n office. This was never permitted to exceed six months; and if the crisis which had called for the election of a dictator passed over before the expiry of that period, it was expected that he would immediately resign.

When a dictator was appointed, all the ordinary magistrates ceased to be directly responsible to the governing authorities of the state, and took their orders directly from him. The only magistrates exempt from this necessity were the tribunes of the commons. The inferior officers, however, did not, as has been supposed, retire from office altogether. They merely obeyed the dictator so long as he continued in power, and on his resignation entered once more upon the untrammelled exercise of their authority.

It remains to be added that dictators were only appointed at Rome so long as Italy remained unsubdued. The last dictator appointed at Rome held office in B.C. 202: from that time the constitutional dictatorship disappears from Roman history.