Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Roman Dictatorship

Starting point is 00:00:00 During the Roman Republic, the highest office that someone could aspire to was that of consul. Every year, two men were elected consul, and it was such a high honor, it would help your family for generations. Except that it actually wasn't the highest office. There was one office that was even higher, but you couldn't be elected to it. Someone could only be appointed, only for a limited amount of time, and only in extreme circumstances. Learn more about the Roman dictatorship, what the position was and how it was eventually exploited. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time

Starting point is 00:00:51 to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. When I say the word dictator, negative things probably come into your mind. mind, you might envision people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, or Idi Amin. To be sure, all of those men were dictators, tyrants, and despots. When I'm talking about Roman dictators, that isn't quite the same thing as the modern

Starting point is 00:01:28 definition of a dictator. In the context of the Roman Republic, a dictator was an actual legal position. It was distinct from someone who was just a bad ruler and a tyrant, like Nero, Caligula, or Comedus. To be even more explicit, dictators were not. not emperors. They were completely different positions that existed at different points in history. The term dictator comes from the Latin term dictare, which simply means to dictate. The origins of the position are, like so many things, shrouded in history. It isn't known when the position developed, but as far as the Romans themselves were concerned, the position was established in the earliest days of the Republic right after the fall of the last Roman king,

Starting point is 00:02:10 Tarquinius. The experience with kings left a bad taste in the mouth of the Romans. After Tarkinius, they set up a system such that it would be nearly impossible for one person to rule everyone. Their top elected leaders were known as consuls. They were always elected in pairs, with each one able to veto the other. Consuls were only elected for one-year terms, and you couldn't serve as consul again for 10 years. On top of that, there were a collection of other officials, in particular the Tribune of the Plebbs, that could also check the power of the consuls as well as the Senate. There were so many checks on power that it's probably easy to see how it might be difficult to get anything done. All of these checks and balances would be a problem

Starting point is 00:02:53 in the event of an emergency. If the city was being invaded or there was some of their grave problem, you needed someone who could cut through the red tape and make decisions. Having a person who could make those decisions in a crisis was the basis for the position of dictator. At least in theory, the idea behind the dictator seems sort of reasonable. During an emergency, you can't decide things by committee, so you appoint someone you trust to get the job done. The dictator wasn't an absolute dictator. They had many powers, but there were limits to what they could do.

Starting point is 00:03:28 For starters, they were, in theory, limited to only acting on the issue that was facing the Republic. If you were selected to repel an enemy invader, then you couldn't go reform tax laws or the makeup of the Senate. However, you could raise an army and order the construction of defensive positions. If a dictator wanted to take money out of the Roman treasury, he would require the approval of the Senate. He couldn't just bankrupt the Republic by spending money. Other than that, a dictator had the power to do whatever was necessary to address the cause for which they were appointed.

Starting point is 00:04:00 The appointment of a dictator didn't invalidate any of the other elected offices. A dictator would be ranked higher than a consul, but the consuls still held their office. The period of time that someone was a dictator was limited. It usually had a term limit of just six months or the resolution of the issue, whichever came first. Traditionally, a dictator would advocate their position as soon as possible. Unlike a consul, a dictator could not be held liable for their actions once they left office. Basically, a dictator could violate the law and stomp on rights if necessary in order to get the job done. The process by which someone became a dictator was firmly established in law,

Starting point is 00:04:39 Although, as we'll see, later in their public, the system sort of fell apart. The first step was acknowledging that there was a problem that needed to be addressed by a dictator. This was actually a bigger deal than it might seem because the one person who could nominate someone to be a dictator was one of the two sitting consuls for the year. No one else could propose a dictator and one consul didn't need the approval or consultation of the other. Usually, but not always, a dictator was a former consul. This would be someone that everyone in Rome would have been familiar with and the members of the Senate would have known well. Once nominated, they would have to be approved, again, usually by the Senate, but sometimes by the people themselves through the Curate Assembly. The causes for which a dictator was selected weren't always what we would think of as a crisis.

Starting point is 00:05:26 There were many cases of dictators being appointed to solve military matters, but there were also dictators appointed to hold special elections, which consuls couldn't do, hold special games, create religious holidays, conduct investigations, and put down insurrections. As you can guess from the list of possible reasons a dictator could be appointed, sometimes they only serve for a few days or a few weeks. The technical title of a dictator was Magister Populi, which translates to Master of the Infantry. One of the first duties of the dictator was to appoint a second-in-command, which was known as the Magister Equitum, or Master of the Horse.

