On the Nature of Dictatorship - Part 1

As Requested by Sahar

The word Dictator comes from the roman office of Dictator. The romans had a very well ordered constitution and form of government that built so that it would practically impossible for one man ever to dominate the entire nation. Every official position that had any form of political power, were usually appointed in multiplies. There were always 2 consuls, who ran the country, there were strict rules regarding consequtive terms, legistlation was done by the Senate through discussion, debate and voting and even the common man was protected by the Tribunis Plebis, who was elected by the people and had the right to over rule any law that the Senate passed, by simply stating VETO!! Latin for I forbid. Add to this the fact that the Roman republic was founded by ousting a particulary nasty king, Tarquinius Superbus, the romans were paranoid about letting anyone have too much power.

There was however one exception to this lets talk, vote and share power idea that the romans were fond of, The Dictator. Romans were overall very realistic and pragmatic people and they recognized there were going to be times when they simply didn't have the time to talk and vote, times when one man needed to take control of a situation and for other to follow that man.

The Dictator was elected by the Senate to deal with a specific situation usually some form of dire emergency, often military related. The term of office was usually for the duration of the crisis but with a maximum of 6 months after which the dictator was forced to cede the power. During the dictator's office all other officials lost their powers and had to follow the orders of the dictator, the dictator could change any laws or make new ones as they saw fit, they had an Imperium, which means that they could put people to death, and they were the supreme commanders of the roman army. In battle they were forbidden to ride a horse and were expected to fight in the front line infantry, this is to insure that Dictator suffers the consequences of their actions. To assist them dictators appointed a Magister Equitum as an assitant who lead the cavalry in battle. So the Dictator had the authority to run the state as they saw fit for a limited period of time.

Here are few examples of Roman dictators,

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus: A legendary example of how a Roman Dictator should conduct his office. When the Roman Senate came to inform him that they were going to need his help to save a roman army trapped by a rival tribe, the Aequi, he was plowing a field on his farm. He accepted his commision, asked his wife to bring his toga and went to save Rome. He assembelled an army, personally led the infantry to a crushing victory over the enemy, saved Rome, forced the enemy into a humiliating defeat, resigned, returned home and went back to farming. He did all of this in 16 days. I dearly wish we had politicians like this.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator: During the Second Punic War the romans suffered a series of devastating defeats against Carthagians lead by the military genious Hannibal Barca. Rome was teatering on the edge of defeat and a Dictator was needed to save the situation. Fabius was elected and he proved to be a brilliant choice. Fabius was smart enough to realize that as a field commander he was no match for Hannibal, nor was his army of raw recruits a match for Hannibal's battle-hardened veterans, so he deviced an ingenious strategy. Since he couldn't defeat Hannibal in battle he chose to avoid battle with Hannibal all together. He shadowed Hannibal's army, while using schorched earth tactics to prevent Hannibal from gathering supplies. These tactics proved successful, since Hannibal was unable to bring the romans to a decisive battle that would force the romans to accept, defeat he was forced to keep moving from one province to the next in order to feed his army. While initially unpopular with the romans and inspite of providing Fabius with very little glory, Fabius's strategies became Rome's standard solution to the threat of Hannibal. It allowed Rome to contain their most dangerous enemy, while allowing them to defeat Carthago on other fronts, culminating in the invasion of Carthage itself which finally forced Hannibal to leave Italy to defend his home city, in a battle where he was finally defeated. Cunctator, which means the delayer, was initally an insult on Fabius, but later was considered a honorific title, when romans realized the importance of what Fabius had done. One roman historian even said unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem – "one man, by delaying, restored the state to us."

Gaius Julius Caesar: A man who needs no introduction, one of the greatest politicians and generals in human history, was the last of the roman dictators. He held the office several time until getting elected as life-time dictator by the Senate, in effect becoming what the romans had been fearing for so long. This however proved to be a fatal mistake, when a group outraged roman senators stabbed him 23 times on the Senate floor on the 15 of March in 44 BC. 

Next part is going to be about modern dictators