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83-456: Marcus Flavius was Tribune of the Plebs in 327 and again in 323 BC. In 329 BC, Flavius was accused of seducing married women by the aedile , Gaius Valerius Potitus (consul 331 BC). While at first he was found guilty, Flavius plead that an innocent man was being ruined to which Valerius replied that he did not care whether or not he had ruined an innocent man or a guilty one, so long as Flavius

166-425: A Valerius been desired, Manius' father, Marcus, who was consul in 505 BC, could have been chosen instead. However, few modern scholars put much faith in these traditional accounts: by the time Roman history started being written down, the dictatorship as a military commander had already lapsed out of living memory. The dictatorship seems to have been conceived as a way to bypass normal Roman politics and create

249-400: A committee of ten men, known as the decemviri , or decemvirs, to serve for one year in place of the annual magistrates, and codify Roman law. The tribunate itself was suspended during this time. But when a second college of decemvirs appointed for the year 450 illegally continued their office into the following year, and the abuses of their authority became clear to the people, the decemvirate

332-452: A dictator could not be held to account for his actions after resigning his office. However, there are cases where this is asserted in the literary sources and the surviving text of the lex repetundarium implies the dictator and his magister equitum could be prosecuted after their terms ended. Rather, some modern scholars hold the position that unaccountability is a "legalistic illusion". Some sources, both ancient and modern in summaries of

415-489: A dictator if they met some criteria. Rather, they judged the matter subjectively such that a dictator in military matters would only be appointed if there were converging threats from multiple enemies, all-consuming ongoing wars, or extinction-level threats to the city which could be handled by a man "whose empowerment with the dictatorship offered more assurance of success than the incumbent magistrates". Alternatively, dictators might be appointed if another consul-like magistrate

498-463: A dictatorship; "recent scholarship has emphasised Pompey’s consulship rather as a means of resolving a political impasse". If this were an abortive dictatorship, it would have been "a final echo of the archaic dictators" with the sole goal of restoring order to the city. Caesar also revived the dictatorship during the Civil War , first to hold the elections—in which he was returned as consul for

581-520: A few cases where a dictatorship was supposedly considered as a means of effecting regime change. One version of the supposed First Catilinarian conspiracy c.  65 BC (which itself is now held in modern scholarship to be fictitious ) related by Suetonius would have had the creation of a dictatorship led by Marcus Licinius Crassus with Julius Caesar as magister equitum. Suetonius' version of events may be anachronistic, with Crassus and Caesar's involvement being an embellishment. Regardless,

664-401: A hill outside of Rome. The senate dispatched Agrippa Menenius Lanatus , a former consul who was well liked by the plebeians, as an envoy. Menenius was well received, and told the fable of the belly and the limbs, likening the people to the limbs who chose not to support the belly, and thus starved themselves; just as the belly and the limbs, the city, he explained, could not survive without both

747-474: A knack of winning elections when held by dictators, which may explain why this limited dictatorship also fell into abeyance. In domestic affairs, the dictators were at times—according to tradition—appointed to resolve issue between the patricians and the plebeians during the so-called Conflict of the Orders . In this role, the dictators always took the side of the plebs, implying that the later tradition of

830-437: A law permitting the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, and allowing one of the consuls to be a plebeian. Rather than permit the election of a plebeian consul, the senate resolved upon the election of military tribunes with consular power , who might be elected from either order. Initially this compromise satisfied the plebeians, but in practice only patricians were elected. The regular election of military tribunes in

913-453: A limited task— provincia —to complete. At the same time, the new promagistrates also meant the consuls could spend more time in Rome, meaning it became less necessary to appoint dictators to conduct elections. During the various wars of the 140s BC, the ability to have more commanders under praetorian or proconsular leadership meant it was possible to keep at least one consul in Rome while

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996-540: A non-military reason. The magister equitum was also a curule magistrate, with powers to summon the Senate and perhaps also powers to summon the Assembly; however, he had only six lictors, symbolizing his subordination to the dictator, and his expectation of quickly vacating office. The magister equitum was necessarily subordinate to the dictator, although this did not always prevent the two from disagreeing. In theory,

