dictator
dictator,an extraordinary supreme magistracy at Rome, used first in military, later in domestic crises.
In Latin cities we find the name ‘dictator’ given to a regular magistracy, but there is no evidence that this was ever Roman practice. As an emergency magistracy the dictatorship is found frequently in the annals of the Roman republic down to the end of the 3rd cent. bc; it was not used during the 2nd cent. but reappeared in a more powerful form, when granted to Sulla and then Caesar. Possible parallels are the Oscan (see Italy) meddix tuticus and the Etruscan zilath or purth, but there is no reason to derive the Roman office from them. Although Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is said to have been elected dictator in the centuriate assembly (comitia centuriata, Livy 22.8), normally...
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