[857] ib. viii. 40.
[858] ib. vii. 28 (for establishment of feriae on the occasion of a prodigium); “dictator Latinarum feriarum causa” in Fast. Cap. (C.I.L. i. p. 434) for the year 257 B.C.
[859] The first instance was on the occasion of the great pestilence in 363 B.C. (Liv. vii. 3 “Lex vetusta est ... ut, qui praetor maximus sit, Idibus Septembribus clavum pangat”). Cf. Fest. p. 56.
[860] Cic. de Off. iii. 31, 112 (see p. 183); cf. Liv. vii. 3. L. Manlius, appointed “clavi figendi causa,” acted “perinde ac reipublicae gerendae ... gratia creatus esset,” and was forced to abdicate.
[861] p. 84.
[862] This is Mommsen’s interpretation (Staatsr. ii. p. 160 n. 4) of Liv. xxx. 39. C. Servilius Geminus had been appointed dictator comitiorum causa—“Saepe comitia indicta perfici tempestates prohibuerunt. Itaque, cum prid. Id. Mart. veteres magistratus abissent, novi subfecti non essent, respublica sine curulibus magistratibus erat.”
[863] Liv. iv. 41. The consul is here said “auspicio dictatoris res gerere.”
[864] ib. ii. 32 “quamquam per dictatorem dilectus habitus esset, tamen, quoniam in consulum verba jurassent, sacramento teneri militem rati.”
[865] This view has led to the exaggerated statement of Polybius (iii. 87) that, on the establishment of a dictator, παραχρῆμα διαλύεσθαι συμβαίνει πάσας τὰς ἀρχὰς ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ πλὴν τῶν δημάρχων: which has been copied by later Greek writers.
[866] This is clearly shown by the attitude of the dictator L. Papirius Cursor when pursuing his disobedient master of the horse (Liv. viii. 34). The dictator hopes that the veto will not be employed (“optare ne potestas tribunicia, inviolata ipsa, violet intercessione sua Romanum imperium”). Zonaras expresses the fact and not the law (vii. 13 οὔτ’ ἐγκαλέσαι τις αὐτῷ οὔτ’ ἐναντίον τι διαπράξασθαι ἴσχυεν οὐδὲ οἱ δήμαρχοι).