1079-416: A plebeian. Although this law was occasionally violated by the election of two patrician consuls, Sextius himself was elected consul for 366, and Licinius in 364. At last, the plebeian tribunes had broken the patrician monopoly on the highest magistracies of the state. Following their victory in 367, the tribunes remained an important check on the power of the senate and the annual magistrates. In 287 BC,

1162-437: A position that gave him vast, ill-defined, and largely unconstrained powers. His dictatorship built on that of Sulla's as well: he changed the number of magistracies and reformed the state, but Caesar's dictatorship was administrative rather than one given up at the completion of a task. To that end, shortly before his death Caesar had himself appointed dictator perpetuo , i.e., in a dictatorship that continued each year without

1245-511: A short-term magistrate with special powers, serving to defend the Republic in war, or otherwise to cow internal civil unrest, especially if such unrest imperilled the conduct of war. There are broadly two views on the dictatorship's origin: that it descends from the Latins , or that it was a uniquely Roman institution. The Roman view stresses that the dictatorship is said to have existed from

1328-585: A specific person to be appointed, but this was not strictly necessary. A vote of the people could be held, but this was unusual, perhaps except in cases with a non-consular nominator. In the case of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , the people may have created him dictator directly by legislation. After c.  300 BC most attested dictators were ex-consuls; it does not appear, however, that this emerged from any kind of legislation, as implied in Livy, to that effect. Dictatorial powers likely extended beyond

1411-437: A substantial gain from his actions. In 48 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) on the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar , who, as a patrician, was ineligible to be elected one of the tribunes. When two of the elected tribunes attempted to obstruct his actions, Caesar had them impeached, and taken before the senate, where they were deprived of their powers. Never again did Caesar face opposition from

1494-411: A tribune could veto any action of the magistrates, senate, or other assemblies, he had to be physically present in order to do so. Because the sacrosanctity of the tribunes depended on the oath of the plebeians to defend them, their powers were limited to the boundaries of the city of Rome. A tribune traveling abroad could not rely on his authority to intervene on behalf of the plebeians. For this reason,

1577-496: A tribune, he could "interpose the sacrosanctity of his person" to prevent such action. Even a dictator (and presumably an interrex ) was not exempted from the veto power, although some sources may suggest the contrary. The tribunes could veto acts of the Roman senate. The tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus imposed his veto on all government functions in 133 BC, when the senate attempted to block his agrarian reforms by imposing

1660-414: Is plausible that the dictatorship was borrowed from other Latin municipalities that had a dictator serving as a military commander. This view also stresses continuity between the Roman kingdom and the succeeding republic, with the dictatorship as a bridge between the two periods. The dictator was the only important official in the Roman state that was appointed. The power to appoint a dictator vested in

1743-682: The Pollia , insisted that the men be beaten and executed and that the women and children be auctioned off. Because of this, when the Tusculans gained Roman citizenship the Papiria tribe, which they dominated, would never elect a member of the Pollia to public office. However, the Tusculans had been citizens of Rome since 338 BC. Tribune of the Plebs Fifteen years after the expulsion of

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1826-525: The Second Punic War (218–201 BC), but the magistracy then went into abeyance for over a century. It was later revived in a significantly modified form, first by Sulla between 82 and 79 BC and then by Julius Caesar between 49 and 44 BC, who became dictator perpetuo just before his death. This later dictatorship was used to effect wide-ranging and semi-permanent changes across Roman society. After Caesar's assassination in 44,

1909-593: The kings and establishment of the Roman Republic, the plebeians were burdened by crushing debt. A series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought the plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls. Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus , the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mount),

1992-504: The praetor maximus , as mentioned by Livy, referring to an old law requiring the praetor maximus to put a nail into the wall of a temple on the ides of September . It is not certain who the first dictator was or in what year he was appointed. Livy gives two versions: in one, the first dictator was Titus Larcius in 501 BC. His other version states that the first dictator was Manius Valerius Maximus , although Livy thought this improbable, as he had not previously been consul and, had

