EXTRAORDINARY MAGISTRATES.

I. DICTATOR and MASTER of HORSE.

THE 'HE dictator was so called, either because he was named by the consul, (quod a consule diceretur, cui dicto omnes audientes essent, Varro de Lat. ling. iv. 14.) or rather from his publishing edicts or orders, (a dictando, quod multo dictaret, i.e. ediceret: ei homines pro legibus haberent quæ diceret, Suet. Jul. 77.) He was also called magister populi, Sen. Epist, 108. and prator maximus, Liv. vii. 3.

This magistracy seems to have been borrowed from the Albans, or Latins, Liv. i. 23. Cic. pro Mil. 10.

It is uncertain who was first created dictator, or in what year. Livy says, that T. Lartius was first created dictator, A. U. 253, nine years after the expulsion of the kings, ibid.

The first cause of creating a dictator was the fear of a domestic sedition, and of a dangerous war from the Latins. As the authority of the consuls was not sufficiently respected on account of the liberty of appeal from them, it was judged proper in dangerous conjunctures, to create a single magistrate with absolute power, from whom there should be no appeal, Liv. ii. 18. 29. iii. 20. Cic. de Leg. iii. 3. and who should not be restrained by the interposition of a colleague, Dionys. v. 79, &c.

A dictator was afterwards created also for other causes; As, 1. For fixing a nail (clavi figendi vel pangendi causâ) in the right side of the temple of Jupiter, which is supposed to have been done in those rude ages, (cum literæ erant rara), to mark the number of years. This was commonly done by the ordinary magistrate; but in the time of a pestilence, or of any great public calamity, a dictator was created for that purpose, (quia majus imperium erat), to avert the divine wrath, Liv. vii. 3. viii. 18.

2. For holding the comitia, Liv. viii. 23. ix. 7. xxv. 2. 3. For the sake of instituting holidays, Id. vii. 28. or of celebrating

lebrating games when the prætor was indisposed, Liv. viii. 40. ix. 34.

4. For holding trials, (quæstionibus exercendis), Id. ix. 26. And 5. Once for chusing senators, (qui senatum legeret), on which occasion there were two dictators, one at Rome, and another commanding an army, which never was the casc at any other time, Liv. xxiii. 22, &c.

The dictator was not created by the suffrages of the people, as the other magistrates; but one of the consuls, by order of the senate, named as dictator whatever person of consular dignity he thought proper; and this he did, after having taken the auspices, usually in the dead of the night, (nocte silentio, ut mos est, dictatorem dixit, Liv. ix. 38. viii. 23. Dionys. x. 23.(post mediam noctem), Fest. in VOCC. SILENTIO, SINISTRUM

et SOLIDA SELLA.

One of the military tribunes also could name a dictator; about which Livy informs us there was some scruple, iv. 31. A dictator might be nominated out of Rome, provided it was in the Roman territory, which was limited to Italy.

Sometimes the people gave directions whom the consul should name dictator, Liv. xxvii. 5.

Sulla and Cæsar were made dictators at the comitia, an interrex presiding at the creation of the former, and Lepidus the prætor at the creation of the latter, Cic. pro Rull. iii. 2. Cas. bel. civ. ii. 19. Dio. xli. 85.

In the second Punic war, A. U. 536, after the destruction of the Consul Flaminius and his army at the Thrasimene lake, when the other consul was absent from Rome, and word could not easily be sent to him, the people created Q. Fabius Maximus PRODICTATOR, and M. Minucius Rufus master of horse, Liv. xxii. 8, & 31.

The power of the dictator was supreme both in peace and war. He could raise and disband armies; he could determine about the life and fortunes of Roman citizens, without consulting the people or senate. His edict was observed as an oracle (pro numine observatum), Liv. viii. 84. At first there was no appeal from him, till a law was passed, that no magistrate should be created without the liberty of appeal, (sine provoca tione), first by the Consuls Horatius and Valerius, A. U. 304 Liv. iii. 55. and afterwards by the Consul M. Valerius, A. U. 453, Liv. x. 9. Festus in voc. OPTIMA LEX. But the force of this law with respect to the dictator is doubtful. It was once strongly contested, Liv. viii. 33. but never finally decided.

The

The dictator was attended by twenty-four lictors with the fasces and secures even in the city, Liv. ii. 18. so that Livy justly calls imperium dictatoris, suo ingenio vehemens, ii. 30.

When a dictator was created, all the other magistrates abdicated their authority, except the tribunes of the commons, Polyb. iii. 87. The consuls however still continued to act, Liv. iv. 27. but in obedience to the dictator, and without any ensigns of authority in his presence, Liv. xxii. 11.

The power of the dictator was circumscribed by certain

limits.

1. It only continued for the space of six months, (semestris dictatura). Liv. ix. 34. even although the business for which he had been created was not finished, and was never prolonged beyond that time, except in extreme necessity, as in the case of Camillus, Liv. vi. 1. For Sulla and Cæsar usurped their perpetual dictatorship, in contempt of the laws of their country.

But the dictator usually resigned his command whenever he had effected the business for which he had been created. Thus Q. Cincinnatus and Mamercus Æmilius abdicated the dictatorship on the 16th day, Liv. iii. 29. iv. 34. Q. Servilius on the eighth day, Id. iv. 47, &c.

