office
Dictator
dictator
also: dictator, dictatura, the dictatorship
An extraordinary Roman magistrate granted supreme authority in a crisis, traditionally for six months. Caesar held it perpetually (dictator perpetuo); Phil. 2.91, 114 celebrates Antony's law abolishing the office.
Reading notes
- On the Laws §3.9 the master of the people
Magister populi, the old name for the dictator, an extraordinary magistrate appointed in grave emergencies to hold supreme power for no more than six months. Cicero's law preserves the office under that archaic title.
- Second Philippic §91 you abolished the name of the dictatorship
After Caesar's death Antony carried a law abolishing the dictatorship in perpetuity, an act Cicero grudgingly praises; the office had been held by Sulla and then Caesar as a vehicle of one-man rule.