2075-418: The Assembly himself—in a manner akin to that of the consuls. Like other curule magistrates, the dictator was entitled to the toga praetexta and the sella curulis . The dictator, however, was accompanied by twenty-four lictors rather than the normal twelve lictors of the consul. However, within the pomerium he may have displayed twelve. In a notable exception to the Roman reluctance to reconstitute

2158-401: The Roman monarchy c.  509 BC , according to tradition, devolved the royal powers onto two annually elected consuls . The creation of the dictatorship is part of this tradition, which is somewhat confused. Its original title was magister populi , "master of the infantry" . His lieutenant was the magister equitum , "master of the horse" . The dictator may have also been called

2241-485: The Romans would not have made it – with regal powers – an integral part of their constitution in the immediate aftermath of the monarchy's abolition, confining it therefore to a peripheral and extraordinary role. Other scholars have advanced theories that the consuls came after the dictatorship rather than before. The Latin view argues that the dictatorship emerged from the need to rotate command between Latin states in

2324-418: The Senate still exercised some oversight authority, and the rights of plebeian tribunes to veto his actions or of the people to appeal them were retained. The extent of a dictator's mandate strictly controlled the ends to which his powers could be directed. Dictators were also liable to prosecution after their terms completed. Dictators were frequently appointed from the earliest period of the Republic down to

2407-403: The Senate; this included the drawing of funds from the public treasury, which a dictator could only do with the Senate's authorisation. The imperium of the other magistrates was not vacated by the nomination of a dictator. They continued to perform the duties of their office, although subject to the dictator's authority, and continued in office until the expiration of their year, by which time

2490-473: The activities of the tribunes were normally confined to the city itself, and a one-mile radius beyond. In 471 BC the Lex Publilia transferred the election of the tribunes from comitia curiata to the comitia tributa , thus removing the influence of the patricians on their election. In 462, the tribune Gaius Terentillius Arsa alleged that the consular government had become even more oppressive than

2573-473: The best commands—they rarely won triumphs: only five of some 75 triumphs between 363 and 264 BC—suggesting that they functioned as substitutes for the ordinary magistrates. The middle Republic also shows significant use of the dictatorship to hold elections in place of consuls: this occurred twelve times during the First Punic War and eight times during the following Second. Magistri equitum had

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2656-399: The consuls, one of whom could nominate a man to serve in the office; he did not need to consult his colleague, and no other magistrates had such authority. A dictator, however, could be created by comitial legislation at the proposal of other magistrates, as Sulla and Caesar later were. Consular nomination occurred in a nocturnal ritual, usually preceded by advice from the Senate asking for

2739-400: The dictator had typically resigned. Dictatorial power also did not override that of the tribunes. While some sources assert there was no appeal to the tribunes from a dictator's actions, other sources document the extent of a dictator's powers within the pomerium , appeals against dictatorial action, and threats by tribunes to veto elections held by dictators. Most authorities hold that

2822-432: The dictatorial power was considerable, but not unlimited. It was circumscribed by the conditions of a dictator's appointment, as well as by the evolving traditions of Roman law , and to a considerable degree depended on the dictator's ability to work together with other magistrates. The precise limitations of this power were not sharply defined, but subject to debate, contention, and speculation throughout Roman history. In

2905-667: The dictatorship as a tool of patrician tyranny is a post-Sullan anachronism. Their efforts may have been decisive in that legislation passed in the Assemblies called by dictators did not need the approval of the Senate, serving to break impasses between an obstinate patrician-heavy Senate and popular demands. After the Second Punic War and the Third Macedonian War , all major wars were then conducted by promagistrates and usually lasted several years, making

2988-509: The dictatorship in place of ordinary magistrates. Sulla's reforms and proscriptions did stabilize a republic—albeit on radically reformed grounds with Sulla as a "law-giver" who gave Rome "a new constitution that would put an end to political and social strife" —and restore somewhat free elections for the next few decades, at an enormous cost. But the precedent that he set by twice marching on Rome with his armies would prove an equally destabilizing influence. After Sulla's dictatorship, there are

