THE ANCIENT WORLD
date, and before long, this became their regular mode
of appointment.
As long as his period of office lasted, the dictator's
powers were absolute. He had complete control of every
department of State, legal, military, administrative,
executive. There was but one reservation, a financial
one. For money, he was obliged to make application
to the Senate.
On the other hand, in contrast with the practice at
Athens, no accusation of any kind could be brought
against him after he had laid down office and resumed
his status as an ordinary citizen. Thus had the wisdom
of Rome decreed, in order to ensure that his liberty to
decide, and to act on his decisions, should be totally
unfettered.
Such were the dictatorial functions with which
Cincinnatus and Fabius Maximus, among others, were
invested.
The office of dictator remained as long as Rome con-
tinued to be a military city par excellence', and as long as
the Roman people maintained that warlike discipline
which enabled them to vanquish and overcome their
enemies, whether of Carthage or of the East.
But when the Roman arms had triumphed over their
most formidable adversaries, the character of the people
began to deteriorate. They fell into habits of luxury and
self-indulgence, and superabundant riches, private am-
bitions and the mutual rivalries of victorious generals,
each backed by an army that had come home laden with
the laurels and the spoils of victory, gave rise to another
form of dictatorship, the dictatorship of civil war.
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