DICTATING MACHINES: see OFFICE APPLIANCES. DICTATOR, in modern usage, a ruler enjoying extra-con stitutional power, in ancient times, an extraordinary magistrate in the Roman commonwealth (from the Lat. dictare, frequen tative of dicere). The earlier official title was magister populi, which may mean "head of the host" as opposed to his subordi nate, the magister equitum, who was "head of the cavalry." Em phasis was thus laid on the military aspect of the dictatorship, and, in fact, the office seems to have been instituted for the pur pose of meeting a military crisis too serious for the annual consuls with their divided command. The repression of civil discord was one of the motives for the institution of a dictatorship. Such is the view expressed by Cicero in the De legibus (iii., 3, g) and by the emperor Claudius in his extant Oratio (i., 28) . This func tion of the office is attested by the internal history of Rome. In the crisis of the agitation at the time of the Licinian laws (367 B.e.) a dictator was appointed, and in 314 B.C. a dictator was created for purposes of criminal jurisdiction (quaestionibus exer cendis). The dictator appointed to meet the dangers of war, sedition, or crime was described as "the administrative dictator" (rei gerundae causa) . For minor purposes we find dictators appointed to hold the elections, to celebrate games, to establish festivals, and to drive the nail into the temple of Jupiter— an act of natural magic which was believed to avert pestilence. These dictators retired from office as soon as their function was completed. The "administrative dictator" held office for six months.
The powers of a dictator were a temporary revival of those of the kings, with some limitations. He was never concerned with civil jurisdiction. His military authority was confined to Italy; and his power of life and death was limited. By the lex Valeria of 30o B.C. he was made subject to the right of criminal appeal (provocatio) within the limits of the city. But all the magistrates of the people were regarded as his subordinates. The dictator was nominated by one of the consuls. But the senate claimed authority over the magistrates, and suggested not only the nomi nation but also the name of the nominee. After the nomination, the imperium of the dictator was confirmed by a lex curiata (see COMITIA). To emphasize the superiority of this imperium, the dictator might be preceded by twenty-four lictors, and, at least in the earlier period of the office, these lictors bore the axes, the symbol of life and death, within the city walls.
The first dictator is said to have been created in so i B.C. ; the last of the "administrative" dictators belongs to the year 216 B.C. The epoch of the Second Punic War was marked by experi ments with the office, such as the election of Q. Fabius Maximus by the people, and the co-dictatorship of M. Minucius. The emergency office of the early and middle republic has little in common with the dictatorship as revised by Sulla and by Caesar. Sulla's dictatorship was the form taken by a provisional gov ernment. He was created "for the establishment of the republic." Caesar's renewed dictatorships created a temporary monarchy, whatever may have been his wishes as to its permanency. Osten sibly to prevent its further use for such a purpose, M. Antonius in 44 B.C. carried a law abolishing the dictatorship.