3071-438: The dictatorship revived. In 82 BC the consuls were absent from the city, he induced the comitia centuriata , called by Lucius Valerius Flaccus as interrex , to pass a law directly appointing Sulla as dictator to write laws and reconstitute the state ( Latin : legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae ); he was also given immunity for all actions (including those past and future) After significant changes to

3154-431: The earliest years of the Republic, created as "an integral part of the republican constitution". And while other Latin cities had dictatorships, they emerged from their abolished monarchies as ordinary magistrates rather than as an extraordinary magistrate only appointed in time of crisis. Others have argued that the dictatorship existed as a means to slip through the inefficiency of a new collegiate magistracy, arguing that

3237-441: The following year—and on multiple occasions between October 48 BC and his death in 44. It is unclear which of Caesar's acts were undertaken under his overlapping dictatorial, proconsular, consular, or private authority. Unlike the consulship, which was limited by hundreds of years of precedent, the dictatorship, by virtue of its "separat[ion] from its foundations by 120 years of disuse", as well as Sulla's example, offered Caesar

3320-563: The gods in cases of pestilence or other disasters also was replaced. Dictators appointed to appease the gods was highly reactive but, over time, the accumulation of precedent formalised a spiritual process. Instead of an ad hoc approach, the Senate would advise—in moments of need—consultation of the Sibylline Books and direct implementation of the Books' recommendations. The new dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar differed greatly from

3403-477: The granting of this authority was a means of designating a favoured member of the imperial court as the emperor's intended successor. Agrippa , Drusus the Younger , Tiberius , Titus , Trajan , and Marcus Aurelius each received the tribunician power in this way. With the regular assumption of the tribunician power by the emperors and their heirs, the ancient authority of the tribunes dwindled away. Although

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3486-509: The laws and proscriptions , he completed this task on 1 January 79 BC and resigned to take up an ordinary consulship. This dictatorship aligned with one aspect of the archaic dictatorship—restoring stability—as the state was, in fact, in a shambles after the domination and proscriptions of Lucius Cornelius Cinna , Gaius Marius , and Gnaeus Papirius Carbo . "Sulla never aimed at permanent tyranny"; wishing his settlement to succeed, and conceiving of it in quasi-republican terms, he resigned

3569-423: The magister equitum was commander of the cavalry, but he was not limited to that role. The dictator and magister equitum did not always take the field together; in some instances the magister equitum was assigned the defense of the city while the dictator took an army into the field, while on other occasions the dictator remained at Rome to see to some important duty, and entrusted the magister equitum with an army in

3652-495: The middle Republic the historical record clearly shows that dictators were appointed more as temporary extraordinary magistrates to do some very specifically defined action before resigning, acting as proxies or substitutes for the ordinary magistrates of that year; the historicity of the dictators appointed in the early period to quell sedition—who usually took the side of the protestors—is also debated. The Romans were not consistent in classifying specific threats and then appointing

3735-426: The monarchy that it had replaced. He urged the passage of a law appointing five commissioners to define and limit the powers of the consuls. By threat of war and plague, the issue was postponed for five contentious years, with the same college of tribunes elected each year. In 457, hoping to deprive the law's supporters of their impetus, the senate agreed to increase the number of tribunes to ten, provided that none of

3818-435: The need to seek the senate's approval or appointment by one of the consuls. This new and transformed dictatorship, endowed with a kingly power, ended with Caesar's assassination . After Caesar's death, it became unlawful to propose, vote for, or accept any dictatorship. Any person who became dictator also could be summarily executed. Essentially, the title was cursed and excised from the republican constitution . Curiously,

3901-417: The office of tribune endured throughout imperial times , its independence and most of its practical functions were lost. Together with the aedileship, it remained a step in the political career of many plebeians who aspired to sit in the senate, at least until the third century. There is evidence that the tribunate continued to exist as late as the fifth century AD. Roman dictator A Roman dictator

3984-422: The office was formally abolished and never revived. The reasons for which someone might be appointed dictator were varied. The purpose of the dictatorship was to return Rome to the status quo before some threat emerged. The dictatorship existed "to eliminate whatever had arisen that was out of bounds and then eliminate themselves so that normal operation of the ordinary government" could resume. The abolition of

