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A Roman dictator 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.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (c. 519 – c. 430 BC) was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a famous model of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic.
Roman dictators were usually appointed for a specific purpose, or causa, which limited the scope of their activities.The chief causae were rei gerundae (a general purpose, usually to lead an army in the field against a particular enemy), clavi figendi (an important religious rite involving the driving of a nail into the wall of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus), and comitiorum habendorum ...
After being appointed Roman Dictator [70] in 82 BC, he enacted a series of constitutional reforms. [71] He resigned the Dictatorship in 80 BC, retired in 79 BC, and died a year later. While he thought that he had firmly established aristocratic rule, his own career had illustrated the fatal weaknesses in the constitution.
In addition, after the consulship had been opened to the plebeians, the plebs acquired a de facto right to hold both the Roman dictatorship and the Roman censorship [6] since only former consuls could hold either office. 356 BC saw the appointment of the first plebeian dictator, [13] and in 339 BC the plebeians facilitated the passage of a law ...
Gaius Julius Caesar [a] (12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC.
During his early career, Caesar had seen how chaotic and dysfunctional the Roman Republic had become. The republican machinery had broken down under the weight of imperialism, the central government had become powerless, the provinces had been transformed into independent principalities under the absolute control of their governors, and the army had replaced the constitution as the means of ...
The dictator was the sole exception to the Roman legal principles of having multiple magistrates in the same office and being legally able to be held to answer for actions in office. Essentially by definition, only one dictator could serve at a time, and no dictator could ever be held legally responsible for any action during his time in office ...