Republic, though in a different form which anticipates that of a modern dictatorship.

In 81 BCE Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (138-78) marched on Rome at the head of a victorious army, eliminated his political opponents, and secured appointment to a dictatorship for the purpose of restructuring the constitution (legibus faciendis et rei publicae constituendae causa, ‘to rewrite the laws and revise the constitution’). Sulla wished to combat some of the populist tendencies which had established themselves in the preceding half century and restore the authority of the Senate. He held the dictatorship for two years, resigning from the office in 79 - and most of his ‘reforms’ were reversed soon after.

Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44) was first appointed dictator in 49 BCE but remained in office for only eleven days until he was elected to a consulship. In 48 he was appointed dictator for an indefinite period, and reappointed in 46 for a period of ten years, which enabled him to carry out an extensive programme of social and administrative reform. However, his appointment as dictator for life (perpetuo) early in 44 proved too much for some senators with republican sympathies and was a principal reason for his assassination on the Ides (15th) of March of the same year.

The office of dictator did not exist under the Empire, though the emperors were dictators in all but name.