4067-481: The office was further impaired when, in 59 BC, the patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher , who aspired to hold the tribunician power, had himself adopted by a plebeian youth, and renounced his patrician status, in order to be elected tribune for the following year. Although considered outrageous at the time, Clodius' scheme was allowed to proceed, and he embarked on a program of legislation designed to outlaw his political opponents and confiscate their property, while realizing

4150-522: The office, assert that the dictator was limited to a term for six months, but this is contradicted by recorded practice and Livy has a dictator object to a six-month limitation explicitly as objectionably unorthodox. Before the First Punic War starting in 264 BC, when Rome established hegemony over Italy, dictators were overwhelmingly appointed to conduct military campaigns and also appointed regularly. However, these dictators were not given

4233-423: The other fought abroad. Even when the Senate wanted to act against men such as Tiberius Gracchus or Gaius Gracchus , dictators were not appointed: in the former, the consul refused to act, precluding a dictatorial nomination, and in the latter, the Senate authorised the consul to use force via the so-called senatus consultum ultimum . The religious purpose of the dictatorship in undertaking rituals to appease

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4316-412: The patricians and plebeians working in concert. The plebeians agreed to negotiate for their return to the city; and their condition was that special tribunes should be appointed to represent the plebeians, and to protect them from the power of the consuls. No member of the senatorial class would be eligible for this office (in practice, this meant that only plebeians were eligible for the tribunate), and

4399-445: The person who did this was not one of the liberatores but rather, Caesar's own former magister equitum, Mark Antony . Antony's supporters lionised him for having rid the Republic of this instrument of tyranny. The need for the dictatorship—especially as an instrument of pseudo-royal power—was clearly already gone: in 22 BC, a senatorial delegation begged Augustus to accept the dictatorship, and Augustus refused, knowing that

4482-437: The place of consuls prevented any plebeians from assuming the highest offices of state until the year 400, when four of the six military tribunes were plebeians. Plebeian military tribunes served in 399, 396, 383, and 379, but in all other years between 444 and 376 BC, every consul or military tribune with consular powers was a patrician. Beginning in 376, Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus , tribunes of

4565-409: The plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was entitled to preside over this assembly. The tribunes were entitled to propose legislation before the assembly. By the third century BC, the tribunes also had the right to call the senate to order, and lay proposals before it. Ius intercessionis , also called intercessio, the power of

4648-474: The plebs, used the veto power to prevent the election of any annual magistrates. Continuing in office each year, they frustrated the patricians, who, despite electing patrician military tribunes from 371 to 367, finally conceded the consulship, agreeing to the Licinian Rogations . Under this law, military tribunes with consular power were abolished, and one of the consuls elected each year was to be

4731-399: The pursuit of his causa , the dictator's authority was nearly absolute. However, as a rule he could not exceed the mandate for which he was appointed; a dictator nominated to hold the comitia could not then take up a military command against the wishes of the Senate. Dictators could carry out functions which fell outside the scope of their initial appointments, but only at the direction of

4814-620: The role of commanding the Latin League 's united armies. While Rome was not a formal member of the League, it did require the Latins to serve in Rome's wars under a Roman commander, which could have been a dictator appointed for the occasion. One argument of this is the siege of Veii: for nine years of siege, Rome did not resort to a dictator, until the last year when Etruscan intervention compelled Rome to call in its Latin allies. Moreover, it

4897-433: The senate formally recognized the plebiscita as laws with binding force. In 149 BC, men elected to the tribunate automatically entered the Senate. However, in 81 BC, the dictator Sulla , who considered the tribunate a threat to his power, deprived the tribunes of their powers to initiate legislation, and to veto acts of the senate. He also prohibited former tribunes from holding any other office, effectively preventing

4980-488: The short term of the dictatorship unsuitable. Moreover, the fact that these conflicts occurred far from Rome radically limited the possibility of panicked tumult that could result in a dictatorial appointment. The rise of prorogation also meant that the Romans had, by jettisoning the annual term, more generals in the field than they had in the past. These promagistrates resembled archaic dictators as well, being exempt from normal consular responsibilities while being assigned

