[Sherman Logan]

Of course the Romans were called what they were called in Latin. Of course in English what ever they were called can be translated as “dictator” or as “victorious commander”, or “Winner of the Grass Crown”.

Sorry, I disagree. (If I understand what you're talking about.)

Imperator under the Republic was a military honor awarded to their commander by the soldiers themselves.

Dictator was a constitutional political office intended to allow efficient handling of a military or political crisis without changing the entire system.

Thanks for posting the article about Cincinnatus, who epitomized what a dictator should be.

Although frankly I think it's ludicrous to claim that his family would have starved if a prominent enough patrician of Rome to be appointed Dictator didn't get a crop in on the family farm. While Cincinnatus was still willing to work a plow, even at this early stage in Rome patricians were wealthy men, not dependent for sheer survival on a single crop.

[donmeaker]

You may be right about the state supporting a former dictator, but on the whole I think Livy is probably closer to the story than you. In fact, I kind of like the story of a government that was so far from corrupt that a dictator would have to worry. Livy certainly didn’t derive that story from his personal experience with the Principate.

You perhaps recall that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t very wealthy at the end of his life, and didn’t get much help from the smallish country of which he had twice been elected president. If only we had such an honest and austere government today, and perhaps tomorrow!

[donmeaker]

What Latin word do you think the Romans used for their title that we translate as “dictator”?

[donmeaker]

Camillus was appointed Roman dictator (365 BC), nominally to attend the war of Velletri. However, at Rome, the patricians of the Senate were expecting, actually, that Camillus would be their leverage against the agitated plebeians because the crisis of social classes had worsened by a quite severe economical pass.

For the roman magistracy, the populists were demanding a dyad of Roman consuls, of whom one should be a plebeian always. Through a bogus military call, Camillus attempted to trick the plebeian concil so it might not meet to approve such plans. The enraged assemblymen were about punishing Camillus when he renounced his office of Dictator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Furius_Camillus