Starting point is 00:06:02 While these are military-sounding names, and they did come from military tradition, they were still used even if a dictator was appointed for non-military reasons. Once appointed and approved, the dictator was allowed to use certain symbols of the office. The biggest one is that he was allowed to be accompanied by 24 lictors. Lictors were ceremonial bodyguards who were assigned to magistrates. A consul was normally only assigned 12 lictors. The lictors would hold a phascus as a symbol of power of the magistrate. They were a bundle of wooden sticks that often had an axe-head attack,

Starting point is 00:06:35 when wielded outside the Pomerium, which was the ceremonial boundary of Rome. A Fascus held by electorate guarding a dictator did not have to remove the axe heads when inside the Pomerium. Needless to say, being appointed dictator was an enormous honor. It was something that few people could claim, and it wasn't something you could actually pursue, unlike the rest of the positions on the Cursus honorum. There were somewhere around 90 instances during the history of the Roman Republic where a dictator was appointed. I've actually mentioned several of the most famous dictators in previous episodes. The most famous, and the one who became legendary, was Cincinnati, whom I've done a previous episode on.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Cincinnati was elected consul in the year 460 BC and was selected to be dictator twice. Cincinnati had fallen on hard times financially and was reduced to farming a plot of land himself after his consulship. In 458 BC, Rome was being attacked by their neighbors, the Aequi, and one of the armies was stranded. Cincinnati was nominated as dictator. When he was notified, he reportedly dropped his plow in the middle of his field, put on a senatorial toga, went to Rome, rescued the soldiers, and went back to his farm 15 days later. He was summoned again to be dictator in 439 BC to address the threat by Spurius Malius,

Starting point is 00:07:51 who wanted to buy off the plebs to make himself king. There had been a famine in Rome, and it was believed that Malius was buying all the grain in hopes of using it to gain power. As dictator, Cincinnati had Malius. arrested and executed. Problem solved. Another dictator I've done an episode on is Quintus Fabius Maximus Veracosis. When Hannibal was running wild in Italy, defeating Roman armies, Fabius was called on to counter the Carthaginian general. Fabius used what is now called a Fabian strategy. He avoided direct combat with Hannibal, choosing to just constantly pester him, disrupting his supply lines,

Starting point is 00:08:26 and otherwise trying to not lose rather than trying to win. The Romans didn't like that this approach, and when his dictatorship was over, they abandoned his strategy and were crushed in what was probably the greatest Roman defeat in history, the Battle of Canny. So many high-ranking Romans were killed at the Battle of Caney, a special dictator had to be appointed after the battle just to appoint senators because there were so many killed in Caney. The position of dictator was used judiciously for several centuries. As you might have guessed, the position was ripe for abuse. The position of dictator was one of the reasons for the fall of the Roman Republic. The first major abuse of the position occurred when Lucius Cornelius Sulla was appointed

Starting point is 00:09:10 dictator. The reason for Sulla being appointed dictator was for the purpose of making laws and establishing the state. Unlike previous dictators, Sulla was given an extremely broad power to do almost anything. Also, he wasn't a dictator for a few weeks or months. His term of office wasn't set and was effectually unlimited. He used his position as dictator to issue prescription lists, on which I've done a previous episode, where anyone on the list could be legally killed by anyone else. Sulla, to his credit, did after several years step down from dictator and retired to his villa. However, precedent had been set. Now that there was a dictatorship that had extended for multiple years and encompassed complete power over everything, it was just a matter of time

Starting point is 00:09:57 before someone else did it and went even further. And that is exactly what Julius Caesar did. Caesar was appointed dictator four times. And the fourth and final time, he was appointed dictator for life. This was a very clear violation of what the office of dictator was supposed to be. Rather than a temporary office to solve a particular problem, Caesar used the office as a way to achieve perpetual power. Whereas it was formerly honorable to give up the position of dictator as soon as possible, Caesar abused it by finding a loophole. If you're wondering what the difference is between a dictator for life and a king, many high-ranking Romans were wondering the same thing, which was the reason why he was

Starting point is 00:10:40 assassinated. Immediately after Caesar was assassinated, Caesar's former master of the horse, Marcus Antonius, aka Mark Antony, proposed the abolition of the office of dictator. Afterwards, anyone who proposed, voted for, or accepted, the position of dictator was subject to summary execution. Now, you also might be wondering that after the office of dictator was abolished, Rome had emperors who were way more powerful than any dictator. How did that happen?

Starting point is 00:11:11 Well, that's stories for another episode, but there was never an official position called emperor per se, at least not at the beginning. It was a collection of powers and privileges that were bundled together by Augustus without explicitly creating an office like a dictator. or king. The abuse of the office of dictator gave the word the bad connotation that it has today. There was a time when to be called upon to be a dictator was a high honor, and a dictator was thought of more as a hero and not a tyrant. And that's clearly not the case anymore, and that is due almost entirely to one guy by the name of Julius Caesar.

Starting point is 00:11:54 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kie Today's review comes from listener Two Buck Howie over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They're right? Hi Gary, I like to consider myself an op-simath And finding your podcast recently Helps me continue with that endeavor.

Starting point is 00:12:12 Sometimes you even surprised me It was something that I never knew before. Then I'll go in a deep dive into that subject myself To learn more. Love to learn and love the show. Thanks, Two-Buck Howey. I have to admit, you tossed in a word there That I've never encountered before. Opsomath.

Starting point is 00:12:28 For anyone else, who doesn't know the definition, an op-a-math is a person who begins or continues to study or learn late in life. So, to all the other op-a-maths out there, it's never too late to learn, especially when you consider the fact that most people have totally forgotten what they learned earlier in life in school. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Roman Dictatorship

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