5063-467: The situation, and determine the lawfulness of the magistrate's action. Any action taken in defiance of this right was illegal on its face. In effect, this gave the tribunes of the people unprecedented power to protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of state power, and afforded Roman citizens a degree of liberty unequalled in the ancient world. If the tribune decided to act, he would impose his ius intercessionis ("right of intercession"). Although

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5146-409: The suggestion of a dictatorship "belongs, perhaps to a late-republican school of thought that saw the antiquated office of the consulship as an ineffective path to the mastery of Rome" with the dictatorship as an "obvious tool for republican regime change" informed by Sulla's proscriptions and reforms. The phraseology of how Crassus would supposedly have been elevated to the dictatorship also suggests it

5229-443: The symbols of the kings, the lictors of the dictator never removed the axes from their fasces, even within the pomerium , symbolising their power over life and death and setting the dictator apart from the ordinary magistrates. In an extraordinary sign of deference, the lictors of other magistrates could not bear fasces at all when appearing before the dictator. The Latin theory of the dictatorship's origin has also suggested that

5312-599: The term of the nominating magistrate, and most dictators are recorded to have given up their powers as quickly as possible. Customary law may have required dictators to give up their powers immediately after completion of their assigned task. A dictator could be nominated for different reasons, or causae . These causae were akin to provinciae , spheres of command assigned to a magistrate which bound their freedom of action. The various causae were: These reasons could be combined (e.g., seditionis sedandae et rei gerundae causa , for quelling sedition and for war). However, by

5395-416: The title would bring only hatred, and that his own informal authority, "encumbered by neither ancient nor recent precedent", would be sufficient. The dictator's lieutenant was the magister equitum , or "master of the horse". The first act of a dictator was to choose this lieutenant, usually at his own discretion. It was customary for the dictator to nominate a magister equitum, even if he were appointed for

5478-440: The traditional dictatorship. The long period of abeyance in which the dictatorship had lain meant that men like Sulla and Caesar were no longer bound by the chains of centuries of tradition requiring any man appointed to the dictatorship—traditionally a man trusted by all Romans—to act for all Romans, resolve the issue to which he was appointed, and then immediately resign. Following Sulla's civil war , Lucius Cornelius Sulla had

5561-463: The trial where he had been charged with adultery. In 323 BC, Flavius brought the Tusculans to trial before the people for advising and assisting the people of Velitrae and Privernum in their rebellion against Rome during the Latin revolt (340-338 BC). According to Livy and Valerius Maximus , several Tusculan families arrived at Rome poorly dressed and were nearly forgiven by all tribes. One tribe,

5644-399: The tribunes from the preceding years should be re-elected. However, the new tribunes continued to press for the adoption of Terentillus' law, until in 454 the senate agreed to appoint three commissioners to study Greek laws and institutions, and on their return help to resolve the strife between the orders. On the return of the envoys, the senate and the tribunes agreed to the appointment of

5727-464: The tribunes may have originally been two or five in number. If the former, the college of tribunes was expanded to five in 470 BC. Either way, the college was increased to ten in 457 BC, and remained at this number throughout Roman history. They were assisted by two aediles plebis , or plebeian aediles. Only plebeians were eligible for these offices, although there were at least two exceptions. Although sometimes referred to as plebeian magistrates,

5810-415: The tribunes of the people, like the plebeian aediles , who were created at the same time, were technically not magistrates, as they were elected by the plebeian assembly alone. However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state. They could convene the concilium plebis , which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone ( plebiscita ), and beginning in 493 BC to elect

5893-506: The tribunes should be sacrosanct; any person who laid hands on one of the tribunes would be outlawed, and the whole body of the plebeians entitled to kill such person without fear of penalty. The senate agreeing to these terms, the people returned to the city. The first tribuni plebis were Lucius Albinius Paterculus and Gaius Licinius , appointed for the year 493 BC. Soon afterward, the tribunes themselves appointed Sicinius and two others as their colleagues. The ancient sources indicate