2. The dictator could lay out none of the public money, without the authority of the senate or the order of the people.

1

3. A dictator was not permitted to go out of Italy, which was only once violated, and that on account of the most urgent necessity, in Atilius Calatinus, Liv. epit. xix.

4. The dictator was not allowed to ride on horseback, without asking the permision of the people, Liv. xxiii. 14. to shew, as it is thought, that the chief strength of the Roman army consisted in the infantry.

But the principal check against a dictator's abuse of power was, that he might be called to an account for his conduct, when he resigned his office, Liu. vii. 4.

For 120 years before Sulla, the creation of a dictator was disused, but in dangerous emergencies the consuls were armed with dictatorial power. After the death of Cæsar the dictatorship was for ever abolished from the state, by a law of Antony the consul, Cic. Phil. i. 1. And when Augustus was urged by the people to accept the dictatorship, he refused it with the strongest marks of aversion, (genu nixus, dejectâ ab humeris toga, nudo pectore, deprecatus est), Suet. Aug. 52. Pos

sessed

sessed of the power he wisely declined an odious appellation, Dio. liv. 1. For ever since the usurpation of Sulla, the dictatorship was detested on account of the cruelties which that tyrant had exercised under the title of dictator.

To allay the tumults which followed the murder of Clodius by Milo, in place of a dictator, Pompey was by an unprecedented measure made sole consul, A. U. 702, Dio. xl. 50. He, however, on the first of August, assumed Scipio, his father-in-law, as colleague, Dio. xl. 51.

When a dictator was created, he immediately nominated (dixit) a master of horse, (MAGISTER EQUITUM), usually from among those of consular or prætorian dignity, whose proper office was to command the cavalry, and also to execute the orders of the dictator. M. Fabius Buteo, the dictator nominated to chuse the senate, had no master of horse.

Sometimes a master of horse was pitched upon (datus vel additus est) for the dictator, by the senate or by the order of the people, Liv. vii. 12, 24, 28.

The magister equitum might be deprived of his command by the dictator, and another nominated in his room, Liv. viii. 35.

The people at one time made the master of horse, Minucius, equal in command with the dictator, Fabius Maximus, Liv. xxii. 26.

The master of horse is supposed to have had much the same insignia with the prætor, six lictors, the prætexta, &c. Dio. xlii. 27. He had the use of a horse, which the dictator had not without the order of the people.

II. The DECEMVIR S.

THE laws of Rome at first, as of other ancient nations, were very few and simple, Tacit. Ann. iii. 26. It is thought there was for some time no written law, (nihil scripti juris). Differences were determined (lites, dirimebantur) by the pleasure of the kings, (regum arbitrio), according to the principles of natural equity, (ex æquo et bono), Senec. Epist. 9o. and their decisions were held as laws, Dionys. x. 1. The kings used to publish their commands either by pasting them up in public on a white wall or tablet, (in album relata proponere in publico), Liv. i. 32. or by a herald, Ib. 44. Hence they were said,

omnia MANU gubernare, Pompon. 1. 2. § 3. D. de orig. jur. (i. e. potestate et imperio, Tacit. Agric. 9.)

The kings, however, in every thing of importance consulted the senate and likewise the people. Hence we read of the LEGES CURIATE of Romulus and of the other kings, which were also called LEGES REGIÆ, Liv. v. 1.

But the chief legislator was Servius Tullius (præcipuus sanctor legum), Tac. Ann. iii. 26. all whose laws however were abolished at once (uno edicto sublata), by Tarquinius Superbus, Dionys. iv. 43.

After the expulsion of Tarquin the institutions of the kings were observed, not as written law, but as customs, (tanquam mores majorum); and the consuls determined most causes, as the kings had done, according to their pleasure.

But justice being thus extremely uncertain, as depending on the will of an individual, (in unis voluntate positum, Cic. Fam. ix. 16.) C. Terentius Arsa, a tribune of the commons, proposed to the people, that a body of laws should be drawn up, to which all should be obliged to conform, (quo omnes uti deberent). But this was violently opposed by the patricians, in whom the whole judicative power was vested, and to whom the knowledge of the few laws which then existed was confined, Liv. iii. 9.

At last, however, it was determined, A. U. 299. by a decree of the senate and by the order of the people, that three ambassadors should be sent to Athens to copy the famous laws of Solon, and to examine the institutions, customs, and laws of the other states in Greece, Liv. iii. 31. Plin. Ep. viii. 24.

Upon their return, ten men (DECEMVIRI) were created from among the patricians, with supreme power, and without the liberty of appeal, to draw up a body of laws, legibus scribendis) all the other magistrates having first abdicated their office, Liv. iii. 32, & 33.

The decemviri at first behaved with great moderation. They administered justice to the people each every tenth day. The twelve fasces were carried before him who was to preside, and his nine colleagues were attended by a single officer, called ACCENSUS, Liv. iii. 33. They proposed ten tables of laws, which were ratified by the people at the Comitia Centu riata. In composing them, they are said to have used the assistance of one HERMODORUS, an Ephesian exile, who served them as an interpreter, Cic. Tusc. v. 36. Plin. xxxiv.

5. S. 10.

As