5976-412: The tribunes to intercede on behalf of the plebeians and veto the actions of the magistrates, was unique in Roman history. Because they were not technically magistrates, and thus possessed no maior potestas , they relied on their sacrosanctity to obstruct actions unfavourable to the plebeians. Being sacrosanct, no person could harm the tribunes or interfere with their activities. To do so, or to disregard

6059-413: The tribunes; he held the tribunician power until his death in 44. In 23 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunician power on Caesar's nephew, Octavian , now styled Augustus . From this point, the tribunicia potestas became a pre-requisite for the emperors, most of whom received it from the senate upon claiming the throne, though some had already received this power during the reigns of their predecessors;

6142-403: The twenty-four lictors emerged from the uniting of "two governments". It may have also simply signalled that a dictator's imperium was superior to that of the consuls or that he was endowed with the power of both consuls. As the kings had been accustomed to appear on horseback, this right was forbidden to the dictator unless he first received permission from the comitia . The full extent of

6225-443: The use of the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher office. Although the tribunes retained the power to intercede on behalf of individual citizens, most of their authority was lost under Sulla's reforms. Former tribunes were once again admitted to the annual magistracies beginning in 75 BC, and the tribunician authority was fully restored by the consuls Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus in 70. The dignity of

6308-411: The veto of a tribune, was punishable by death, and the tribunes could order the death of persons who violated their sacrosanctity. This could be used as a protection when a tribune needed to arrest someone. This sacrosanctity also made the tribunes independent of all magistrates; no magistrate could veto the action of a tribune. If a magistrate, the senate, or any other assembly disregarded the orders of

6391-417: The veto of another tribune. Tribunes also possessed the authority to enforce the right of provocatio ad populum , a precursor of the modern right of habeas corpus . This entitled a citizen to appeal the actions of a magistrate by shouting appello tribunos! ("I call upon the tribunes") or provoco ad populum! ("I appeal to the people"). Once invoked, this right required one of the tribunes to assess

6474-527: Was abolished and the tribunate restored, together with the annual magistrates. Among the laws codified by the decemvirs was one forbidding intermarriage between the patricians and the plebeians; the Twelve Tables of Roman law also codified that the consulate itself was closed to the plebeians. Worse still, in 448, two patricians were co-opted to fill vacant positions in the tribunate, although they proved to be of moderate views, and their year of office

6557-510: Was an extraordinary magistrate in the Roman Republic endowed with full authority to resolve some specific problem to which he had been assigned. He received the full powers of the state, subordinating the other magistrates, consuls included, for the specific purpose of resolving that issue, and that issue only, and then dispensing with those powers immediately. A dictator was still controlled and accountable during his term in office:

6640-430: Was being ruined. Because of this remark, Flavius won the trial. In 328 BC, Flavius made a distribution of meat to the people on occasion of the funeral of his mother. The gift of meat won him the election of Tribune of the Plebs in 327, despite the fact that he was absent for the election. The gift of meat could not only have been to honor his mother, but also to show gratitude to the people of Rome who had acquitted him in

6723-453: Was needed. Normally there was only one dictator at a time, although a new dictator could be appointed following the resignation of another. A dictator could be compelled to resign his office without accomplishing his task or serving out his term if there were found to be a fault in the auspices under which he had been nominated. After nomination, a dictator would have his imperium ratified by comitia curiata —bringing that matter before

6806-402: Was peaceful. To prevent future attempts by the patricians to influence the selection of tribunes, Lucius Trebonius Asper promulgated a law forbidding the tribunes to co-opt their colleagues, and requiring their election to continue until all of the seats were filled. But relations between the orders deteriorated, until in 445, the tribunes, led by Gaius Canuleius , were able to push through

6889-470: Was seen as an available instrument for ambitious factional leaders to force through self-serving change. The later consulship of Pompey in 52 BC also is reported to have been initially intended as a dictatorship; it was, however, aborted by his election as sole consul (without colleague) to restore order. Scholars disagree as to the reasons why Pompey was made sole consul: ancient sources (Appian, Dio, and Plutarch) all believed this occurred to deny him

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